In this 3-question interview, I tell you about an interesting analytics challenge and a favorite Google Analytics before discussing what will make a big difference for higher ed analytics in 2017.
1) What’s the most challenging yet interesting part in your work with analytics?
I’m very lucky to work for a small school, Higher Ed Experts, offering online courses and conferences like the Higher Ed Analytics Conference. I’m lucky, because when almost every stage of your funnel takes place online, it’s easier to measure performance. However, I also have to work with a niche audience (communication and marketing professionals working in higher ed), which makes things a bit tougher when Google Analytics and other platforms require a minimum traffic/audience size to display data.
While I rely on digital analytics to inform my decisions for Higher Ed Experts’ digital marketing, I’ve always been very interested in the use of digital analytics in higher education. Over the years I’ve written articles, given presentations, hosted conferences and helped train hundreds of professionals. Yet, I’m still puzzled by many measurement practices in our industry relying only on what metrics platforms provide without no focus on what success should really look like in the first place. We’ve made some progress, but there’s still a lot of work to be done to help higher ed embrace a measurement mindset. One step at a time, I guess 🙂
2) What is your favorite GA feature, why and how do you use it at your school?
I have a soft spot for the Benchmarking reports – not for my digital marketing work for Higher Ed Experts but as an industry observer and researcher of the use of digital analytics in higher education. I know how important benchmarking can be in our industry to move the needle, which is why I ran several higher ed analytics benchmarking projects in the past. The last one using data provided by GA benchmarking reports helped get a big picture of traffic to higher ed websites in the US, Canada, France and more.
3) What do you think will make a big difference for higher ed analytics and measurement in 2017?
I know what I don’t and can’t know. So, I always find it tricky to make any kind of predictions even though I’m often asked to look in a crystal ball and see the future.
Data is now everywhere – even in areas where I’m not sure we need it. As a result, I think higher ed leaders – the ones making decisions at the institutional level – have realized that they can’t rely on opinions, hunches or guesses anymore to make decisions. Things are going to become more and more competitive between higher ed institutions with a shrinking college-age students’ pool.
Digital is now at the core of any marketing or communication strategy. Since digital and data are a match made in heaven (compared to other more traditional channels), measurement and analytics can now take their rightful place as strategic tools to inform decisions. The introduction of powerful and smart (not just pretty) visualization tools like Google Data Studio will help make analytics more accessible and popular.
Tools can’t do all the work though (at least not until artificial intelligence goes a bit further). The need for knowledgeable data/analytics professionals will rise in higher education in 2017. If you work in higher education, it’s definitely time to get up-to-speed with digital analytics as measurement expertise is going to be a key differentiator for higher ed digital professionals in the future.
A conference on digital analytics for higher education?
The HEA conference has become a must-attend event for digital marketing and communication professionals in higher education looking for new ideas and best practices.
Read below what a few of your higher ed colleagues who attended the past editions of the Higher Ed Analytics Conference say about the event.