Effectiveness of Salford Business School Website Marketing Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the marketing strategies employed by the Salford Business School website. It begins with an introduction outlining the website's role in attracting users and its performance in the market. The report then delves into market research and data analysis, including primary data research through user questionnaires and a competitor analysis focusing on Alliance Manchester Business School. The analysis section evaluates keywords, applies the AIDA+ model, and defines the target audience. The report sets SMART goals and identifies key performance indicators for an online campaign, covering content strategy and online ad campaigns. The conclusion summarizes the findings and recommendations. The report highlights the importance of search engine optimization and keyword planning in improving website traffic and student engagement, and proposes strategies to enhance the website's online presence and attract a wider audience.

Search and Social Media
Marketing

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MARKET RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS...............................................................................3
Primary Data Research for the website............................................................................................3
Competitor activity analysis............................................................................................................4
Analysis................................................................................................................................................6
Evaluation .......................................................................................................................................6
Keyword evaluation.........................................................................................................................6
AIDA+ evaluation............................................................................................................................6
Campaign..............................................................................................................................................6
Audience..........................................................................................................................................6
SMART goals...................................................................................................................................7
Key Performance Indicators............................................................................................................8
Content.............................................................................................................................................8
Online ad campaign.........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The research studies the effectiveness of Salford business school's website in attracting users
towards the college. As per the primary research done on the users of the website it was found that
the website has been successful to certain extent in generating users towards the same. The website
has gathered ranking in domestic and international market based on the user traffic of the website.
This has generate to the revenue and enrolments of students and professor of the college (Vargo and
Lusch, 2004). Competitors analysis is done to generate the effectiveness of search engine
optimizations and keyword planning for Salford business school And hypothetical online campaign
plan is presented to improve advertise and market the website to the users.
MARKET RESEARCH AND DATA ANALYSIS
Website of Salford Business School is accessible 24/7. The website is responsible for
generating credibility of the services provided by the college. The website is a marketing tool for
the business school in gathering and attracting students.
Primary Data Research for the website
To analyse the primary data questionnaire is framed based on interviews done on the users
assessing the website. The questionnaire is helpful in providing user feedback about their relevant
experience on the website. This can be used for both analysing the effectiveness of online content
on the website (Salford Business School, 2015). The result of this question are is helpful for an
online campaign project in quantifying the affect of website's data on the user. The selected website
for online campaign project is of Salford Business School – http://www.salford.ac.uk/business-
school.
Questionnaire
Website User Feedback Survey
1. How did you find out about our website?
----------------------------------------------------
2. How often do you visit Salford business school website?
 First Time visitor
 Daily
 Weekly
 Monthly (Palmatier and et.al., 2006)
3.What is your primary reason to access the website?

 To find out about college's courses
 Business services
 Research
 Other
4. Do you find the content relevant?
 Yes
 No, Why?
5. Is it easy to find what you need on the website?
 Very easy
 Easy
 Moderate
 Difficult (Cravens and Piercy, 2008)
6. What is your experience of our website?
Below Expectation Meets Expectation Exceeds expectation
 Downloading
Speed
  
 Quality of
Information
  
 Chat and Call
Support
  
 Ease of
Navigation
  
 Visual Appeal   
 Registrations   
7. Add one comment to improve website experience for the user?
-----------------------------------------------------------
Competitor activity analysis
Competitor analysis helps to analyse the competitive environment in UK. The analysis helps
to identify the strength and weakness of the competitor in the market. This is helpful for Salford as
the school will be able to ascertain the strategies of its competitors. Salford biggest competitor is

Alliance Manchester Business School (Kotler, Philip, and Armstrong, 2010). The school is ranked
among the top leading business school in UK. Competitor analysis on both the school is-
Salford Business School Alliance Manchester Business
School
Search Engine Performance As per the data available
Salford search engine
performance is very low
compared to its competitors.
The companies traffic for non
paid search was only in 352
numbers (Kotler, Bowen, and
Makens, 2006). This has
lowered the students traffic for
the website.
Whereas Manchester stands
high on with more then 15,000
search terms on various search
engines (Jobber and Ellis-
Chadwick, 2012). The colleges
initiatives have generated as a
successful gadget in attracting
students to the website.
Link Popularity Salford's global reach of its
website link is on a good scale.
Ranked on around 3,000th
number in UK, Salfords reach
in the UK market is rising. The
company needs to still work on
the global popularity level as it
is presently ranked on 50,000th
rank only. Salford's link in not
attractive to the extent, as it is
not able to generate customer
attraction towards the website.
Alliance is doing brilliant with
its global popularity level at
around 1,50,000. The business
school is standing on around
20,000th level of its UK
presence (Trusov, Bucklin, and
Pauwels, 2009). This signifies
that the link is highly influential
in gaining visitors for the
website.
User Review As per the google reviews, the
users are highly satisfied with
the content and the services of
the college.
Alliance has failed to generate
student satisfaction towards the
quality of its site.
Google Keyword Planner Tool As per the above data that the
keyword “salford business
“University of Manchester”
keyword is number on ranking

