Case Study 2024
Transforming student acquisition campaigns in Higher Ed.
Client:
The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA)
Partners
Humaan Design Agency Deloitte Digital
Platform
Squiz DXP, Squiz Matrix, Squiz Search (Funnelback)
Duration
3 month development project 2 year partnership
About The Project
Since 2022 we've been working with a world-class university that embraces innovation and sets itself apart in the Australian Higher Education market. The University of Notre Dame Australia (UNDA) has embarked on an exciting endeavour to attract new students, and its marketing team needed a powerful solution to support their efforts.
Recognising the importance of a captivating online presence, the Pro Vice-Chancellor, IT Director, and Webmaster joined forces to facilitate the successful re-launch of the entire website. The site navigation was redesigned with the IA, new page templates and components were rolled out as a university wide design system in early 2024.
Squiz Matrix - Banners and templates showcase
Squiz Matrix - Navigation and information architecture
Squiz Matrix - No-code component showcase.
We asked Emily Alosi - Digital Lead at The Univeristy of Notre Dame, a few questions about the new design system and page components:
Q: How quickly can a responsive page be built for different devices?
A: "A responsive page that works on mobile, tablet, and desktop can be built in hours, not days now. Our mobile experience is much improved"
Q: How would you describe the approach to build these pages?
A: "We use a no-code, templated approach, designed for marketing users and content specialists. The developers have set it up such that anyone can use it really."
Q: What's the maintenance like now for you and the web team?
A: "Maintenance on pages takes minutes now, not hours. Previously pages needed to be hand-coded or have some in line code and styles applied due to the limited set of no-code components available. The old way made maintaining a consistent look challenging over time"
Q: How do you manage style and image updates now?
A: "With default styles and image sizes clearly set, we can create libraries of content that make it super easy to switch out imagery as it needs to be updated. This allows us to turn around most requests from Marketing in hours, because we don't need to wait for a developer.
Q: What improvements have been made to the site banners and components?
A: "We previously had 12 useable no-code components, and now we have 35 different components to use across the website. We had just 1 page template, but now have 5 different page templates with new banner options including video banners and banners with built-in search."
Q: How extensively are the new components used?
A: "Extensively! We only used about 6 of the original components. Now, we use 100% of the new components throughout the new website. All new page builds will use the new components unless they require new functionality like an integration or data feed. "
Q: How has the new site theme affected teamwork with IT and the Marketing department?
A: "The new site theme has significantly improved our internal teamwork, we can handle more requests and create or update time critical campaign pages, leading to more effective marketing campaign results. In the end this means better results for all our on-line audiences. The Vice Chancellor was very happy too, he sent a personal note of thanks to us all."
SEARCH
Results -An 95% click through rate
FrontStage Digital and the UNDA Digital Experience team also went above and beyond by implementing an advanced program search feature. Using Squiz Search (previously Funnelback), we direct prospective students from 'Study' campaign pages to specific program pages to enquire.
UNDA has been tirelessly working to capture the attention of both domestic and international students in Australia for Semester Two, 2024. PPC ads have been running on Google and social media in multiple regions and territories, directing traffic to the landing and search results pages.
The results were impressive. With 300 programs available, each with its own unique image, search results pages loaded in about 1 second. The responsive card layouts for results performed well on mobile and desktop, with 95% of searches resulting in clicks to program pages.
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