Despite what you may have read or heard, this is a very important time to invest in your web site

The February 4, 2009, issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education had a report by Eric Hoover and Beckie Supiano about highlights from several panel discussions that were held at the annual NAICU conference in Washington. One particular comment caught my attention and prompted me to write Mr. Hoover immediately. Here is an excerpt from the Chronicle report:

“Meanwhile, colleges should not cut their admissions or marketing budget, but they must use that money more wisely,” said Christopher M. Small, executive vice president at GDA. “For instance, this is not a good time to revamp the college’s Web site, which is expensive, though admissions offices might still spruce up their home page with Flash programming and create small, discrete pages on specific topics.”

 
Since I know, like, and respect Mr. Small, I am going to guess that the comments attributed to him were not exactly what he intended to say, but in case I am wrong, I wanted to share the perspective I shared with Mr. Hoover.

The Lawlor Group is actually seeing colleges and universities investing more in their Web sites and e-marketing efforts. These dollars aren’t always incremental or budget increases, but reallocated dollars.  

Our research indicates that word of mouth and web sites are key sources of information for students and families to learn about a college. The college Web site is an extremely important information touchpoint for prospective students, as well as prospective faculty and staff members.

The dominance of the stealth market, combined with a cynicism about being marketed to, has driven more people to use the Internet and social media as “reliable” sources of information to at least learn more about a particular college. Most colleges are aware of the increase in “airdrop” applications: those applications that are a first-source contact.

In addition, more and more colleges are looking at the travel expenses of the admission staff and the accompanying ROI. Rather than spending money on what is increasingly being perceived as “waste-of-time” travel activities, institutions are investing in stealth touchpoints and using staff time for campus visits, phone calling, hosting more event marketing activities, and simply focusing on more targeted marketing tactics.

Finally, print continues to be important, but not to the degree it has been. We are seeing smaller pieces that reduce the overall production costs and an increase in postcards and other inexpensive print efforts that allow more frequency of contact at a more limited expense. We have a client who eliminated its printed viewbook and simply posted a PDF of the book on its web site. They took the money saved and put it all into e-marketing efforts (e.g., opt-in e-newsletters, etc.). Applications, deposits and matriculants continue to rise for them.

All in all, the point is that this is a very important time to make sure an institution’s web site accurately represents the institution’s values and presents a compelling case for why individuals will want to become part of the college’s community.  As more and more people resort to using a college web site and the Internet as a reliable information resource, colleges must view this a necessary investment rather than an irrelevant expense.