Determining the primary audience for a website is easy for some, requires discussion for many, and is never decided for a few. The truth is, even when we unequivocally state that the primary audience for our website is prospective students, our focus is typically undergraduates. Let’s get specific. How does the strategy change for a graduate or professional school website?
It’s complicated. Many schools and colleges within a university offer both graduate and undergraduate programs, so they serve the same mix of students as the broader university. Sometimes, the reputation of a professional school is as strong as or stronger than the brand of the university of which it is a part. Graduate and professional schools occupy a difficult marketplace.
Let’s think about separate web strategies for graduate and professional schools in the context of brand. Should your university be a branded house or a house of brands? Do prospective graduate students connect most with your school’s identity or, more likely, with your university-at-large?
Both, good questions. In our view, good answers are few and fairly incomplete. Google “web strategy graduate schools” and you’ll see that the conversation is just beginning.
Luckily, our exploration of web strategy for graduate and professional schools is off and running. More on this topic from the mStoner blog: