the use of digital marketing within the higher education sector

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The role of digital marketing in the

higher education sector.

[email protected]

www.digitalbalance.com.ausuite 14 | 628-630 newcastle street | leederville | wa 6007

A research report covering the Asia-Pacific region.
http://www.digitalbalance.com.au/http://www.digitalbalance.com.au/mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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In this report.

Section Page

Abstract 3

1.0 Research participants 3

2.0 Report highlights 6

3.0 Digital does matter. 7

4.0 Target audience expectations. 8

5.0 Biggest digital influences. 10

6.0 Common barriers to investment. 11

7.0 Strategic planning 12

8.0 Governance and workflow 15

9.0 Digital resources 17

10.0 Digital budgets 20

11.0 Leadership 22

12.0 Key insights 24

About digital balance 26


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Abstract.

Leadership teams across the higher educationsector in the Asia Pacific region are struggling tounderstand the level of digital transformation that institutions should undertake to remain

meaningful and relevant to their target audiences.

The reality is that the whole of the higher education sector is under threat and we should all be

working together more at the strategic level.

Digital manager, Western Australia

This report explores how the rapid growth of digital has affected and challenged the roles and

responsibilities of marketing and communication teams in the higher education sector.

We cover the areas considered critical in establishing tightly integrated, strategically aligned digital

teams within organisations include;

1. Strategic planning

2. Governance and workflow

3. Digital resources

4. Digital budgets

5. Leadership

We review the areas considered by higher education providers to offer the greatest digitalopportunity and those sparking the greatest change to marketing and communication plans.

The following report documents both quantitative and qualitative results and concludes with some

key insights identified through the research.

1.0 Research participants.

Over 40 interview participantsfrom Australian universities and private institutions took part in1-2-1 interviews conducted in October and November 2012. Participants included Vice

Chancellors, Deputy Vice Chancellors, Executive Directors, Marketing Directors, Marketing

Managers and Digital Managers or equivalent role descriptions.

Survey participantsfrom across Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia,

Hong Kong and India took part in an online survey, hosted in December 2012. The survey was

sent to over 330 individuals at universities, private providers, polytechnics and TAFE/ Skills

Institute. A 36% response rate was achieved1.

Claire Burnham, Principal www.digitalbalance.com.au

0404 731659 suite 14, 628-630 newcastle street | leederville | wa | 6007

(08) 9227 8073 abn 33 689 844 860 3

1Based on partial and complete survey respondents. Actual number 119.
http://www.digitalbalance.com.au/http://www.digitalbalance.com.au/


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Survey participant locations.

(Total responses 78)

Survey participant roles.


All Others roles include Marketing Manager (19%), Digital Manager (18%), Marketing

Professional (7%) and Digital Marketing Professional (4%).



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Institutions represented by survey participants.


Of the Australian universities represented, 29% were from the Group of 8, and 35%were from

IRU.

Areas of focus for survey participants.




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2.0 Report highlights.

Strategy section highlights. 35%of respondents have no digital marketing strategy in place at all.

Top reasons preventing institutions from increasing their digital scope included a lack of strategic

vision and planning;

- 50%suggested theres a lack of understanding of its real value by the wider institutionand

- 28% stated alack of ability to really prove its return on investment potentialexists.

39%of respondents said that a reliance on traditional marketing methodswas a barrier to further

investment into digital.

Governance and workflow section highlights.

57%of institutions have in excess of 21 peopleacross their institution that have responsibility forpublishing web content.

32%of survey participants feel that a lack of centralised governance and ownershipis a barrier

to further investment into digital.

The value of having greater influence and structure was seen as being able to deliver a higher

quality and more relevant digital experience for the visitor.

Digital resource section highlights.

The majority of digital teams have not seen any increase in resources in the last 3 years,

indicating that existing roles are absorbing additional responsibilities and are being expected to

keep pace with the introduction of new disciplines and technologies. Most expected no change in resources over the next 2 years.

