Marketing success depends in great part on the experience potential students have on their first visit to a college or university website. A poor experience leads to lower brand reputation and respect.
A "top tasks" focus for content and design will help ensure a successful experience by making it easier for visitors to find and complete the tasks that are most important to them. For almost all visitors, 3 to 5 tasks will stand out as most important. Smart marketers will make sure that these tasks have content and design priority.
Our 2017 workshop includes 22 examples in four areas: home pages, student recruitment, alumni & advancement, and academic services.
2. Who is Bob Johnson?
Higher education marketing since the 1980s.
Bob Johnson Consulting, LLC since 2006… 87 clients.
Gerry McGovern partner at Customer Carewords, Ltd.
“Your Higher Education Marketing Newsletter” monthly
to 3,600 subscribers + “Link of the Week” websites.
Chair of AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher
Education, 1994-2003.
Twitter: @highedmarketing
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/groups/8478858
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3. Top Task research is growing…
400+ Surveys.
150,000 Voters.
34 Languages.
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4.
5. What will we do today?
1. Open with a Top Tasks exercise.
2. Why a “Top Tasks” marketing strategy?
3. Explore the “Top Tasks” research path.
4. Review 22 higher education website
examples.
5. Start “CCI” web visitor research.
6. Wrap up: 6 key points.
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6. To open our morning…
1. Let’s exercise.
Today we are…
Possible future students
visiting our website for the
first time
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7. Steps for list building exercise:
stakeholders
1. You have a 3 x 5 card.
2. Think of yourself as a student in search of a college.
3. List 3 to 5 top tasks you think future students want
to complete on your website.
4. Rank these tasks in order of importance.
5. Each person: Report your top task & then others.
6. We’ll compare top tasks reported.
7. What rank did others give these tasks?
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8. Top future student tasks include…
“Traditional” undergrad students…
◦ Academic programs
◦ Costs & financial aid
“Adult” students add these…
◦ Time to complete a program
◦ Flexible scheduling
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9. 20 “adult” tiny tasks include…
Social media connections
Info about alumni, presidents, and deans
School news
Profiles and connections to current students
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10. Tiny task peril #1…
From an emerging “Top Tasks Manual”
You may make it easier to find in the
navigation adding more links about this
task.
◦ That distracts from the links for the top
tasks.
◦ It creates clutter.
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11. Tiny task peril #2…
You may make it more findable through
search.
◦ Optimizing tiny tasks in search nearly
always has a negative impact on top task
findability through search.
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12. Tiny task peril #3…
You may create more content for it.
◦ That’s more stuff for your customers to
wade through as they try and complete
their top tasks.
◦ A great many web teams spend their
time creating new content for tiny tasks,
instead of continuously improving top
task content.
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13. 2. Why a “top tasks”
strategy?
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14. Let’s start here…
“Brand is Experience in
the Digital Age”
Nielsen Norman Group, July 2016
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/brand-experience-ux/
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15. And here…
“The first requirement…
is to meet the exact
needs of the customer,
without fuss or bother.”
Don Norman & Jakob Nielsen
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16. Most important marketing
question for your website…
How easily can people
do what they want to
do at your website?
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17. Most common website problem
for every audience…
Menus and links…
people can’t find the
path to task
completion.
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18. Content & design marketing goal…
Simpler.
Clearer.
Faster.
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19. More effective content strategy…
Identify top tasks for
each audience.
Create content for task
completion.
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24. Keep. It. Simple.
What do people want
from your website?
Fast task completion.
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25. The Golden Rule…
<5 seconds to connect
as a page opens.
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26. Most important design goal…
Quick identification of
the path to top tasks.
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27. Attention to Jakob Nielsen…
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/university-sites/
TOP 10 DESIGN
GUIDELINES…
MY FAVORITES…
#5
◦ “Make it easy to view a list of
majors and programs.”
#8
◦ “Follow the user journey: check the
main tasks for each of your
audiences.”
#9
◦ “Beware the perils of making your
website ‘cool.’“
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28. CCI survey is a first step…
http://www.customercentricindex.com/
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29. 3. Top Task
Research Path…
3 TO 5 TASKS ALWAYS DOMINATE
FROM LISTS OF 60 TO 100
POSSIBILITIES.
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30. Guide to the research…
http://www.customercarewords.com/top-tasks-identification-and-
measurement-overview/
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31. Top Task
ID path…
process…
Create a Long
List, 300 – 400.
Reduce to 60
to 100 tasks.
Share with key
stakeholders.
Survey.
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32. 5 key steps at the start…
1. Cast a wide net for input among stake holders so
that nobody important to web content decisions is
left out.
2. First list can be as many as 300 to 400 possible tasks
for the survey. (You will have many duplicates.)
3. Small group of 5 to 10 people to select deletions.
(First 50% is usually easy.)
4. Your goal: Agree on 60 to 100 tasks for survey.
5. Share final survey list with key stakeholders.
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33. First steps to build the long list…
1. Review your website for current tasks.
2. Ask your stakeholders to contribute.
3. Review 3 to 5 competitor websites.
4. Review search terms used on key website pages.
5. Track questions received from an audience for
past 3 months. (Email, phone, in-person.)
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52. Online transfer credit information…
https://www.franklin.edu/transfer-credit-college-course-equivalency-tool
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53. Alumni careers by academic major…
http://www.colgate.edu/distinctly-colgate/success-after-colgate
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71. Questions
you can’t
change…
• Same for each
audience.
• “Three
factors”
selection is
most
important.
• Quick, gut
reaction.
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77. Link you will send to survey
takers…
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78. 6. Wrapping up…
6 KEY POINTS TO REMEMBER
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79. 6 Top Task steps to remember…
For any audience, 3 to 5 tasks stand out as most
important.
People should see top tasks immediately (5 seconds or
less) as a web page opens.
Priority to task words is especially important in a
mobile view.
For recruitment, ask admissions people what questions
future students most often ask.
Beware of “cool” features that do not contribute to
task completion.
Reduce content bloat as much as possible.
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80. Case studies to review…
HTTP://BIT.LY/2A2NU7H HTTP://BIT.LY/2AAPSL7
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81. Join the
LinkedIn
Top Tasks
Group…
• “Top Tasks:
Higher Education
Website Content”
• https://www.link
edin.com/groups
/8478858
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86. Thanks for being
here in Boston!
BOB JOHNSON, PH.D.
BOB@BOBJOHNSONCONSULTING.COM
WWW.BOBJOHNSONCONSULTING.COM
@HIGHEDMARKETING
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