Study tips, updates, features, campus events… These types of posts are commonplace among higher education blogs, and should certainly be mixed into your content schedule. But if you don’t deviate from those types of posts, you’re missing your chance. You’re missing the opportunity to engage your audience. Blogging exists partly to show that your school isn’t stale; regular blogging demonstrates your school is growing, evolving as time goes on, and staying current with the times.

So why ignore the outside world and focus solely on your school? There’s an entire world out there, and the odds are that your audience is vastly more familiar with most everything else other than your school. Take the leap and extend your wheelhouse of writing topics into that of what’s fresh. Keeping an eye on trending topics are a way to make that happen. Every day, thousands of news stories and events are readily available to us, giving us a much broader approach to how we blog. Sit tight and relax as we drop some knowledge on how best to incorporate the goings-on of the world into blogs that enrapture your audience and leave your school’s name on the tip of their tongue.

“Cherry Pick” Trending Topics

There are a lot of news and conversation happening on any given day. At home, work, online. But almost all of it—roughly 99%—isn’t going to be useful to you. But that’s a good thing. Otherwise we’d all just be so inundated with a metric boatload of things to talk about. It’s better that there’s only a few things that strike your fancy. So cherry pick the topics that are important to your school, and to the audience you want to attract.

If It’s Not Relevant, Make It Relevant

This one kind of flies in the face of the previous tip, admittedly, but it’s more than doable. In fact, seemingly unrelated trending news makes for some the best (and most interesting) blogs around. Pick a hot topic and bend it to your will. With a bit of practice, you’ll be able to extract the bits of a news story that are relevant to what you want to say. Not only that, but this method of coming up with blog topics can make for some pretty darn interesting titles.

Get a New Perspective

With entities as large as colleges and universities, it’s often the goal to maintain a uniform voice that appropriately represents the school. But these schools are made up of thousands of individuals who all have something to say. Take advantage of this opportunity to let them speak their mind. Find intelligent, passionate members of your school (professors, students, employees, almost anyone) and ask if they’d be interesting in writing a featured guest blog. Ask them if they’d consider writing about the school’s current news, events, changes, etc.The chances are pretty good that you’ll find a someone to agree. What’s even better is that your school’s blog will be the recipient of a brand spankin’ new article, and you won’t have to lift a finger. The goal here is to not to be so rigid, to hand over the reigns of your school’s voice (temporarily) to another qualified individual.

Explore the Twitterverse

“Twitter, really? Isn’t that for finding out what your favorite celebrity ate for lunch?” Well, yeah, that too, but hear us out. Twitter is quite possibly the social network that best mimics our day-to-day interactions with other people. But it’s accessible at a moment’s notice and lets you see what 554,750,000 people are talking about, all in real time. It’s a virtual goldmine of ideas for blog topics. In addition to checking your Twitter feed, check out HashTags.org or TrendsMap to see what topics are trending across the country and the globe.

Staying current with trending topics is one of the best ways to revitalize your blog. News is being created all around us, reminding us that—as much as we might like to think so—we’re not the center of the world. There’s an infinite number of things that can happen on any given day, but the point is to latch onto the top stories that you can turn to your advantage.

As much as skill plays a part in the writing process, there’s something to be said for the moment a spark is lit in your mind. Trending topics are just the beginning, the kindling whose role it is to ignite the fire of creativity. Use them as a means to step outside your comfort zone and write about things that don’t immediately strike the reader as being all about your school. Do that and you might just walk away with a few more readers than you started with, and a lot more credibility to boot.

The post Trending Topics: An Unconventional Guide for Higher Education appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

Before you digitally punch me in the face, no spoilers. Just good old-fashioned tech talk!

Alright, so you and I both know online courses are totes on the rise. And according to the Pew Internet and Life Project, we should see a big bang within the next 10 years. Studies are continuously showing students who choose to take part in one online course are more likely to enroll in future online courses.

What does this mean for higher education? If more schools continue launching online courses, enrollment could potentially skyrocket. Many individuals are already climbing aboard the academic interweb train with the introduction of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), a (sometimes free) online course aimed at large-scale interactive participation and open access via the web.

Do you foresee more higher education institutions offering online courses in the future? If you’ve ever taken an online course, how effective would you say it was compared to classroom-based courses? Give us your own personal 411 in the comment section below.

Have you found yourself in a content marketing jam? We’ve got the toast to amp up your college’s online engagement and overall awesomeness. Lame jokes included!

Many thanks to: lindajurkowitz.

