Overview
North Carolina State University is a large institution with 34,000 students and dozens of programs of study. While the school has a strong reputation, increasing competition and a new emphasis on distance learning encouraged the school to seek a revamping of its websites.
NC State tapped our team when it needed a digital overhaul after undergoing a university-wide re-branding. Verified Studios has worked with NC State for 8+ years in a variety of capacities, and the new multisite solution was the natural next step in a rewarding partnership.
The Challenge
With disciplines in everything from microbiology and soil science to textiles and youth, family and community sciences, the University has an enormously diverse range of subjects, which posed a challenge. The department and program sites needed to be cohesive and follow the overall branding, but still needed to present each student with a tailored experience for each specific program.
NC State mainly needed help upgrading every department’s website for a greater user experience for its students and prospects. The solution needed to remain engaging, fully functional and easy-to-use on any device or operating system. Themes had to be deployed as multisite instances while being compliant with all major 508 and WC3 standards.
Most importantly, the sites needed to generate measurable results when it came to guiding prospects to key content and driving them to contact, visit and apply. These results would be carefully monitored and analyzed, to ensure success of the overall initiative.
The redesign requirements were as follows:
- On Brand: Designs needed to be in line with the spirit of the University’s new brand guidelines.
- Mobile / Responsive: The websites needed to remain engaging, fully functional and easy to use on any screen, of any size, on any operating system.
- WordPress Multisite Capable: Themes could be deployed as multisite instances.
- Compliant: The sites needed to be compliant with all major 508 and WC3 standards.
- Effective: The sites needed to generate measurable results when it came to guiding prospects to key content and driving them to contact, visit and apply.
- Accountable: Analytics were required to be in place to capture and report on the effects all marketing activity and site health.
- Flexible: Solutions could be hosted on campus, off campus or deployed as a multisite instance.
Verified Studios partnered with DELTA and University Communications to design a series of program level web solutions. Our deployment of this program level, best practice-based solution, began in Q4 2015 and has run through Q4 2019.
Initial Problems
The Verified Solution
Verified Studios took a multi-phase approach to rolling out the sites. Starting with Phase 1, Verified first deployed a pilot project to build a new site for NC State’s Leadership in the Public Sector program. This initiative was based on the idea that audience insights could lead to a more responsive design, which could then be scaled for the other multisites.
In Phase 2, Verified then rolled out a template system across ten programs based on the pilot program, to increase awareness, drive site traffic and increase apply actions. This was combined with some program-level marketing initiatives including Search Engine Marketing and content marketing.
In Phase 3, Verified leveraged the established solution for an additional 25 programs.
Our Process
Phase 1: Simple Prototype Project
Our initial hypothesis was that we could increase enrollment by better understanding programs’ main receptive audiences, then translate those insights into an improved web experience and, finally, focus on data-driven advertising spend to attract the audiences to the sites.
Prior to creating this scalable system, we deployed a pilot project to build a new site for NC State’s Leadership in the Public Sector program.
Within six months of the site relaunch:
- Applications to the Leadership in the Public Sector program exceeded expectations by nearly 100%.
- In spite of higher volume, applicant quality improved by virtue of an average increase in GPA of 0.5 points.
- Furthermore, the Google AdWords campaign managed by Verified Studios led to the lowest average cost per acquisition for student recruitment in the program’s history.
Phase 2: Small Rollout
On the strength of our work with the pilot, DELTA scheduled a deployment of an improved template system across ten programs to increase awareness, drive site traffic and increase apply actions. Based on NC State’s new brand standards, these templates were also informed by learning from the pilot program.
Each of these programs received a new WordPress-based template, site architecture consulting, content assistance, online ad campaign management, email marketing consulting and analytics support. Sites were created, authored and launched in a matter of weeks and campaigns were up and running in record time. One of the ten programs was Online Statistics.
Online Statistics Results:
Redesigning program pages, reorganizing page architecture and editing content paired with thoughtful Google and LinkedIn pay-per-click campaigns generated an increase in traffic and goal completions.
In the seven months following launch, the following results were achieved:
2.1 million ad impressions
17,000 visits
1,100 apply / contact / PDF download actions (goals)
A 400% Google organic traffic increase
Direct traffic increases of 1300%
70 new students admitted to the programs
Phase 3: Leverage Established Solution
Because sites built on the template that Verified Studios created for this project saw improvements in traffic, applications and conversions, Verified Studios became an approved vendor for NC State. Between 2015 and 2018, Verified Studios created 35+ program sites.
Top priority programs received tailored PPC campaign management attention. Thanks to input from accomplished professors and faculty members and the creation of user-centric content such as career profiles, the new program sites have stood head and shoulders above the competition, attracting the high quality students NC State deserves. Over the course of the 2017-2018 PPC campaign year, a limited set of target programs realized over 14,000 conversions.
Phase 4: Ongoing Investment
The results continued to improve as we built out additional custom content and carefully honed our PPC campaign strategy. Over the course of the 2018-2019 campaign, Online Statistics achieved a conversion rate of 8.22%, with a total of 1,881 apply / contact / PDF download actions (goals). Similarly, Online Textiles boasted a conversion rate of 11.31%, and Online Math Graduate Certificate a conversion rate of 18.69%.
Present day plans include increased collaborative work between Verified Studios and NC State.
The Benefits
Within 6 months of the pilot program launch, applications to the Leadership in the Public Sector program were exceeding expectations by nearly 100%. In spite of higher volume, applicant quality improved by virtue of an average increase in GPA of 0.5 points. Additionally, the Google AdWords campaign managed by Verified Studios led to the lowest average cost per acquisition for student recruitment in the program’s history.
In 7 months from the launch of the redesigned program pages, the Statistics program saw 2.1 million ad impressions; 17,000 visits; 1,100 apply / contact / PDF download actions; a 400% Google organic traffic increase; and direct traffic increases of 1300%.
The results continued to improve as we built out additional custom content and carefully honed our PPC campaign strategy. Over the course of the 2018-2019 campaign, Online Statistics achieved a conversion rate of 8.22%, with a total of 1,881 apply / contact / PDF download actions (goals). Similarly, Online Textiles boasted a conversion rate of 11.31%, and Online Math Graduate Certificate a conversion rate of 18.69%.
The Results
The Future Opportunities
Since the rollout, Verified Studios has been named an NC State preferred vendor and has continued multisite solutions for 35+ programs.
Through the use of a multisite template, these new solutions are rolled out quickly, with content migration and marketing being a main focus, rather than the actual site build.
In the future, NC State has the opportunity to quickly and easily rely on Verified for web development and marketing projects, with little time needed for onboarding.