Exclusive Preview of the 2017 Student & Parent E-Expectations Survey Part 5: Higher Ed Websites for Students and Parents
This is the 5th part of the 7-installment series on the April 2017 RNL E-Expectations survey results. This survey focuses on the E-expectations of high school seniors, juniors and sophomores (n=4,274) and their parents (n=3,530) and will be officially released on July 27. If you read the first part, just skip to the next section without reading the short intro below.
As I explained in my first post, Stephanie Geyer from RNL shared with me the complete survey data set she’ll present for the first time at the 2017 National Conference on Student Recruitment, Marketing, and Retention in Denver, Colorado.
This annual survey launched in 2005 has become the gold standard of research on the digital expectations and habits of college-bound students. With parents playing an increasing role in the college search and decision process, having fresh data (April 2017) about their digital expectations as well is also invaluable.
Here’s the key to understand the legends used in the charts:
- 2017: High school seniors, class of 17 – or their parents
- 2018: High school juniors, class of 18 – or their parents
- 2019: High school sophomores, class of 19 – or their parents
Give prospective students the content they want to see on your website
When asked to rate marketing channels that most influence them in the college search, prospective students gave the highest score to the college website (4), followed by financial calculator results (3.81) and emails from the school (3.72).
College planning websites (2.8) and social media posts (2.77) come both behind videos of classrooms, students and residence life (3.28), print brochures (3.24) and phone calls from admissions counselors (3.05)
Unsurprisingly, the question of affordability is top of mind for 82% of seniors and 84% of juniors when they visit your website. Other questions in the top 5 focus on academic programs, college life and admissions criteria – a very important question for juniors.
If your school website doesn’t answer these 5 questions yet, it’s time to rework your web content strategy. When two thirds to three quarters of your targeted audience want to get 5 questions answered on your site, no need to have a committee discuss the idea. You just get it done. 🙂
What else do prospective students want to find on your school website?
If you cover the following 9 topics of interest on your college site, you’ll make more than 50% of seniors happy:
- Cost/tuition (78%)
- Scholarship listings (66%)
- Scholarship and Fin Aid Info (65%)
- List of programs/degrees (64%)
- Anything to give me a sense of the campus, programs and students (55%)
- How to apply (52%)
- Academic program details (50%)
- Student life (50%)
- Details about dorms (50%)
The content needs of juniors are slightly different. To please a majority of them, you’ll need to cover at least the 10 following topics on your site:
- Cost/tuition (80%)
- List of programs/degrees (70%)
- Rankings for the college or specific programs (69%)
- Admissions event info (67%)
- Anything to give me a sense of the campus, programs and students (60%)
- Academic program details (55%)
- How to apply (53%)
- Student life (52%)
- Details about dorms (50%)
- Course catalogs (50%)
What web content parents of prospective students expect
For the parents of prospective students, school websites (3.95) are also the top most influential resource in the college search process – before financial aid calculator results (3.64), print materials (3.43) and emails from schools (3.33).
About a third of parents want to see answers about your academic program offering and college affordability on your website. If you have a section of your website for parents, it should answer at least the following top 5 questions identified in the chart below.
Your web content targeted at parents should address the following 6 topics of interest to cover the expectations of at least 50% of parents.
- Cost/tuition (74% seniors ~ 76% juniors)
- Scholarship and Fin Aid Info (66% ~ 69%)
- List of programs/degrees (64% ~ 69%)
- Scholarship listings (61% ~ 57%)
- Academic program details (52% ~ 57%)
- Anything to give me a sense of the campus, programs and students (50% ~ 53%)
In case anybody in higher ed still needs a reason to make college websites (and online forms) responsive
Mobile devices are now everywhere and prospective students use them.
Whether they only use them for most of their web browsing or when they don’t have access to a computer, mobile browsing is now a fact of life in the college search process.
However, we don’t live in a mobile only world, so make sure your site can also cater to different screen sizes – from smartphones to desktops.
While the parents of your prospective students are more biased toward computers, they will still use mobile devices in the college search. So, it’s definitely not a question of generations anymore.
Smartphones aren’t only used for simple web browsing. Prospective students do answer calls to action from their small screens.
More than three quarters have completed an online form on a college website from their mobile device. As a result, it’s critical to test your different online forms on the most popular smartphones and keep them as device-friendly as possible. Usability is even more important on a smartphone when it’s time to complete a form.
I have to say that the fact that almost a third of seniors did complete an admission application from their mobile device gave me some pause. So, yes, you should also optimize your application form for mobile usage 🙂
According to the survey results, most parents haven’t completed online forms on a smartphone. Is it because they have easier access to a computer or because they don’t complete online forms? I can’t tell from the survey results, but this is something you can explore further in usablity testing or focus groups.
Next: Insights on Social Meida for Students
Check out my next post in this series with insights from the 2017 Student E-Expectations Survey about social media.