school” is the most used and
advertised keyword
(Andreasen, and Kotler,
2008.). It directly links the
student with the main website.
It can be understood from the
above data that keyword play a
very important role in
advertising the website link in
the search engine. A correct
keyword can generate huge
traffic for the website's link.
of keywords of the college.
These keywords generate
maximum traffic for the
college.
ANALYSIS
Evaluation
Keyword evaluation
AIDA+ evaluation
 A – The website has attracted students from domestic and international countries.
 I – The online content is relevant with the college's services, thus generates interest of the
users.
 D – Highly interactive and communicative website convinces customers to get enrolled
(Keegan and Green, 2005).
 A – This furthers leads students to getting registered in the college and purchase modules
and course framework designed for their respective faculty.
Salford business school's website ha created awareness about the course the college
provides, business services and research facilities. From the above data it is reflective that users are
happy with the content the website provides. The information is detailed and is up-to date as per the
requirements of student. Registration on the website is also easy to do, purchasing of modules and
course frameworks are quickly downloadable. The business objective of the website is to generate
maximum user traffic to enhance revenue from admissions in the university. The users are highly
satisfied with the support services provided by the website (Lovelock, 2011). Chat and online
service have been effective even for the alumni students of the college. Communication's with the

tele-callers is easy as they provide quirk feedback to the resolution of the problem. The overall
experience of the users is pleasant but the site is still lacking in attracting students to its presence.
The online presence of the site in the international market is also weak as compared with its
competitors. The college needs to revive its site with the help of search engine optimization. This
will help the website to gather more presence and in return will attract viewers towards it.
CAMPAIGN
Audience
Students, Professors and parents will be targeted audience for the website. The websites has
to be attractive enough to attract students as well as professors. It is as because the business school
provides courses for students and research services to the professor's (Rust, Lemon, and Zeithaml,
2004). Parents are chosen as a target audience because they access websites of college to identify
the scope their child's future in the respective college. By targeting students college will be able to
provide guidance and support to their queries. Students group is easily influenced by word of
mouth. Thus by targeting certain groups the campaign can reach its promotion in a large group as
well. The courses provided by the college are designed specifically for students, it is important to
gain maximum student support for the campaign. Professors on the other hand will be influenced by
the research services provided by the college. This is reason will attract them towards the campaign.
Parents can be easily influenced by the campaign. They in return can convince their child to get
admission in Salford through the campaign. The campaign has to be precise to quickly grab spot in
the eyes of customer's (Hair Jr and Lukas, 2014). This is important because the students will not
pay attention to a long and overwritten campaign material. International students also are a large
source for the college revenue. The campaign has to smart enough to grab attention of the
international students living outside of UK.
SMART goals
SMART Goals for the online campaign are-
 Specific- the goal of the campaign is to generate awareness about the website of salford
business school by optimizing search engine keywords and websites effectiveness.
 Measurable- The campaign aims to attract students from domestic as well as from around 10
international countries (Dibb and et.al., 2005).
 Achievable- the goal is achievable as the campaign is effective in marketing advertising the
website and revive search engine optimization.
 Relevant- The goal is relevant with the concept of website, i.e. to attract students, professors
and parents for increasing online traffic of the website.
 Time-bound- The campaign is time bounded with a target of 2 month.
SMART goals of the campaign are relevant with the motive and objective of the college.