Within an average sized digital team, individuals wear between3 and 5 hats in terms of

primary role responsibilities.

Directly connected to the results from the Strategic planning section; only 31% of teams have

Strategy and Planningas a primary role.

Despite recognising the impact the pace of change has had on resources many interview

participants did not want to come under scrutiny by asking for additional resources (despite no

change in 3 years).

Digital budget section highlights. Only 20%of survey respondents had a stand-alone digital marketing budget.

Over 70%of participants felt that restricted budgets across the whole institutionwas the greatest

challenge to increasing digital scope.

Over 65% of participants said there wereplans in place to increase digital spend in the next 12

months for their institution.

Current or planned increased spend is focused mostly on marketing campaign activity.

Less than 25%of those surveyed allocated spend to suppliers in helping them to deliver against

their digital plans.



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Leadership highlights.

This section of the survey drew the most mixed results from participants.

A quarter of participants felt that organisational change was the greatest influence in changing

their wider marketing and communications plans. 32%of survey participants did not have confidencein their institution continuing to invest in, and

support the development of, the digital channel.

Only8%felt fully confidentin their institution would continue to invest in the digital channel.

41% of respondents felt that their senior leadership teams understanding of the potential of

digitalby was averageorpoor.

43%felt that their institution was only fairat responding to external changesin the digital

channel.

3.0 Digital does matter.

Survey and interview participants responded positively to the purpose and role of digital within a

marketing capacity for their institution. Almost all considered digital to be a core function of their

marketing and communication teams and a real enabler for delivering campaign messages,

despite many digital managers struggling for necessary budgets or the resources to complete

existing digital projects and take plans to the next level.

74% of survey participants said digital was of highor extremeimportance in helping them to

achieve their wider marketing and communication goals. 43% felt their digital team was highlyto extremelyinfluential in driving forward the role of digital

within their organisation.

59%said they had aclearly defined digital strategywhich integrated with their wider marketing

plan.

Over 25%of respondents felt that digital was considered to be of highor extremeimportance in

the planning and delivery of marketing campaigns.

However, 39%felt one of the main reasons preventing their institution from increasing its digital

scope was a reliance on more traditional marketing methods.

52%of respondents felt the responsibilities of their digital team was a blend of maintaining and

managing websites, support of marketing campaign activity and managing of stakeholders.



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For many people digital might be 90-95% of the experience they have before they choose us.

Particularly when you consider international students.

Digital Manager, New South Wales

4.0 Target audience expectations.

The primary target audience for the higher education sector is one of the most savvy, demanding

and connected digital groups. These behaviours will only become heightened over time as ourdigital natives become prospective students.

Interview participants identified changing consumer expectationsas being one of the most

significant changes and challenges to digital marketing in the higher education sector in recent

years.

Nearly 25% of our survey participants felt that theexpectations of studentswas one of the

greatest influencers of change to digital plans.

Richness and relevance of content was recognised by interview participants as being critical in

capturing attention and engaging this audience. This contrasts with many of the more traditional

university content models where the product (the course) is often at the bottom of the contentstructure and the realities of the student experience are not well supported.



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Expectations of our target audience group is underlined by faster moving, more innovative online

only brands these days. The bar is pretty high.




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5.0 Biggest digital influences.

The following areas were identified by both survey and interview participants as extremely

significantin affecting their marketing and communication activities.

Survey participants Interview participants

Social media marketing (18%) Social media

Proliferation of devices (15%) Mobile

Social media as a customer service tool (15%) Web analytics

Multichannel marketing (12%) Content marketing

Despite the listed areas above, emailwas still the most frequently used digital marketing

campaign tactic.

- Nearly 54%of respondents are using email to communicate to their audiences.

Social media marketing(46%), predominantly Facebook, was joint second along with landing

page optimisation(46%).

The 5 highest frequency digital campaign tactics.

