HE Marketing Tips: Can Your Applicants See the ‘Apply’ Button?

Can your postgrad students find your online application?

So, you’ve allocated your budget, organised the print advertising, Google Ads are running like clockwork and social marketing is improving. You’re doing a great job and getting plenty of applicants onto your course information pages on your site but then at the last step you’re making it tricky for the student to apply!

Ok, this might seem like the most basic advice but where the heck do you have your ‘Apply’ button?

Within the last year I have visited no less than 150 UK HE and FE websites. I’ve counted the number of clicks from the homepage to the application form (if it even exists!) and one thing I kept coming across was that I needed psychic powers to find the ‘Apply’ button. Your Apply button should literally jump off these pages, screaming PLEASE PRESS ME.

Here’s a little test for all of you– go to your website right now, navigate to a course page and check the following:

• Can your ‘Apply’ button be seen without scrolling down?
• Is it the most prominent call-to-action on the page? It should be…that’s ALL we really care about on this page.
• What colour is the button? Through our in-house A/B testing I can promise you that you will lose applications if the button is red…..red is a STOP colour. Make it green or at least something contrasting with your base colour.
• What wording does the button have? Does it say ‘Application Form’ – hopefully not. Make sure that it is a verb.  It’s a subconscious thing but it is an effort NOT to follow a command.  Try this –  BLINK NOW – see

These are techniques that we’ve been using in e-commerce for years – hopefully the HE sector is catching up, I know my clients are.

The point of this rant is, that with all the effort you’re putting in, you can get your potential students over the line with this one simple change to your Apply button. Your webmaster can do this within minutes and, if you want to look like a real smarty pants, ask your webmaster to test the change and measure how many more clicks you get as a result. Imagine if you could report an increase of 20% extra visitors clicking ‘APPLY NOW’ from one small change to the position, colour or wording of a button. Imagine if this one change helps you get one extra postgrad student – what’s the ROI there?

If you want to look at how I setup our postgrad recruitment service for our partners feel free to get in touch by phone, (+44 (0) 870 735 2888), email, Tweeting, LinkedIn or EVEN write.

Keep an eye on the blog for more weekly HE marketing tips. Talk soon,

Derek.

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