 

The post {Infographic} Virtual Trends: Higher Education appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

This is where donor research comes in. We think Alfred A. Blum, Director of Institutional Advancement at Boston College Law School, said it best: “The best solicitation occurs when the right prospect is asked for the right gift by the right solicitor at the right time in the right way. One of the most important elements in the fundraising process is determining all of these rights. For that to occur, research is essential.”

Think your small nonprofit organization won’t reap the same benefits of researching donors that larger organizations do? Think again! Read on to learn how donor research can make the difference in your organization’s fundraising abilities and a step-by-step tutorial for getting your feet wet.

Why Perform Donor Research?

Conducting donor research allows your nonprofit to build long-term personal relationships with local businesses and individuals in your community. Some view donor research as a means of compiling only biographical and financial data on potential candidates. But as the quote above states, knowing the right time and right way to ask is essential. Your research must include what and when previous donations were made by potential candidates. This provides your organization with an outline of when to make your move.

Although larger organizations may have a researcher on staff 24/7, smaller organizations have the advantage. Larger organizations run the risk of letting first-rate potential donors slip through the cracks. Size proves beneficial to small nonprofits considering you are able to spend more time nurturing leads on a more personal level.

Now comes the fun part: Locating a designated a researcher and learning who your perfect potential donor is.

Make it So!

What makes a good researcher? For starters, someone who can utilize the internet and local newspapers to the best of their abilities. However, performing donor research is a two part process; One part is active research while the other is personal judgement. Below are a list of steps to get you going:

• Donor research is a learning process. If you have someone in-office who has exhibited reputable research or decision-making skills, they could be your guy or gal for the job. However, budget permitting, you may need to consider temporarily hiring an agency or consultant.
• Have a set system in place to easily manage your research efforts. Use either a spreadsheet or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software you have, to build your donor research list.
• Begin with those already in your organization’s database. Focus on individuals who annually donate. Check when and how much they normally give to determine if it would be best to reach out during your current fundraiser or a future fundraiser.
• For potential donors, try using paid donor research database services, such as Donor Perfect and DonorSearch, to look-up prospective donors recommended by the board, events, and potential board members. Make an effort to acquire any information you can, including a donor’s name, contact info, occupation, income, age, marital status, and alma mater.

Alrighty. The research is done and you’re left with a long list of potential leads. Here’s how you can sort this list to determine who would be best to contact now.

Criteria is based on who has donated to what organizations in the past and how much they’d hypothetically be able to contribute to YOUR nonprofit. Consider attributes such as:

• Annual Income
• Interests
• Community Connections
• Charitable Intent

Implement a 1 – 5 rating system, 5 being most likely to donate, for each party of interest. To help determine this, ask the following questions about each potential donor:

• Does this individual have the capacity to donate?
• From what we know of his or her interests, prior giving, and other affiliations, is this person likely to be interested in our cause? Why?
• Is this someone who could donate on a regular basis?

If an individual normally donates only during certain times of the year, have a separate list handy to place their information on. This will prepare you for future fundraisers.

In closing…

…donor research is not beyond the reach of small nonprofits! Use the provided tips to identify potential donors prior to your next fundraising campaign. Get to know the general research process and over time you’ll be able to more easily identify the best donors.. Happy Hunting!

Don’t have the time to dedicate to emails appeals or engaging current donors? Have a seat and allow us to show you our expertise of nonprofit online marketing.

The post Why Small Nonprofits SHOULD Conduct Donor Research appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

Time + Effort + Grape Jelly + Engagement + Glitter = Pure donor lovin’

As we’ve previously mentioned, you have to nurture your donors (and your leads) by engaging them via social media or email. It’s not like bonding with your cat, who just wants you to feed them, then pretend they don’t exist until the next chow time. Use the two-step method below to enchant your donor’s hearts and smack them right in the simplicity bone.

Step 1: Appeal to the heart, not the mind.

We’ve published several blog posts recently about nonprofit organizations submitting email appeals to donors. So, it’s obviously time to discuss it some more! Studies show people are more likely to give to a charities that tug at their heart strings. Just to give you an example: In 2002, more than $48,000 was contributed to save Forgea, a dog stranded on a ship adrift in the Pacific Ocean.

Step 2: Onay overway-omplicatingcay!

Translated from Pig Latin: Don’t over-complicate! As in, don’t over-complicate the act of giving. Do you know the #1 way people are donating? Checkout donations! Why? Because it’s RIGHT THERE. People are more willing to give when the option is directly in front of them and super simple. Be sure you have a visible ‘Donate’ button on your social media pages and on your website.

