ByKristen Pulver | Director, New Verticals When looking for a distribution method for your marketing budget, where do you start? There are relationships with aggregators, vendors and others but with the ever-changing nature of the education industry and the goals related to school success, how do you know who to partner with? Who will give you what you’re asking for? Most importantly, who will deliver to you — the end buyer — what they’re promising?
This is a conundrum that many schools and education marketers deal with. Some providers haven’t survived the changing landscape. Whether it’s falling behind with compliance requirements, or struggling to maintain enough traffic to stay afloat, many online education marketers and agencies leave the business and move on to other, less-quality driven industries.
But what is important to a college or university should be of the greatest importance to the school’s marketing sources. We all know that high-quality, compliant leads are necessary for success with any higher education marketing campaign, but a partnership with the right aggregator needs to be more than just that; and a school’s expectations should be nothing less.
Compliance, quality and an understanding of a successful admission life-cycle from the first point of contact with potential students to enrollment is what most satisfies a client. (more…)
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of blog posts focusing on best practices for lead generation in the online education industry.
Year after year universities struggle with enrollment rates. At the same time marketers are testing new advertising channels, shifting budgets, designing new creative assets and everything in between to reach that seemingly elusive enrollment goal.
But why is nothing changing? Why are enrollment rates dropping after all that investment in time, money and effort?
It’s simple, really: The first point of contact is your first impression and it can make or break the success of a prospect’s enrollment. The best advertising campaign in the world is frustratingly useless if the admissions process deters prospective students.
Many universities with large marketing budgets fail to focus on what’s happening right under their nose, and in most cases, right down the hallway. I have seen everything from a first point of contact being a direct-mail piece to callbacks that occur two weeks after an online information request is submitted.
A successful online marketing campaign for a college or university isn’t just measured by a conversion rate. Performance marketing in education requires three critical components to be successful:
High-quality traffic sources: You need to have traffic (students) who are interested in learning more about a particular school.
Optimized creative: A high-quality landing page, great email design and banner ads that really catch the eye of prospective students.
Structured workflow: A cohesive admissions process that is ready to work a lead. (more…)
SMX London is right around the corner, and the conference agenda is packed with some great panels discussing everything from prioritizing marketing efforts to advanced tactical recommendations. Search and social media are two intertwined topics on which there will be a great deal of discussion.
This panel discussion will focus on the implications of Graph Search on SEO, including the opportunities and challenges it will present advertisers and publishers.
As part of the discussion, I will present a history of Facebook advertising as it pertains to the evolution of search within Facebook. I’ll how Graph Search fits into the direction Facebook is going with its search and advertising options. Of course, knowing how and why an advertising medium has evolved can provide some very strong clues into what the future of marketing through Facebook may look like. (more…)
Editor’s note: “Ask the Performance Marketer” is a regular series in which MediaWhiz’s performance marketing, SEO and digital media experts answer some of the most popular questions we from clients.
Mike Sisto, MediaWhiz’s director of performance marketing, has worked in performance marketing for 14 years. He’s seen it all, from the earliest days of the industry to the current evolution in which media, mobile, content, SEO and many other digital media channels are mixed together. Needless to say, he knows how to help his clients engage, acquire and retain customers more profitably.
Recently, we sat down with Mike to discuss some of the most common questions he gets from clients about accountability in affiliate marketing campaigns, email acquisition and optimizing lead quality.
How do you ensure accountability of affiliates for campaign and creative materials compliance?
We first establish accountability with each affiliate by employing a suite of external and internal tools to monitor advertisements. We hold publishers accountable for compliance violations. Once our high standards are made clear, the possibility of losing out on business due to compliance violations exerts pressure on affiliates to comply with advertiser guidelines. With adherence, publishers have the opportunity to cultivate a long-term business relationship with MediaWhiz as they continue to provide quality traffic via compliant marketing practices. (more…)
Editor’s note: “A Day In the Life” is a regular editorial series in which MediaWhiz employees discuss their work and lives and how the two interact
Recently, I spoke with Bryan Scheiner, client services account manager at MediaWhiz, to discuss his life as an SEO expert by day and a music blogger by night. Bryan works with a number of MediaWhiz clients to help them develop and enhance their organic site traffic.
When he’s not working out of the MediaWhiz’s downtown New York City office, Bryan is busy with his hip-hop group WeatherPROOF, which most recently released its album “Dirty Naturals.” Away from the stage you can find him honing his blogging and SEO skills at TheBeeShine.com. There, Bryan has recorded more than 1,200 interviews with such artists as Redman, Questlove, 9th Wonder, DJ Premier, Pete Rock and more.
