#makeitawesome: College of the Holy Cross Launches New Website

Since the launch of their new homepage last August, our friends at Holy Cross have been working hard on a full website redesign project, and we’re so happy to share the exciting news of their launch.

When Holy Cross set out to redesign their college website as part of their overall digital marketing strategy, they had a number of goals for the project:

• Create a responsive website that incorporates the school’s new brand identity

• Increase digital engagement with prospective students

• Integrate with existing newsroom and event calendar systems

• Implement a site permissioning system allowing for multiple editors with varying levels of access

• Increase awareness and participation around arts at the college

Over the course of a year, we worked with the team at Holy Cross to build a new site that would address each of these goals and serve as the cornerstone of their digital identity.

The college’s new responsive website, built on Drupal7, not only incorporates various features called out as must-haves for the marketing communications team, but also integrates design and content informed by findings from research conducted by OHO.

Content Management System

• Flexible landing pages – Develop a customized solution that allows for flexibility in the creation of landing pages rather than a standardized design template with limited landing page options.
• Governance – Implement taxonomy-based access control and organic groups enabling a permission management system granting editorial access to various content contributors and editors across the campus community, thereby eliminating the overwhelming amount of update requests creating a constant bottleneck for the marketing communication team.

Content Strategy

• Connect with prospective students – Elevate content for prospective students such as campus visit, admissions, and financial aid information in order to provide easier ways to find information and navigate the site, and create clear calls-to-action that help increase engagement.

• Promote new initiative – Create a new “Arts & Culture” section and develop a content strategy to increase awareness and participation around the new Holy Cross arts initiative.

• Highlight the new brand – Develop a content strategy that supports the new branding for the college and incorporates copy, tone, visual elements, and overall messaging that is consistent with the brand identity.