There are numerous things that you can learn while attending a conference, and the best are the things you can take away that apply across several areas.
This past week I attended the Finalsite user conference – FinalsiteU – in Orlando. I was able to come away with ten takeaways that apply to the design, content, organization, and data of your institution’s website, whether you are a Finalsite client or not.
Here are the ten tips I came away with from FinalsiteU:
1. Sites need to elicit an emotional response. 90-95% of decisions are based on emotion. By focusing on Emotional Intelligence, you can connect with people on all five levels of social awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.
2. Form length is critical. Only ask for what you truly need. Five or fewer fields on forms equal 13.5% better conversion rate. A single column equals fast completion. New Forms will have Google Sheets integration. Don’t ask for phone numbers unless needed.
3. Simplified navigation and powerful search. Focusing on search at the beginning gives you a better idea of what people want from the site. Also, what people see in a one-click search (Google search page) is paramount. The reviews, links, and messaging need to be clear and correct. Be sure to be on top of your “Google My Business” account.
4. Focus on purpose, people, platforms, and processes. Is your online and offline purpose aligned? Do you have the right people in place to help move you forward? Are your web, social, email, and data platforms integrated and aligned? Is your process effective, efficient, and sustainable?
5. Are you educating people about the strengths of your school? Not “look at me,” but the reasons why what you are doing matters. Thought leadership and promoting the research around why you do what you do.
6. Know your data! Your data is the backbone of your messaging and ability to engage with your various constituencies. Understanding the connections and flow is vital in delivering the right messaging.
7. Automating workflows for Admissions and Development messaging is critical to communications. The ability to segment an audience and automate communications provides a more significant opportunity for engagement. The ability to create drip campaigns and branch messages based on response allows you to develop a complete communications plan around and initiative or event. Using Finaliste Workflows and Messaging is key!
8. In design, scrolling is preferred verse clicking through slides. Scrolling is not related to length, rather the density of the content. Good design inspiration:https://www.awwwards.com & https://www.siteinspire.com. Also, how often are you refreshing your site, or at minimum the images on your website?
9. Monitor your reviews! 80% of users expect companies to respond to their social media posts within 24 hours. Online reviews are about balance, though you want about a 4: 1 ratio of positive to negative reviews. However, one severe online review can paint a seed of doubt. Google’s policy is to no allow reviews of schools and will be removing older reviews; however, there are many holes in this, and reviews are still online and, in some cases, even making it through.
10. Dig into your Google Analytics and specifically look at things like segments, events, and secondary dimensions. Using these can help you get a more nuanced look at your data and help provide talking points and data for a conversation with the development, admissions, and other departments. There are limited data points relating to specific ages, gender, and biographical factors, but these tools can help distill things and provide greater clarity of your site visitors.