Watch the below video to learn more about Bryan and how MediaWhiz has helped propel his SEO career and his passion as a music blogger.
Yesterday, we announced an important milestone in the 10-plus-year history of MediaWhiz: the expansion of our affiliate network, MonetizeIt. As part of our cross-publishing capabilities with our parent company Matomy Media Group, we are now able to offer a broader selection of domestic and international affiliate marketing campaigns, including game and mobile app downloads, as well as entertainment and dating campaigns. These are in addition to our extensive selection of branded campaigns in verticals such as finance, education, health and beauty and insurance.
Approximately 150 new domestic, international and mobile affiliate campaigns will initially be available through our affiliate network, MonetizeIt. We’re also expanding our base of experienced publishers, allowing advertisers to garner additional traffic to their websites and mobile apps.
Publishers interested in joining MonetizeIt can do so here. (more…)
Mike Sisto joined MediaWhiz a little over three years ago. In that time, the director of performance marketing sales has seen the company grow from a mid-level agency to North America’s leading performance marketing agency that has a global footprint as part of Matomy Media Group.
Recently, we sat down with Mike and discussed what he enjoys most about working at MediaWhiz, how the agency has helped foster his career growth and what it’s like working in the heart of the online marketing universe in MediaWhiz’s New York City headquarters.
You can watch all MediaWhiz related videos on our YouTube channel (click here).
With the world becoming more mobile friendly, the number of mobile users continues to rise. Instead of searching for a brand on their desktop and purchasing through a traditional website, many consumers are making quick searches via their smartphones and making instant purchase decisions on mobile sites and apps.
Smartphones, however, are no longer the top source of mobile traffic. In February tablet traffic in the U.S. surpassed mobile smartphone traffic for the first time.
The era of t-commerce has officially arrived. And it brings with it massive opportunities – and challenges – for digital marketers.
The Growth of the Tablet Market
Tablet traffic has played a strong role in the growth of mobile commerce and it is consistently growing. In one report tablet click-through rates were 65% higher when compared to desktops. In another report click-through rates on tablets outperformed smartphones by 250%.
Although smartphones currently generate approximately double the revenue ($16.4 billion) with mobile apps when compared to tablets ($8.8 billion), if tablet usage continues to increase it is likely that tablets will generate more revenue in mobile apps in the near future. (more…)
By Giles McGrath | @GilesMcGrath | Creative Director
Last year there were a plethora of logo changes across many major businesses. In the case of American Airlines, not every logo change is welcomed by customers or the general public.
Logo changes can play a major role in developing a new image for your company, but not all logo changes require major design changes; just ask the Minnesota Vikings.
Recently, MediaWhiz Creative Director Giles McGrath took some time to answer questions related to the benefits – and potential pitfalls – of brands redesigning their logos. He also offered some best practices you can use to ensure the successful redesign of your logo.
1) How do you know when it’s really time for a redesign and that you’re not just listening to others who say you need a new logo? How do you make your new logo/branding stand out?
There is no simple answer as to when a logo should be redesigned. Often companies will undertake a redesign prematurely. Some questions brands should ask themselves prior to undertaking a redesign include:
How does my logo reflect on my brand positioning and personality of my business?
Is my logo still unique in the market?
Has the focus of my business changed?
Would a new logo reflect the new direction of my business? (more…)
Facebook has once again decided to update its News Feed with a new look and algorithm. This update is meant to give members more control of what they see on their own customized News Feeds. What this means for marketers is that there is a higher importance than ever in successfully engaging with consumers and providing useful, compelling information in order to maintain or increase their current level of visibility.
One of the major changes to the News Feed that will need to be addressed by digital marketers is the ability for users to filter the feed for media types such as images, music, videos, news, or apps. This makes it essential for a Facebook marketing strategy to focus on a range of media types. For example, If a brand is doing a great job regularly sharing status updates, that messaging will be missed by people who are filtering only for images. By diversifying the types of content shared, a brand will be able to penetrate multiple filters and maximize their News Feed presence. Specifically for the image feed, Facebook will be displaying images from both Facebook and Instagram, so brands should be uploading photos to both. (more…)
When looking for a distribution method for your marketing budget, where do you start? There are relationships with aggregators, vendors and others but with the ever-changing nature of the education industry and the goals related to school success, how do you know who to partner with? Who will give you what you’re asking for? Most importantly, who will deliver to you — the end buyer — what they’re promising?
