How to Convert Visitors into Prospective Students

The second stage of Inbound Marketing for higher education is all about conversion, and this week I want to dissect the basic tools necessary to convert website visitors into prospect students (inquiries). In enrollment marketing today there are so many different approaches that institutions can use in their communications strategy.

The following four tools may seem obvious to you, but the reality is that many college websites are not designed for conversion. Let's look at these 4 inbound tactics that can increase your conversion of website visitors into trackable prospective students:

Use Calls-To-Action to Entice Visitors

Most people think Calls-To-Action (CTA's) are just buttons, but actually a CTA can be images, blocks of text, or other types of graphics that direct visitors to take some sort of action. CTA's should be loud, stand out, and obvious to the user. 

The problem with many institutions' websites is that their pages are typically clustered with competing graphics, headlines, and images, some of which are actual CTA's, and some are not. Visitors have too many choices and can go in several different directions on your website. Instead, CTA's should be clear and obvious, and visitors should know what they will get (more or less) by taking the said action.

The reality is that the enrollment team needs to be able to use CTA's for any of the following recruitment items:

• on-campus events
• college/grad fairs
• information sessions
• blog promotions
• eBooks, guides and other downloadable content
• videos
• requests to speak with an admissions counselor
• requests for program-specific information
• application options

Set Up Landing Pages for Each Content Offer

The second inbound tactic for converting mere visitors into interested prospects is to set up separate Landing Pages (LP's) for each content offer you have made a CTA for. Once a website visitor clicks a CTA, they should be directed to a simple and clear site page that is solely about that specific content offer.

I know this is not a new concept. Yet, amazingly, so many enrollment managers have difficulty creating and using Landing Pages. There are a variety of challenges - laborious internal IT process, software complexities, time constraints, etc. - with my favorite one being "the person who handles our website is too difficult to work with!" 

But there are huge benefits to setting up dozens of landing pages that provide access to valuable content offered by your institution! Here's just a few to consider:

1. LP's make it easier for your prospects to get what they want.
2. LP's help increase your Indexed Pages, improving your SEO.
3. LP's allow you to offer dynamic content that is relevant to individual prospects.

(NOTE: Regarding #3 above - it's only for those enrollment managers/marketing communications folks who are ready for advanced levels of inbound marketing. If your institution is new to inbound methodology, you may not yet be ready to implement LP's with dynamic content.)

Gate Your Content with Forms

Now, why go to all the trouble to make custom CTA's and set up Landing Pages for your content? Because you get to use FORMS to capture your browsing site visitors! That's the whole point of taking the time to attract students with remarkable content - which is the first step in Inbound Methodology. If you don't capture inquiries with proper forms you might as well go home now.

Now, for the third time in this blog post, I'm bringing up a concept that is not quite rocket science. You're probably thinking "what's the big deal about forms?" And you're right...forms aren't supposed to be a big deal to your site visitors if you follow good inbound strategy!

In other words, if I am browsing your website and see a CTA with a content offer I'm interested in, and then click that CTA and go to a Landing Page that has a picture of the downloadable content and instructions on how to access it, then at that point I expect to see some sort of a form. 

The key is to make sure you don't ask for too much information, but also to not ask for too little. The rule of thumb you should follow is that the greater the value of your content, the more form fields you are justified in using. (If you want to learn more about this I suggest you read last week's post: 4 Tips for Converting Website Visitors into Inquiries)

Use Technology to Implement Contact Tracking

Finally, the fourth and most important tactic used to convert visitors into prospective students is to implement contact tracking. This is where you use some sort of marketing software technology to track people who have completed any form (contacts) and follow their every move.

There are a variety of solutions out there. At Direct Development we happen to be big fans of HubSpot's marketing platform because these guys basically wrote the book on Inbound Marketing. By using this type of technology, your entire enrollment team can track the following activities taken by your inquiries:

• Which website pages they are viewing
• Which CTA's they are clicking within your site and any of your LP's
• Which social messages they are responding to and/or sharing
• Which videso they are watching (and even how much of the video they watch!)
• Which email campaigns they are clicking through
• Which blog posts they are reading

You get the idea. Inbound Marketing combines your awesome content with today's marketing technology to allow you to capture real interest from visitors to your website. And today I've just been talking about the 2nd step of the applicant journey. The next two steps we will be covering in upcoming posts!

In the meantime, you can download our next Guide: How to Convert Visitors with Inbound Marketing, which has more diagrams and details about converting strangers into prospective students. Feel free to share this with your colleagues in higher education!