Try out this two-step method and check out our related blog posts to assist your with donor engagement. Scroll down to find more interesting giving-related factoids.

Need assistance writing email appeals or boosting your online engagement? Fear not! Our team has the know-how to make it happen!

The post {Infographic} Nonprofit Donation Motivations appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

Evergreen content will say useful and relavent to your audience for months or years after its posted.

What is evergreen content?

Evergreen content refers to a blog post, ebook, infographic, podcast or photo that stays relevant to your users’ needs and interests over time. Here are just few evergreen content examples will retain value for a long period of time:

The main criteria for evergreen content is timelessness and continued value over time. Therefore, these types of posts are not considered evergreen:

Up-to-date information found in these types of posts is crucial for audience engagement and shouldn’t be ignored. Time-sensitive content will definitely educate your readers, but it will become irrelevant in a short amount of time. Use blend of evergreen and non-evergreen subject matter for optimal results.

How does evergreen content benefit colleges and universities?

Now that you know what makes content “evergreen,” it’s time to understand why it can be extremely valuable for inbound marketing for universities and colleges. Here are three major benefits that evergreen content can bring to a marketing campaign.

What are the best practices for creating content?

Now that you understand the benefits, it’s time to start creating some evergreen content for your website or blog. Fortunately, for colleges and universities, many of the questions students are asking rarely change over time. Try to hone in on the fundamental issues or problems affecting your current or future students. Once you’ve identified an appropriate topic, keep these three tips in mind when writing your post or ebook.

When creating evergreen content, try to answer common questions your target audience is asking. What types of student-problems have you encountered?

How can we market evergreen content?

Once you’ve created some awesome timeless content, how do you make sure it’s getting seen by a large number of the right people? Simply posting content is usually not enough to get attention. Try these methods of promoting your content over time:

Remember, not all content has to be evergreen. Always mix it up to keep your readers active and engaged. Have you tried using evergreen content as a part of your inbound marketing campaign? Let us know in the comments.

Does your college or university need help with an evergreen content strategy?

Schedule Your Free 30-Minute Consultation

The post How Evergreen Content Enhances Inbound Marketing for Universities appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

Because the “buying cycle” for lead conversion is relatively long for colleges and universities, it’s essential to have a means to cultivate leads via content creation. Run-of-the-mill content isn’t going to cut it; your school needs to craft solid, quality content. It’s all about creating value and answering questions. To put it plainly, being helpful is what’s going to build your online presence, not trying to “game the system.” Content creation is a long-term, future-proof way to build links, generate traffic, and increase enrollment. Other methods of growing your audience simply can’t compete.

So, without further ado, here it is.

Have anything to add to my list? Let me know in the comments!

Now that I’ve hopefully given you enough reason why content creation should be a large part of your marketing campaign, it comes time to actually make the content. But what are you supposed to blog about? What if you’re running low on ideas? I’ve got you covered.

We’ve just put the finishing touches on our newest eBook, 15 Epic Content Creation Tips for Colleges and Universities. It’s chock-full of ideas to help you create content perfectly suited to your audience, pulled from our personal playbook here at Valeo. So what are you waiting for? Get your copy of the free eBook, as our gift to you.

The post {Video} How Content Creation Can Increase Enrollment in Higher Education appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

But why use an EMS for email appeals and not Outlook or Gmail? Regular email services lack the ability to create a rich experience, complete with graphics, links, tracking, and most importantly – analytics. Let’s take a look at why analytics play such an imperative role in your email campaign’s success.

Why Analytics are Significant to Your Campaign

Analytics provide tangible proof of how genuinely effective your email marketing campaign is. EMS’s allow you the ability to view analytics from each of your email blasts. By evaluating and pin-pointing what elements of your emails are receiving the most attention, your organization can create a more coherent email campaign.

Certain analytics are more marketing-focused than others. To determine which elements of your message generate the most impact amongst donors, visit your EMS and carefully examine the following statistics of each email:

1. Open Rate

– Open rate refers to the amount of recipients who open your email. It is most commonly expressed as a percentage and calculated by dividing the number of email messages opened by the total number of email messages sent (excluding those that bounced.)

2. Click Rate – This refers to the amount of engagement recipients have with links in your email’s content. If your email contains links to several different topics, use the click rate to determine which topic was the most popular for future reference.

3. Opt-out Count – This statistic refers to how many people chose to opt-out of receiving future emails from your nonprofit organization.

4. Bounce Rate – The bounce rate is the percentage of how many of your emails were undeliverable. Certain bounces, known as “soft bounces” are considered acceptable, such as “vacation/auto reply” or “mailbox full”. Your email will eventually arrive in your recipient’s inbox. However, you want to avoid bounces like “non-existent address” or “blocked”.

