Back in the last century (seems weird to read that, doesn’t it?), Seth Godin coined a phrase for a new concept in customer lead generation that he called permission marketing.

The best way to define permission marketing may be to describe its nemesis:interruption marketing. We all know what that is — television commercials, postcards, radio spots, billboards, search pieces. In short, all the stuff your Enrollment office spends loads of money on to promote your school. It is also called outbound marketing

Dusty stuff, but it works in its grinding and predicable way.

By contrast, permission marketing leverages the Internet in a way the other cannot: it allows for immediate feedback from your prospect. This feedback creates the permission model.

Inbound marketing takes that concept one step further by entering the mind of your customer through search keywords, Web analytics, and form submission.

1. Building Market Share with Language

The promise of the Internet has always been (and hopefully remains) that a small company with modest assets can successfully compete against a larger company for a new customer.

Have you ever heard this advice: If you want to make more money, ask your customers?

When I first taught Web design classes my lectures centered on Web technology to engage a new customer. Over time, I began to appreciate the profound role search engines played in that equation.

Search queries are nothing more than customers asking questions. When search engines collect that information (keywords) they communicate what customers want.

Search engines turn the classic marketing paradigm on its head. Instead of declaring your business and promoting it (outbound marketing), you reverse the strategy by matching your expertise to the expressed desires of the customer (inbound marketing).

How could you uncover those desires? Through keyword analysis.

Keyword analysis — language, my friends — is the key that unlocks the mind of your customer and uncovers your rightful share of the market.

2. A New Way of Seeing

In 2006, I worked with Karine Joly on my first Web redesign. Karine was an early advocate of analytics in Higher Ed, so her first question to me was, “How are you going to measure your new site?” Fortunately, we were ahead of the curve; we’d installed Web Trends a year earlier and analytics was a regular part of our routine.

Putting Web metrics at the center of my activities was a decision that saved my job more than once. The world is stuffed with anecdotal opinions about best Web practices. Thanks to analytics I could counter those opinions — and make real improvements to my Web site — based on hard, clean data.

In 2010, Karine published her report “The State of Web and Social Media Analytics in Higher Ed.”

In it, she noted the meager amount of time many of my competitors spent examining or reporting the data they collected. When I presented Karine’s observation to our BoT along with a positive analysis of our Web site’s performance, I could tell some people were beginning to see my position in a new light.

Truth be told, so was I.

3. Form Matters

I’m about to run afoul of how some people define inbound marketing. You may hear it described as the use of channels like social media and blogging to present infographics and white papers that encourages peer-to-peer sharing via thought leadership, brand journalism, and content marketing.

Before you take your head for a swim, please remember the whole process boils down to one thing: a form on your Web site.

The form creates the social contract that fuels inbound marketing, and it is the surest measure of your customer’s genuine interest and your eventual success. Everything you do as an inbound marketer supports the submission of a form.

The OLD Funnel (with Outbound Marketing) 

I doubt if anything I’ve written has raised any eyebrows, but for the sake of your Enrollment team let’s answer the really BIG question, ‘Does this inbound marketing stuff work?’

When it comes to sales, Higher Ed folks often talk about the Enrollment Funnel. Putting theory and jargon aside, the Funnel is simply a way to formulate the left-hand side of the college’s balance sheet.

You start the sales cycle with $520K and 100k purchased prospect names. Given a respectable conversion rate of .4%, this boils down to 400 students provided you hit them enough times in enough ways with the right message.

How much did it cost to get those students? Let’s do the math.

100k Prospects x .4% = 400 students
$520k / 400 = $1300 per Acquisition 

The NEW Escalator (with Inbound Marketing)

Inbound marketing has its own representation — the Engagement Escalator. Every move up the Escalator comes from a customer’s affirmation they want what you’re offering — be it a white paper, an infographic, a virtual tour, or an online registration to your next open house.

Let’s say I have a $90K budget and a goal of 200 students. At a conversion rate of 15% (did I mention inbound marketing has a higher conversion rate?) I’ll need to find just 1350 leads.

1350 Leads x 15% = 202 students
$90k / 202 = $445 per Acquisition 

Inbound marketing can deliver half the students as outbound marketing for about one third the costs — and that’s what inbound marketing is really all about.

Summing Up

If it’s so efficient, why not only use inbound marketing?

Using only one method of anything (either inbound or outbound marketing) is simply a bad strategy. Inbound marketing offers a real alternative to the old way of doing things. Now you have a choice.

So, before you dig into the next sales cycle, talk with your Enrollment team and see if there’s a way to adjust your strategy to reflect the value inbound marketing can bring to your enrollment marketing.

The numbers prove it, and your customers will love you for it.