Top 5 (%)

1. Email 53%

2. Landing page optimisation 46%

2. Social media marketing 46%

4. Paid search 44%

5. Organic search 43%

The five least frequently used digital campaign tactics included user generated content, mobile

advertising, affiliate advertising, online PR and video content.

The strongest areas of opportunity for digital marketing.

Survey participants ranked the areas of digital marketing that presented them with the strongest

areas of opportunity.Results were widely spread, areas which represented the strongest

opportunity for some were seen as offering no opportunityto others, an example being mobile

development.



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Areas of strongest opportunity (%)

1. Web analytics 18%

2. Search marketing 16%

2. Content marketing 16%

4. Email marketing 15%

6.0 Common barriers to investment.

The research results are broken into the following five areas of core focus for any digital team:

1. Strategic planning

2. Governance and workflow

3. Digital resources

4. Digital budgets

5. Leadership

Survey results showed the lack ofthese areas were considered the main barriers in preventing

further funding or increasing the scope of the digital offering. These views were also strongly

reflected during our qualitative interviews.

Challenges to increasing digital scope.




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Barriers to further investment.


6.0 Strategic planning.

Strategy in a digital context.

Creating a digital strategy and plan is no different from creating any other marketing or business

plan. In fact, as the lines between digital and traditional marketing and communications become

more blurred, organisations are beginning to create fully integrated plans.Often, the common mistake with digital plans is they are a series of tactics (i.e. search, social,

email) rather than a larger, more coherent plan for what digital will help your institution achieve.

A digital strategy should be a document that provides the wider institution with a clear reason and

purpose for being in the digital channel, and how it will aid transformation over time. This becomes

the roadmap for delivery and is a vital tool in understanding howto apply new technologies or

digital tactics towards your larger vision, without causing distraction.

More progressive marketers will drive greater integration between digital marketing plans and

wider marketing and communications plans, as an equally relevant and valuable partner rather

than a campaign support tactic.

The plan provides the transparency required around the measures for success. This allows senior

leadership teams to easily understand the role and purpose of digital in helping them achieve wider

strategic goals. It also provides an important framework for tracking budgets and managing

resources.

Defining a digital strategy.

73%of participants said they considered digital marketingto be highlyto extremelyimportant in

helping them to achieve wider marketing and communication goals.

However, only 60%reported they had a clearly defined digital strategywhich integrated with the

wider marketing and communications plan.

Only 31% of digital teams had Strategy and Planning as a primary roleresponsibility.



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35%had no digital marketing strategyin place at all.


Among the top reasons preventing institutions from increasing their digital scope was a lack of

strategic vision and planning;

50%said a lack of understanding of its real value by the wider institutionand,

28% stated alack of ability to really prove its return on investment potential

Schools havent really grasped the value of digital yet. They come to us with

pre-determined solutions rather than problems.Digital Manager, Victoria

Many of those interviewed still felt that they were firmly in a cycle of catching-upas opposed to

developing forward facing strategic plans. Many digital managers interviewed described their

strategic focus as being one of fixing whats wrongrather than driving digital innovation.

We are a good three to four years behind where we should be just for our core website.

It should be our bread and butter.


Digital influence.

Over half surveyed (52%) described the role of their digital team as directing the use and

application of digital when it comes to marketing.

Most participants felt that their digital teams were highlyto extremelyinfluential in driving forward

the role of digital within their institution.

During the interview stage, digital managers often commented on the need for more influence

when dealing with other areas of the university. They felt this was critical in achieving a higher

quality, more relevant digital experience.



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The role of web analytics in digital strategy.

Web analytics is key to driving realdigital transformation within organisations. It allows senior

leadership teams to see the realreturn-on-investment opportunity that exists for digital, and should

drive a greater level of behavioural and business insight than it currently does for any of the

institutions interviewed or surveyed.

Over 25%of survey participants identified one of the core reasons preventing their institution

from increasing its digital scope was lack of ability to really prove its return on investmentpotential.

The majority of institutions continue to use the free Google Analytics platform for measuring

success, predominantly to measure and report campaign analysis.

Peoples data interests seem to be more sophisticated despite their off-the-shelf platform

choice;

- 75%of survey participants said that multi-channel attributionwas of medium to high

importance.

- 80%said that segmentation and targetingwas of medium to high priorityin 2013.

38%of digital teams included a web analystas aprimary responsibility.

Most of those interviewed reported that web analytics was a shared team responsibility. Those interviewed felt others within their institution were aware of web analytics but didnt

understand how it should or could be applied. This made measuring success difficult to define.

A fear factor is held by more traditional marketers that the data will report failure as opposed to

optimisation opportunity, so reporting is kept at a vanilla level (e.g. visitors, time on page etc).

Over 55%of survey participants said that web analyticspresented a good to great opportunityfor

their institution.

Its used as more of a measure of success, not as a measure of opportunity.

Digital Manager, Victoria



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7.0 Governance & workflow.

Governance and workflow in a digital context.

In short, web governance is the discipline of managing a digital experience in a controlled and

orderly way. It is an area often left untended and one of the greatest reasons for an institutions

website spiraling out of control, with large budgets committed to fixing whats wrongas opposed to

investing into moving the digital experience forward.

The most common examples of this within the higher education sector are:

Poorly planned information architecture and end user experience leading to site sprawl.

Little to no process or quality assurance around the creation of content or how content is

maintained.Both of these areas can be extremely costly and resource heavy to correct.

There are a number of models and existing frameworks that large, complex organisations adopt to

empower their staff and ensure the high quality delivery of their digital experience for the end user.

Fractured responsibility.

One of the biggest pain points felt by interview participants was the lack of digital governance in

place to help them maintain standards and ensure digital quality across their organisations.

Regardless of the digital structure adopted by the institution all interviewees wanted more

influencewhen working with Schools and Faculties within the digital space.

The value of having greater influence was seen as being able to deliver a higher quality andmore relevant digital experience for the visitor.

The quality of content being produced by others across the institution was of concern, both the

volume of content created and the lack of maintenance once the content had gone live were

factors.

Survey participants reflected this opinion. 57%of institutions have in excess of 21 peopleacross

their institution that have responsibilityforpublishing web content.Many of these individuals will

not have received formal training and are likely to be creating web content as one of many

responsibilities.



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There is a real disconnect between people wanting to be on the web but not

really understanding the context of what that means.

Digital Manager, Western Australia

This contrasts with Marketing and Communication teams where 34% of participants had less

than 10 peopleelsewhere in the institution who are responsible for marketing and

communications.The majority of those placed elsewhere were likely to have the responsibility forInternational student recruitment.

32%of participants felt that a lack of centralised governance and ownershipwas a barrier to

further investment into digital.

Social mediawas one area where the majority of those interviewed had been able to develop

frameworks or guidelines for use by others. They were primarily created to help understanding

about the always on and responsive nature of the social media space and the above average

expectation of the regular users.

The challenge is that we are not managerially aligned to schools so they rely on goodwill and free

support from us to try and help them to understand best practice.

Digital Manager, Victoria



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8.0 Resources.

Resources in a digital context.As the digital channel becomes increasingly complex, and with rapidly changing markets, digital

teams have to make difficult decisions around competing and multiple priorities.

Three common models were found in all of the universities interviewed during the qualitative

research stage.

1. Dispersed.

Digital is a low or relatively new priority. Resources tend to be allocated from other areas

across the organisation with little cohesion between them. Tasks are mainly reactive and

focus on the delivery of services rather than the strategic opportunity.

2. Centre of Excellence.All digital roles and responsibilities are run centrally. This model has the greatest control

and the most obvious reporting structure. It is often the model that transitions organisations

to the hub-and-spoke model as it allows governance, roles, and the strategy to be formed

and then applied across the wider organisation.

