In this 3-question interview, Alan shares with us thoughts on what’s next for higher ed analytics in 2019, advice to get more strategic with measurement and tips to make analytics reports more efficient
1) What will make a big difference for higher ed analytics and measurement in 2019? Where do you plan to focus your analytics efforts?
I’m going to focus on what we’re doing at BCIT as a way of showing the opportunities of higher ed analytics. We recently implemented enhanced ecommerce tracking to get accurate data on the sale of the individual courses we offer to part-time students. In 2019, we’ll be exploring the ways of using this new stream of revenue data alongside the goal value data we have from our monetized lead generation goals.
Our objective is to get a clearer picture of the value bcit.ca is creating for our school. For example, our goal value data helped us understand the importance of internal site search, which in turn helped us prioritize investment it. Now with ecommerce tracking in place, we’re able to see revenue per search term, helping us understand which words from internal searches are generating the most revenue. Knowing this, we can optimize both search results and content on the associated landing pages to increase tuition revenue.
It’s this rich combination of tracking revenue and goal value that’s going to make a big difference for our operations in 2019.
2) What’s your advice to adopt a more strategic approach to analytics and performance measurement?
Although it might feel uncomfortable at first, viewing higher ed as a multi-million-dollar business will help you focus your analytics and performance measurement efforts.
It’s this business side of higher ed – the revenue – that makes it possible to deliver the social benefits of education, so spend your energy tracking completed applications and all the key places prospective students provide their contact information. By tracking these conversion events (requests for information, campus visits, newsletter signups, etc), and by calculating goal values for each of them, you’ll start to get a comprehensive view of what’s working, and what’s not. This approach will help you provide your institution with the data needed to make informed strategic decisions about everything from website functionality to campaign performance.
3) Analyzing the data and unearthing analytics insights is half the battle. What are your top tips to present/share analytics reports that drive action?
Here are my top tips:
To start with, know your audience, their data needs and their data consumption preferences. Some folks love charts, so give them charts. Other folks go bleary-eyed when they see a chart, so don’t use them, or place them on an underlying page.
Use Google Data Studio. It’s a terrific free tool for delivering highly customized reports for each of your key audiences.
Limit the number of metrics you use to focus clearly on the needs of the people receiving the report.
Include year-to-year date comparisons whenever you can. This provides context to the numbers you’re reporting.
Summarize key insights, to the level appropriate for your audience. This customization is a key step for successfully sharing the data and associated insights.
And last of all, be sure to highlight your revenue and goal value data. Including dollar signs fundamentally changes the nature of the conversation.
A conference focusing on higher ed analytics?
The 2019 Higher Ed Analytics Conference (#HEA19) is a must-attend event for higher ed marketing professionals and teams looking for inspiration, ideas and best practices to step up their analytics and measurement game in 2019..
Read below what your higher ed colleagues who attended the past editions of the Higher Ed Analytics Conference said about their experience.