The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), a part of the State University of New York, has been an internationally recognized leader in career education in design, fashion, business, and technology for 80 years.
Northwoods’ Analytics Experts Uncover Missing Data & Expand Reporting Capabilities for College Website
50+ Custom Dashboards Provide Actionable Insights & Visibility into User Behavior
Google’s transition to Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was looming, and the marketers and developers at FIT knew it was critical that they embrace change and leverage all of GA4’s features and capabilities. When they were introduced to Northwoods, they quickly came to appreciate our team’s proven analytics expertise and technical depth of knowledge. Not only did they gain a new digital BFF when they chose Northwoods, but they also gained a wealth of insights about their website users.
The Situation
- Although GA4 had already been installed and GTM was set up, FIT wasn’t sure if the tools were optimized or configured correctly.
- The marketing team couldn’t track ways that its primary audience – prospective students – was interacting with the website, and they weren’t capturing the most significant aspects of the user journey.
- The college has more than 50 different departments, including a museum and foundation, each with its own unique analytics needs; however, none of those departments had immediate access to the data they needed and had to lean on the marketing team to provide it.
- FIT’s various departments required high-level data, while the marketing team needed more in-depth reporting about website user behavior.
The Solution
- We began the way any BFF would: by listening. Our team gained a deep understanding of FIT’s unique objectives and KPIs and then optimized GA4 settings, custom events, and dimensions, and revamped GTM containers to align with the college goals.
- Using Google Looker Studio, our visualization experts transformed raw user data into digestible reports that show key patterns and trends, providing a solid foundation for data-driven strategies and informed decision making.
- We created a comprehensive dashboard for the marketing team with in-depth reporting, as well as 50+ individual department-level dashboards that show basic metrics, website traffic, and conversions tailored to each group’s unique KPIs, goals, and needs.
The Outcome
- FIT now has enhanced visibility into key insights, allowing them to make data-driven decisions about the website user experience and future recruitment efforts.
- Department-level dashboards are a time-saver for the marketing team, allowing each group easy and immediate access to customized sets of data, rather than having to request that information.
- Through our GA/GTM work, we also uncovered hidden issues with continuity tracking visitors across various FIT sites and worked with a third-party vendor so that FIT would have a complete picture of their user data.
- While FIT has an impressive in-house team of capable, well-informed marketers, Northwoods was able to supplement their skills with an added level of richness and in-depth analytics expertise.