3. Hub-and-spoke model.

A combination of models where some digital resources are aligned with other areas of the

organisation providing digital expertise in the real environment. The hub oversees the

governance, resources and strategic direction of digital for the whole organisation. This is

the most agile model and, if governed correctly, can allow for the most innovation and aid

integration.

These models are broadly adopted by most organisations outside of the higher education sector

with varying degrees of success.

Roles and responsibilities have evolved over the last few years. Newer, more specialised roles are

becoming more popular, but equally as difficult to recruit. Typical digital roles within organisations

today include:

Source: Structuring a digital marketing team, Smart Insights.



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These roles may be all centrally aligned or distributed via the hub-and-spoke model and governed

by a central framework.

Digital teams and headcount.

66%of those surveyed said they had digital teams of between 1 and 5 people.

This differed slightly to those interviewed where 50%had a team of between 5 and 9 people. The

majority of these teams (more than 25%) operated under a hub-and-spoke model.

For those surveyed,headcount numbers had not changed in the last 3 years and is not set to

change in the next 2 years.

Comparatively, for Marketing and Communications teams, 35%are between 1 and 10 people.

- For Marketing and Communication teams, 54%have seen an increase in resources over the

last 3 years and a further 32%expect numbers to increase in the next 2 years.


We were formed around the website and we have had to absorb all these additional

tasks but with no additional resources or skill sets.

Digital Manager, South Australia

68% of those surveyed felt that lack of resources was a significant barrierto investing further into

digital.



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Digital roles. Based on the number of primary roles identified through the survey, within the average sized

digital team an individual wears between 3 and 5 hats.

Content writers/editorsare the most common role (69%). This is likely to be a reflection of the

volume of content expected to be managed and maintained on an institutions website. This

responsibility is often centralised into a digital team even though the actual ownershipof the

content sits elsewhere.


66% of those surveyed have a Social Media specialistas a primary role for their team compared

to only 31% who had Strategy and Planningas a primary role.

Other roles identified included Web Analyst(38%), Search specialist(35%) and Social Media

specialist(66%).



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Overall, interview participants felt they were not adequately resourced for the volume of work

they were managing. A number of factors influenced this:

1. Increasing scope; usually taking ownership of more of the total web experience.

2. The pace of growth in the digital channel outstripping available resources without

internal recognition.

3. The realities and practicalities of working in a university environment.

With the need to add new, more specialised resources to existing digital teams there was the

feeling that across the institution others were skeptical of the need. Budget for increased

headcount was not forthcoming or was purely on a project basis.

Often digital managers did not want to come under scrutiny for costing the university too much

money.

Digital headcount cant keep growing in universities despite how fast the digital channel is

growing because universities just dont think like that.


9.0 Budgets.

Budgets in a digital context.

Lack of budget and lack of talent are common complaints of digital teams across the APAC

region regardless of the sector2.

Effective budgets should focus spend on areas of digital that support the wider digital strategy, andtherefore the wider organisation. A common mistake in budget planning is budgeting for projects

when you are trying to enable digital transformation. This immediately signals a deadline to the

spend being needed or an opportunity to pause the project from those allocating funding.

Connecting investment with wider organisational goals and objectives makes for a strategic spend

that helps transform an organisations digital presence.

Core areas of focus for digital budget planning should include:

Investing in the right technologies to support your strategic plan

Automating some tasks to make the team more efficient (and strategically focused)

Proving the return-on-investment available from the channel

Research from Gartner3in the US suggests that by 2017 the technology spend of a

Chief Marketing Officer will outstrip that of the CIO.



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2Digital Marketing Performance Dashboard 2012.

3US Digital Marketing Spending Report 2013.


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Headcount budget.

Only20%of respondents have responsibility for managing a digital headcount budget.

