Case Study

Sherman College of Chiropratic

“Sherman College of Chiropractic has enjoyed working with Higher Education Marketing (HEM) on a search engine optimization project. Not only are the staff at HEM knowledgeable, personable and timely, but their services achieved the desired result. We look forward to expanding our relationship with them in the future.“

Karen Brower Rhodes, Director of Public Relations.

Refining Analytics & SEO at Sherman College to Increase Student Registration

As a long established leader in the education of Doctors of Chiropractic, Sherman College has a strong academic brand and an excellent reputation for chiropractic education. Even with this strong and positive positioning, flat market conditions for chiropractic education, along with increasing levels of competition from other chiropractic education institutions resulted in decreased organic website traffic and fewer high quality student leads from their traditional lead generation strategies.

The Challenge

To continue to meet growth expectations in the challenging and competitive chiropractic student marketplace, Sherman College determined it needed additional marketing resources and expertise in web analytics and online marketing. HEM was contracted to assist Sherman meet their marketing goals.

CONFIGURE ANALYTICS & INTRODUCE ADVANCED FEATURES

A basic configuration of Google analytics was in place, but advanced features and goal funnels were not in use. The advancement team had a clear appreciation for analytics but was at an early stage in their knowledge about the application of Google analytics.

INCREASE TRAFFIC OF ALL STAGES OF THE RECRUITMENT FUNNEL

Analysis of the recruitment funnel by Sherman marketing staff indicated the need to increase traffic across their recruitment cycle with specific emphasis on organic search inquiries, leads, campus visits, applications and registrations.

REFINE LEAD GENERATION TRACKING ACROSS HOBSON’S CRM

Hobson’s online CRM was being used to capture prospective student contact information. Info request form page views were being tracked but data on actual lead form conversion was not available. Deeper understanding of visitor behavior across Sherman’s lead generation and registration funnels, including Hobson’s CRM, was required to facilitate their ongoing improvement.

The Solution

HEM conducted a complete audit of Sherman’s website and related social media footprint, reviewing site architecture, analytics configuration, SEO rankings, content and competitive positioning.
With the collaboration of the Sherman webmaster, HEM adjusted the analytics configuration and tracking codes to provide clearer goal tracking across each step of its recruitment and online application funnels. Cross domain tracking of the Hobson’s lead form was introduced to report actual leads submitted versus lead from page views.
A goal funnel report was implemented to visualize visitor traffic flow across the application process and to identify any steps demonstrating higher than expected rates of form abandonment.
HEM optimized on-page SEO factors for the Sherman website, including page titles, metatags, and page descriptions. This work was conducted to focus the
site’s content on a revised set of related keywords to attract a broader base and larger volume of targeted site visitor traffic

FIGURE 1: FUNNEL VISUALIZATION.

KEYWORD RANKING REPORT FOR SHERMAN.EDU

The Results

HEM’s work with Sherman resulted in a number of specific outcomes:

Organic rankings for main keywords were improved significantly by on-page search engine optimization activities (see green lines above).
Organically generated traffic to the site was increased by +98%
Mobile traffic to the Sherman site was increased by +154%
Overall visitor traffic to the Sherman site was increased by +43%
Sherman’s 2011 total enrolment levels were surpassed by Aug 1, 2012, with August 2012 being the highest enrolment month since 2010.

About Sherman College of Chiropractic

The mission of Sherman College of Chiropractic is to educate and prepare students to become doctors of chiropractic. Students are taught and learn from the most current knowledge and understanding of the philosophy of chiropractic, in the basic and clinical sciences, the research and science of vertebral subluxation and in the clinical practice of chiropractic so they may perform the professional obligations of a primary health care provider with competency, compassion and integrity. Faculty members engage in research and scholarly activities that contribute to the body of pedagogical and clinical knowledge which advanced chiropractic education and the chiropractic profession. The college serves the profession by offering continuing education programs to doctors of chiropractic and by participating in professional and educational organizations. The college serves the community by providing quality chiropractic care and partnering with community organizations.