By continually critiquing your emails based on analytics, you’ll see a noticeable difference in your results overall. Because no two email campaigns are alike, it is difficult to determine why one may produce more favorable results than another. This is why it’s vital to organize testing within one particular campaign. Prior to transmitting your next email appeal, trying conducting an A/B split test.

Test for the Best

To perform an A/B split test, begin with a control email (Email A) and a Treatment email (Email B). After composing your control email, tweak images, subject line, and content while maintaining the message or call-to-action to create your treatment email. Use your EMS to compare the analytics and identify which email received better overall results.

Feeling lost? Here’s a stellar example of how one organization used A/B split testing to determine which marketing technique worked best: The Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, CA created a Valentine’s Day email marketing campaign selling jewelry from their gift shop to raise money to feed their growing seal population. The team created two emails and sent each to half their audience to determine which elicited more of a response.

Email A contained a close-up photo of a seal announcing the birth of the first seal of the season and a call to action requesting gift shop purchases or donations to supply the seals with food. Email B, while containing the same subject line and template as Email A, alternatively included a picture of two necklaces and opened by boasting the perfect Valentine’s Day gift for your loved ones. Although both emails contained the same call-to-action, Email B brought in 14 sales and 2 donations, while Email A only resulted in 8 sales.

This is just one example of how an A/B split test can help improve your future email marketing endeavors. Test the different components below and use analytics to determine what your audience responds to more:

• Experiment with sending out emails at different times of day and days of the week.
• Test whether emails from the organization itself or a well-known staff member have an impact on your analytics.
• Play around with the colors, placement, or message of your call-to-action buttons.
• Hyper-link the titles of article headers within your emails to direct recipients to full text articles on your website. Experiment with including full URLs in your emails rather than hyper-linked text.
• Try changing up your email’s subject line and the wording of your content.
• Test different graphics or graphic placement.

Create segmented lists for your donors and ALWAYS personalize emails to include your donor’s name in the subject line as well as within the email content to increase your open rate. With email becoming such a popular tool for communicating with supporters and donors, it is essential for your nonprofit organization to successfully master analytics within email marketing services.

What EMS does your nonprofit use? Would you recommend it to other organizations? Leave a comment telling us all about it!

Don’t have time to worry about analytics? Our team understands nonprofit organizations have a lot on their plate. Let us help you bear the load and score some donors!

The post The Role of Analytics in EMS Appeals appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

Since we’re about mid-thigh deep into 2013, it’s time we have THE talk. You know, the one about goals. How many of the goals that you set at the beginning of this year have your accomplished?

Don’t beat yourself up if your number of completed goals is less than 1. The middle of the year marks another great starting or re-evaluation point for new objectives. This time around, consider setting attainable subgoals as stepping stones to your big honking goals.

To determine subgoals, first consider what your nonprofit’s goals are. Would you like to obtain more donors? As you can see from the infographic below, this is the ultra-mega must-reach goal of the year for most nonprofit organizations.

Now, how do you intend to reach this goal? Are you currently only marketing locally? All good, except how can non-local potential donors know you exist? Here’s where your stepping stones come in.

The internet has become a vital place for nonprofit organizations. Start by creating social media accounts to attract and engage supporters/donors. Send out emails regarding fundraisers or events. Create a blog schedule and produce quality, entertaining posts on your site. These are all fantastic ways to get you, your organization, and your site noticed.

If you’re already using these methods, go deeper into the crevices between your subgoals. Tweak your current methods and don’t underestimate the power of tapping new sources. Sometimes the untouched, odd methods could be your ticket to reaching your target audience. Plan a different flavor of social media contest. Adventure more with your email or blog writing. Start a discussion with your supporters via Facebook. Then encourage them to get their friends involved.

Proceed into the second part of 2013 with a renewed look at your goal setting processes. For a longer look at what’s working for other organizations, check out the infographic below.

What about YOU? Need help reaching your goals? Tell us about it in the comments section below or feel free to visit our nonprofit’s page for a looky-loo at how we can help.

Many thanks to: juliareich.

 

The post {Infographic} Nonprofit Communication Trends 2013 appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

One industry that could benefit considerably from generating their own original infographics is higher education. Infographics are a powerful and effective medium for higher education marketing and offer an increased ability to drive traffic to your website, resulting in a boost in student enrollment. Plus, infographics provides a simple way to reach college students, since they are ALWAYS online (Facebook and Reddit are proof of this phenomenon). For those furiously working to draw attention to their college, we’re giving you three tips for successfully creating visually stimulating and informative infographics to support your school’s inbound marketing campaign.

