Accessibility is not just about compliance; it’s about ensuring that every student—regardless of ability—can fully participate in the digital campus experience.
When your next website redesign comes around, arm yourself with these seven core principles and produce a website that is worthy of the cost, time, and effort that went into building it. And if you can work on a governance strategy, perhaps you can stave off degradation and actually save your marketing dollars for other initiatives.
The beauty of inbound marketing is that it gives us the capacity to attract right-fit students to your institution. Rather than putting up a billboard and hoping they drive by, see it and respond, we can draw them in. How? By knowing what information students seek and how they search; by creating authentic and engaging website content that matches their search terminology and inspires them to take the next step.
There’s ample research showing how high school students search for (and evaluate) colleges. This data offers insight that is useful to enrollment professionals. By knowing what students search for and how, you can deliver the information they’re seeking in the time allotted, inspire them to take the next step in the enrollment cycle, and capture their contact information
The most effective thing you can do for enrollment is to update your website with enrollment-generating strategies. This will give it the ability to capture high-quality leads and move prospective students through the admissions funnel.
All research on how students search for college cites the institutional website as the “make it or break it” point early in the search. Consider this: 80% of college bound high school seniors say they judge an institution on its website. Furthermore, 60% equate the quality of a website to the quality of education provided by the institution.
After all the time, money, and energy you spent on your website. After all the glorious content you created to brag about your rigorous academic programs, your illustrious school history, and your vibrant student life. After all the bells and whistles you put in there to delight and entertain them. How dare they leave without spending at least 10, 30, or more minutes consuming all of your great content!
Your institutional website is your most important marketing asset due to its reach, depth, and popularity. What other asset is globally accessible 24/7/365, covers every inch of your institutional story, and has been viewed by just about every single one of your constituents? The answer is none. No other asset even comes close.
What if 75% of college-bound students told you that one piece of your marketing and enrollment strategy mattered more than anything else? What if 80% of high school seniors told you they judged your institution by this one component? Chances are you would make that one component a priority. That critical piece is your institution’s website.
As soon as an enrollment-driven website is up and running, you will see results. Prospects will complete forms (because they are highly targeted), which will flow into your admissions funnel. Your institution will come up in a prospects’ search (because of the SEO content). How many of these leads turn into applicants and accepts? Much of that depends on your enrollment team and their tactics. An enrollment-driven website will definitely bring in leads (good ones, because they are targeted to fit the institution), but the admissions staff needs to convert them.
I worked for years in higher education marketing before I knew the value of an enrollment-driven website. It seemed like every 3-5 years we would “re-do” the website but it always felt like an untamed behemoth. Great marketing nuggets were there, but they were buried deep within.
What if 75% of college-bound students in the U.S. told you that one piece of your marketing and enrollment strategy mattered more than anything else? What if 80% of high school seniors told you they judged your institution by this one component? Chances are you would make that one component a priority.
Websites have an enormous impact on students’ decision-making and are often under-utilized for their enrollment capabilities. We can assume students come to a website because they have a certain level of interest in the institution. What happens next definitely affects enrollment — and we know this because of what they themselves report.
Though highly regarded for its health programs, this particular institution — a private Catholic women’s university — was struggling with enrollment. Calculate’s founders proposed a complete overhaul of the existing website utilizing inbound marketing strategies.
Was the creation of great content the #1 priority during your last website redesign? If you’re a typical institution, then the answer is probably “no.” I’m willing to bet that much more attention was paid to the design phase of the project. After all, the design is the part that everyone sees. It’s your style. Your curb appeal.
I like to refer to a website as Grand Central Station because it’s your primary marketing and communications hub. Prospective students find your website through a Google search. Inbound and outbound marketing tactics drive traffic there. Your program brochures have your website address printed all over them.