What are conversion paths and how can education marketers use them?

A conversion path is the process by which an anonymous website visitor becomes a known lead. A conversion path is comprised of a remarkable content offer, call-to-action, landing page, and thank you page.

Remarkable content could be an ebook, a free resource like a planner or calendar, a webinar or a video guide.

In education, examples of content offers include a prospectus available to download, a revision guide, or some advice on choosing a university after A Levels.

The conversion path is the journey your visitor takes and the communications they receive all aimed at converting them from a prospect to a lead, and ultimately to a customer!

By designing and implementing the right conversion paths, you can most effectively move website visitors through the buyer’s journey and help them become customers and promoters.

You will have conversion paths throughout different stages of your customer journey.

A conversion path could look like this:

A social media post encouraging people to sign up to your open event. With a link to...
A landing page that briefly explains the event and has a form to sign up. When the form is submitted the visitor goes to...
A thank you page - which is an extra opportunity to encourage further engagement (subscribe to our blog!). When the visitor makes it to this page...
A follow up email acknowledging their form submission/sign up and explaining next steps

Each step in this conversion path is an opportunity to provide personalised and timely communications whilst the contact is engaged.

There will be lots of similar examples in education, each one should be designed to drive people through your admissions funnel and ultimately convert a contact into an enrolment.