In an effort to reducespend most work is taken on internally. Very little budget is allocated for

outsourcing to digital agencies and external resources.

Interview participants spoke ofproject-baseddigital headcount where internal resources are

loanedto the digital team for the length of a project and then returned to their original areas upon

completion.

Weve been through a really huge transition and we were given lots of funding initially but now

weve fallen out of favour and its someone elses turn.


Digital marketing spend.

Over 70% of participants did not have a stand-alone digital marketing budget.

Those with a stand-alone budget (36%) had less than $100,000 (AUD) excluding the headcount

budget.

The most common areas of spend were search marketingand marketing campaigns, both over

70%.

Those with plans to increase digital spend within the next 12 months (over 65%) have their focus

on marketing campaigns(nearly 80%) and mobile site development(over 60%).

Interview participants expect that existing budgets will allocate for social media marketing and

mobile development rather than new monies being made available.

Current areas of digital spend.




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Areas of investment in next 12 months.


10.0 Leadership.

Leadership in a digital context.

A leaders role is to create an environment where transformation and imaging new things is

encouraged. Leaders in the digital space need to give digital experts a stronger voice, and

encourage the culture of using digital as a transformation journeyrather than aproject.Despite years of discussion, many institutions are yet to reach a final decision on the value of

including a Chief Marketing Officer within a Senior Leadership team. The role and scope of the

digital channel today suggests the inclusion of an adviser or expert (commonly known as Chief

Marketing Technologist), in a Senior Leadership team alongside more traditional marketing and

communications stakeholders.

For many, the rapid pace and acceptance of digital into everyday life has been something that

happened to the institution rather than an opportunity to drive real changes at an organisational

level.

The Khan Academy and the Harvard Open Courses structure are clear examples of where

leadership has embraced changes delivered by the digital channel and the recognition of thebehaviours of the target audience.

Our leaders.

25%of participants felt that organisational changewas the greatest influence of changeto their

marketing and communication plans.

- 20%of participants felt this was the greatest influencer of change for their digital plans.

32%of survey participants did not have confidencein their institution continuing to invest in, and

support the development of, the digital channel.

Only 8%felt fully confidentin their institution continuing to invest in the digital channel.



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In terms of senior leadership understandingthe potential of the digital channel; only 27% felt it

was goodor excellent,41%felt it was averageorpoor.

Im often caught between what I know our target audience wants and what our

senior executives think in terms of content consumption.





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11.0 Key insights.

Key insight #1: Institutions are digital by default.

Many institutions continue to catch-upwith the expectations of their target audiences, but will

it be enough? 70% of digital marketing teams have no stand-alone budget, the little budget

available is primarily directed to marketing campaigns or search marketing.

In many other sectors, digital marketing is way beyond the phase of a marketing component

and has transformed itself into a truly valuable marketing partner with equal weighting at the

planning table across all levels. It is recognised as offering a deep level of insight that

becomes invaluable to the modern marketer.

The survey participants displayed an appetite to learn and achieve more, placingmulti-channel attribution(75%) and segmentation and targeting(80%) as medium to high

priorities for them in 2013. But what will it actually take to transform digital into the next

phase?

Key insights #2: Digital teams are not able to focus on the true strategic value.

35% of institutions have no digital strategy in place, and 50% of participants felt that the rest

of their institution had alack of understanding of the real value of digital marketing. More than

25% of participants felt a key barrier to increasing the scope of digital within their institution

was its lack of ability to really prove its return on investment.

A digital strategys role is to provide key stakeholders with a roadmap, detailing what digitalwill do for the institution and how it will add value over the medium to long term. Planning

needs to encompass target audiences, key goals, success measures, supporting

technologies, and resources and budget required to support the program. It is also critical to

consider the integration with the wider marketing and communications function.

With only 31% of teams having Strategy and Planning as a primary role, a greater resource

focus should be aligned to help teams and the wider organisation plan past the immediate

campaign drivers and start to make the digital channel a true strategic asset.

