Speaker: Karen Breen Vogel, CEO, ClearGuage

It’s clear to the speaker that this group (higher ed) has embraced the Internet - I would beg to differ with that. 

“The Web is a big sales call”

Funnel: Acquire > Engage > Convert

Definitions are critical - don’t call things what they are not. “Lead” vs “Inquiry”

Not everyone on your website wants to talk to you - hey want to get there on their own. 

Traditional Sales Model: Seller initiated and controlled contact and message. 

New Model: Buyer and Seller engage in dialogue.  The community is part of the process.  You are not the only one carrying the banner. 

“It’s not about driving traffic, it’s about driving the right traffic, engaging your visitors, achieving business value for you and your customers.”

“Its about relationships. It’s like consultative sales call triggered and controlled by the buyer”

“Measuring the value of your website to your business starts with measuring whether or not your visitors have been successful.” (K: I disagree, to an extent - ultimately you want to get your visitors to do what YOU - the business - wants them to do of their own volition) 

Most people are only looking at analytics - they need to look at Key Performance Indicators. KPI is “what really matters”

“Predictive analytics is going to hit big very very soon” - what are the patterns?  who are the best customers? what is the data telling us?

How would you drive optimal business results? 

  1. Establish ownership
  2. Tie to goals of the business
  3. Develop process for defining visitor success milestone points
  4. Create Key Performance Indicators. 

A lot of places really miss out on attitudinal data

“we’ve moved into the world of get the data, understand its meaning and make business decisions based off of it”

“Marketing is yield management”