1. Present the Benefits of Your School

College-bound students are only seeking the crème de la crème when it comes to their education. To entice students within such a broad online market, you must set yourself apart from other colleges. Turn infographics into your own personal online billboard by advertising your school’s achievements and student benefits. Infographic topics could include your school’s notable alumni, facilities located on or near campus, and the success of your schools sports/academic teams.

Take note that the above infographics may only be discovered with a specified search of your school. To further expand upon your inbound marketing campaign, try creating general college-related infographics. Relevant topics include degrees in high demand or a look at the most popular majors of the past year. Remember, humorous infographics (or any content for that matter) get attention. Creating a ‘Gourmet Ramen Recipes’ infographic is sure to gain some recognition!

You’re not done yet! Branding is essential to any infographic you create. Be sure to include your school’s logo and web address in the bottom corner of your infographics to drive traffic to your site.

2. Create a Visually Stimulating “How-To” Guide

Entering a new phase of life is stressful. Students making the transition from four semi-predictable years of high school to this new, alien landscape called college may not know what they’re in for. To counter student’s uncertainties and show how much your school cares, try producing “how-to” based infographics. Use the following topics to get going:

• It never hurts to start from the beginning. Offer infographics containing tips for what to look for in a good college and outlining the application submission process.
• Next, move on to more conventional college topics. How to stick with a study plan or tips for managing a well-thought out budget are fantastic starting points.
• We previously mentioned how humorous content generates more attention. Pick a lighter topic like ‘When Styles Clash: Decorating Your Dorm Room with a Boring Roommate’.

3. Know Where You Should Use Infographics

Now that you’ve created these dynamic infographics, where do you situate them to gain the most exposure? Luckily, infographics are an extremely versatile medium and could easily be used in a multitude of online locations. Does your higher education marketing campaign include a consistent newsletter or email blast? Send an email out with your infographic as the main focal point. Upload your infographic into a blog post and update your school’s various social media sites with the link. Another method is to upload the infographic directly to your school’s Facebook and Pinterest accounts.

Although the tips listed above will help you create fresh infographic content, use the list below as a “starter’s guide”:

If You Build It… Well, You Know the Rest
Even if you’re not proficient with Photoshop, sites like visual.ly and easel.ly offer you a FREE method of creating professional, original infographics.

Research is key to building effective infographics. For statistics on your chosen topic, try Google Public Data. Remember to cite the information sources at the bottom of the infographic.

Branding is Your BFF
As previously mentioned, it’s crucial you brand your infographics with your school logo and a link to your site in the bottom corner. This ensures that if one of your school’s infographics gain widespread attention or go viral (fingers crossed), your school’s information goes with it.

Maintain Simplicity
Complicated graphics or too many clashing colors can make infographics appear more complex than they really are. Try to keep them simple yet visually appealing to catch the attention of online users.

As previously mentioned, infographics are a powerful and effective medium you could use within higher education marketing for driving traffic to your college’s website and boosting your enrollment rate. Use the numerous benefits of infographics to educate/provide value to potential students and entice them to take a closer look at what your school has to offer.

Don’t have the time to build infographics or generate compelling blog posts for your school? Allow us to lend you a hand!

The post 3 Tips to Utilize Infographics in Higher Education Marketing appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.

Before delving into the future of higher education, let’s take a bite out of the present. The recent developments within college classrooms have been ones for the digital textbooks (Totally a thing now!). A recent study aimed at higher education institutions and conducted by PewInternet.org reported 77% of the colleges surveyed offer online courses. Other recent advancements include cloud-based computing, mobile connectivity, and onlines services like iTunes U.

Examining the present is easy as 3.14. Predicting the future of higher education is bit hazy, even to the most seasoned soothsayer. Our economic situation pared with possible faculty shortages will play a major role in what will pan out. From observing past advancements, it’s safe to conclude we’ll most likely witness more online student-centric technology coming our way. With the pace at which technology and the internet have grown to accommodate the higher education industry, there’s no stopping it from growing threefold.

Read more possible scenarios regarding the future of higher education in the infographic below. What do you believe the next big change for higher ed will be? Leave a comment below telling us what you think!

Is your college focusing more on walk-ins and in-person meetings for enrollments than online marketing? You’re missing out on a HUGE demographic! We have the tools you need to help drive more traffic to your website.

The post {Infographic} The Future of Higher Education appeared first on Valeo Online Marketing.