Key insight #3: The pace of growth in the digital channel has been underestimated.

It is apparent there is a gap between target audience expectations and the realitiesof

working within a higher education institution. This has meant that digital teams have made do

when faced with areas of increasing digital importance i.e. mobile, social etc.

Resources have been re-pointed to provide the basics at the expense of other areas.

This gap will continue to expand as digital natives become the target audience unless

institutions are better prepared and willing to transform themselves.

Key insight #4: Budgets and resources need to be re-drawn.

The budget pinch is felt right across institutions. 87% believe that restricted budgets across



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the whole institutionis the greatest barrier to further investment into digital.

41% believe rapidly changing markets and technologies are the greatest influencer of change

to digital plan; budgets and resources are ill-equipped to respond to these changes. 68%

believed that their institution was fair to very poorat responding to external changes.

Most have not seen an increase in headcount for the last 3 years, with no plans to change in

the next 2 years. A review of new roles introduced into the digital industry in the last 3 years

demonstrates a significant lack of strategic investment into digital teams within the sector.

Budget and resource responses were the clearest indicator of the shallow connection and

value gained from digital by this sector.

Key insight #5:Senior leadership teams need to become stronger advocates of digital.

More than 30% of institutions do not have confidence in their institution continuing to invest inand support the development of the digital channel.

The digital channel within a senior leadership team should have strong representation from at

least one individual who truly understands the opportunities that can be awarded through

digital transformation. Their role is to build a broader understanding of the value of digital to

the wider organisation (through demonstrating its value) and championing changes being

recommended by the digital experts. They would be critical in supporting the strategic digital

vision and supporting budgets and resource models.

There is significant work to be done in establishing the right level of support and guidance,with more than 40% of participants reporting that senior leadership understanding of the

digital channel was averageorpoor.

Key insight #6:Digital marketers need to be given a greater sphere of influence.

The greatest advocates for digital within institutions need to be recognised and given the

opportunity to influence more of the total digital experience. Over 50% of respondents said

that more than 21 individuals had responsibility for publishing content across their institution.

This is often without the much needed support or experience from centralised digital teams

and potentially weakens the overall digital experience.

Senior leadership teams need to empower digital teams to drive forward the changes needed

to give a greater focus to target audience expectations. Digital opportunities beyond the

confines of academic boundaries should be considered to enable a more consistent and

higher quality experience. This may mean delivering smaller, more agile digital experiences

which are more suited to the behaviours and expectations of the target audience than has

traditionally been created.



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About digital balance.

We are a specialist digital marketing consultancy based in Perth, Western Australia. Our approachfocuses on customer-driven data, brand and market research and business intelligence to inform

digital planning. Our goal is to transform the I think into I know for all of our clients.

Our team.

We are a team of seven, each bringing a different style of thinking and experience to digital

marketing. digital balance has a strong blend of creative thinkers, technical planners and analysts

meaning our clients get a solid and well-balanced digital solution. The result for our clients is well

planned projects and digital solutions including full digital strategies, content planning and writing,

web analysis, training and staff development.

Tim Elleston and Claire Burnham are the principals of digital balance and have worked togethersince 2007 when they were recruited to set up a brand new, strategically focused digital media

team at Murdoch University.

Claire was awarded the JWT Education Emerging Leadership of the year by Universities Australia

in 2009. Tim is a regular speaker at education conferences throughout the APAC region about the

work he led to turn Murdoch University into a data-driven marketing team. They both remain

committed to helping other institutions within the sector achieve the same levels of success.

Our partners.

Throughout this research project we have partnered with Dr Lianne Cretney-Barnes

(lcb&associates) and were kindly supported and assisted by Painted Dog and Adobe.

Stay in touch

If youd like to find out more or give us your feedback on the report wed love to hear from you.

[email protected]

office (08) 9227 8073

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the use of digital marketing within the higher education sector

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