Amplify Your Academics: How We’re Creating a Win-Win Solution in a Decentralized Web Structure

We all want to promote our academic programs, especially when data tells us that 67% of high school seniors and 77% of juniors search our websites for academic programs and degrees (Noel Levitz, 2018). But how can we successfully promote our programs online when deans and department heads (and graduate assistants) are in control of their departmental websites and don’t truly understand the meaning of marketing to students? In a decentralized web structure, how can we convince a dean that a prospective student does not want to read a “letter from the dean” on the Biology or Criminal Justice homepage? This was an ongoing question and roadblock at UA Little Rock. The web team finally realized that everyone can win. In fall 2018, we organized a plan to create new “marketing-focused academic program pages.” This allows the dean (and GA) to keep control of their departmental, internal-focused sites, while the web team manages the design and content of the external-focused pages. We all win! All digital marketing links to these pages, which includes the content that prospective students are most looking for along with a simple RFI (request for information). The goal is for each program page to utilize meta tags and keywords to enhance SEO. Higher organic search rankings lead to more website visits which leads to more inquiries, more applications, and finally greater enrollment!

This session will highlight the data that shows your academic programs are one of the top drivers to your site, how to use that data to get buy-in, and how to launch the process of creating a separate space for program pages that will support your digital marketing efforts. I will also share the results of our first campaigns that connected to these pages.

Slides