Nassau Community College

It is no easy task for marketing teams to develop and implement communication materials aimed to encourage their readers, viewers and listeners to take action. But imagine carrying out brand research, creating and designing content, and setting up an institutional website for multiple audiences whose ages can vary across decades from 18 to 68, and who come from all walks of life. The goal: converting their curiosity and interest into actions; prompting them to apply and schedule a visit, “get started” by requesting more information. That’s exactly what SUNY‘s largest, single-campus community college had in mind when they engaged our services.

Every year, 23,000 day and evening students, and 15,000 continuing and professional students enroll in Nassau’s over 70 areas of study; the College has courses during the day, in the evening, over the weekend, online, and off campus (for distance learning students); over one million students have passed through Nassau’s 47 buildings since it opened its doors a mere half-a-century back. The College came to us because they wanted a website that would be user-friendly; an up-to-date resource; showcasing the latest web marketing strategies; Section 508 compliant; offering a quick walk-through of the admissions, application, and financial aid processes; and in general, reflecting a “look” and “feel” through dynamic photography that helped prospective students see themselves in the 225-acre Nassau campus.

We focused on Nassau’s primary audiences, the marketplace, current human and fiscal realities, plus a pragmatic and functional approach to the College’s crucial online presence. Once the creative content for the home page had been chosen, we refined and extended this design to other interior pages, created a map-based virtual tour, and outlined recommendations for the effective use of social media. We then went to work on a mini brand guide to illustrate how the newly-developed design elements and editorial style could (and should) be extended to cover a variety of media.

The team at Nassau felt that the College now had “an aesthetically superior, dynamic and easy to navigate website that will serve our current and prospective students well over the coming years.”

Four months after site launch, Nassau reported that “the new look and architecture of the site contributed to our ‘bounce’ rate being lower.” Their ranking on Google has improved dramatically with the SEO that we incorporated in the copy. Nassau says the “most notable increase is in our unique visitors, up 24% in the first month after launch. We are so pleased with the successful analytics numbers.”