Recently, I was engaged in a digital marketing meeting with a large and highly respected university in the midwest. The Dean, explained his primary marketing challenge this way, “When a prospective student visits our campus, over 70% matriculate. Our challenge is to get more prospective students to notice our storefront and come in. Can you help?”

That analogy was music to my ears and helps to define inbound marketing – getting more people to your storefront. Your web site is your storefront. All communications – brochures, transit ads on buses and train stations, radio and TV commercials, etc. –  should lead prospects to your storefront. From the prospective undergraduate student to the busy adult learner, they won’t find you unless you have fresh and relevant content that gets them to your web site.

Here are some tips pertaining to making sure that your storefront is open and well-lit when your audience is ready to shop:

• SEO: Do you know where you rank in Google searches? Over 60% of searches end with the first three results listed on the page. Make sure that your store front is well-lit by ranking highly for relevant searches.
• Blogs: Are you actively developing content on your blog? Are you viewed as a thought leader related to the topics that are important and relevant to your audience? Johns Hopkins University does this very well. Remember, blogs are one of the most powerful tools in your inbound marketing tool kit. And, they’re FREE!
• Google Analytics: Do you know what is working and what isn’t when it comes to bringing traffic to your site? Using Google Analytics will help you do more of what is working and eliminate what isn’t.