The College of St. Scholastica
College website redesign and enrollment optimization.
ABOUT ST. SCHOLASTICA
The College of St. Scholastica is an independent private college with locations across Minnesota. Founded in 1912, St. Scholastica is committed to providing undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students with an exceptional educational experience.
The CHALLENGE
The college was experiencing softer enrollment and a fragmented brand presence, with its website underperforming as a primary recruitment channel after several years of page sprawl. Messaging was unclear, the student journey was inconsistent, and prospective students struggled to find information that resonated with their needs.
My role
Complete visual redesign, reimagined sitemap, rewritten content, and CMS migration of The College of St. Scholastica's flagship website, css.edu. I led The College of St. Scholastica as the Executive Director of Marketing and College Communications alongside our agency partners at Paskill Stapleton & Lord. The new site launched on August 18, 2021.
Discovery and Research
To inform a strategic redesign, I led a comprehensive research and analysis phase:
Conducted stakeholder interviews across admissions, academic leadership, and marketing staff to understand internal priorities and pain points. Focus groups gave students, alumni, and the broader campus community a chance to lend perspective and points of view.
Completed audience segmentation to define the motivations, barriers, and decision drivers of key student types
Mapped the prospective student journey across channels to identify drop-off points and friction
Audited competitor college websites to identify messaging gaps, distinctive offerings, and opportunities
Reviewed analytics and SEO performance to pinpoint high-value content and underperforming areas
Key insight
Prospective students were primarily motivated by career outcomes, delivery flexibility, and price. Messaging, content, and navigation needed to reflect this.
Strategic Approach
Based on insights, I developed a strategy to realign digital experience with audience needs:
Simplified positioning and messaging to focus on outcomes, support, and clarity in pricing
Created brand attribute messaging pillars for consistent application across web pages and campaigns
Reorganized the website’s information architecture to match student decision journeys
Defined content strategy and hierarchy tailored to audience segments
Oversaw implementation, ensuring the strategy translated effectively into design, UX, and content
Execution
The website redesign included:
A modern responsive framework, user-focused design reflecting the clarified brand positioning
Migrated from an enterprise CMS to WordPress
Reduced total page count by over 50%, removing years of low-quality page sprawl
Streamlined navigation and content flows for each student type
Optimized landing pages to support lead capture and enrollment inquiries
Integration of GA4 analytics and current SEO best practices to track performance and guide iterative improvements
Collaborative oversight of agency partners to ensure on-budget and on-time delivery
Outcomes
The project delivered a measurable impact on recruitment and brand presence:
Increased prospective student leads and higher conversion rates through optimized landing pages and inquiry forms
Improved engagement metrics, including time on site and reduced bounce rates
Strengthened brand messaging consistency, leading to better internal and external alignment
Enhanced SEO performance led to an increase in organic traffic and higher SERP rankings for select programs
Improved content management efficiency and team workflow through structured processes and clear governance
RECOGNITION
Selected as a Gold Winner in 2022 for outstanding work in web design during the 37th annual EduAD Awards.