The campaign plays a crucial role in attracting students base towards the website. This is as because
the website requires traffic of viewers for its successful operations (Grönroos, 2007). The campaign
has a specific goal to achieve awareness about the website of the college. Online campaign will
generate students enrolment towards the college. This will play beneficial part in generating student
traffic towards admission in the college. The measure of the campaign is realistic as the college
needs to increase its global outreach. To do this the campaign has targeted 10 countries, whose
students are attracted towards admissions in UK colleges. The goal is achievable in a time frame of
2 months as the campaign will be able to achieve students, professor and parents support towards
college and its website.
Key Performance Indicators
The key performance indicators are as followed- Search engine Optimization- The campaign has to pay attention on increasing the
performance of search engine. Search engine optimization will help the website to increase
website's appearance (Boone and Kurtz, 2009). The campaign has to increase the presence
of the site to feature on the number one position in famous search engines. Keywords effectiveness- In order to increase the performance of the online campaign, the
keyword used to search on an search engine has to be refined. This will help the college in
getting its online presence through the site in an search engine. The campaign will have to
require keyword planning tool, that will guide the company towards using effective keyword
in the search engines. Content relevancy- The content of the website has to be perfectly relevant with the services
provided and the requirements of the users. The content is useful in attracting users attention
towards the website (Berry and Parasuraman, 2004). The content is a performance indicator
as the relevant content will support purchasing and enrolment of the user in the website as
well as the with the college.
 Increasing websites presence in international customers- The campaign target is to generate
its presence in 10 countries other then UK. This will improve the performance of the website
because this will in return gather user towards the site. Increasing the user traffic to the site
will make the site to be more effective in marketing and advertising of its services to the
users.
Content
As per the objective of the campaign, Salford's has to review and generate changes in the
content of the website. They recommended changes are as followed-
Placement of Keywords In order to make the website easily available
for the user. Keyword optimization will have to

be done in order to attain maximum user traffic
towards the site (Churchill, Brown and Suter,
2004). The campaign has to generate search
keywords that will directly link the requirement
with the user. Changes in keyword search will
improve traffic from even international country.
As the international users are solely dependent
on the website information. Keyword will
provide ease of access to the website.
Updating sections The website needs to add section tab like-
Placement Tab- Placement provided by the
college in various industries and fields will
generate attraction towards the productivity of
the college. Attractive example of students
placed by the college in high profile company
will attract users towards the website (Aaker,
Kumar and Day, 2008). As the college
provides placement of students to top
companies, the addition of this tab will promote
college and website in the students. They will
come to know about the importance of
enrolling in the college.
PDF Tab- A PDF tab can be added in the
section to enable the student to easily download
course modules and updates of the site from the
same . PDF tab must be free to operate to
generate users to get retracted towards the
website.
Adding YouTube content In order to make the campaign a hit among
students YouTube videos may be features.
Alumnus, popular students, professors may
generate their feedback about the college and
website in the video. Advertising from pop and

movie stars will increase the traffic of users
towards the site (Hanson and Kalyanam,
2007). The campaign will be benefited from
this social media tool as this is famous and
renowned among young generation. It will also
provide international students to easily access
the videos in return generating international
support.
Online ad campaign
Campaign Steps Aim Human resource
required
Time -period Budget
Market research To identify social
media channel and
reviving keyword
through search
engine
optimization tool
(Brassington and
Pettitt, 2005)
Department of
market research
10 days US$ 1,000
Planning of the
campaign step
by step
 Deciding
requirement
of human
resource for
the
campaign
 Generating
roles and
responsibili
ties
 Duly
managing
the
Marketing
Manger
1 day US $ 3400

objective of
the
campaign
Search engine
optimization
and keyword
planning tool
 Reviving
and
improving
user traffic
towards the
website
Social Media
Expert
Regular activity
(Malhotra,
2008)
3000 US $
Blog writing  Adding
and
updating
the blogs
stating
about the
activity of
the
campaign
Marketing
department
2 months 600 US $
Reviewing
the campaign
 To review
the
effectivenes
s of the
website by
various
online tools
Marketing
department and
social media
experts
Post Campaign US $ 2000
CONCLUSION
From the above research it can be concluded that the website of Salford has not generated
optimum user traffic towards the website. The college is also falling in short of revenue due to low
presence in the online market. International involvement of students has also been affected by the
same. The campaign plan presented in the report will help the college to rectify the areas it was
falling short of. The website needs to be monitored and reviewed to improve its experience among
the users. This will raise the market and brand image of the business school among the students. It
can be concluded that tools like keyword plan, search engine optimization etc. are helpful to
improve the online presence of the website.

REFERENCES
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