If you’ve been around the college more than four or five years, you might know that the college has done a lot to enhance its image and bolster its marketing efforts. We rebranded (and got ourselves a new logo). We also created a tagline for our marketing efforts, which has been embraced by campuses across the nation — we truly do Go for Greater® around here!
The next thing that needed to be considered as we have revamped and re-evaluated our image and our brand was our website. As most people know, the web is a vital recruiting tool. Research shows that as many as 84 percent of students say a college’s website has a moderate to very strong influence on their college search process.
The top three ways people make decisions about where to attend college include:
- Conversations with professors,
- Conversations with enrollment counselors/advisors, and
- College or university’s website.
Given the prominence of the web in the decision-making process for prospective college, the Marketing Advisory Committee nearly a year ago began the process of renovating and redesigning the website so it could provide more assistance to the prospective student. The MAC consists of Lana Poole, executive director of Marketing; Tery Donelson, assistant vice president for Enrollment Management; Kevin Palmer, chief information officer; Michael Kateman, executive director of Development, Alumni and Public Relations; Dr. Steven Wiegenstein, dean of Graduate Studies and associate dean for Academic Affairs; Dr. Joann Wayman, professor of business administration; and Dr. Gary Massey, interim vice president for Adult Higher Education. Dr. Jeffrey Musgrove will take Massey’s place on the committee when he begins in July.
The goal of the redesign is to keep prospective students in mind by simplifying the user experience, which can be done by reducing the number of clicks it takes to get from the home page to the most valued pages on the site. This will increase the college’s ability to convert prospects to inquiries and/or applicants.
The launch of the new website will take place July 1. Further details will be available through CougarTrack, and a showcase has been planned for Tuesday, June 24.
