oklahoma-city-community-college-rfp-content-strategy-final-emma-lasher

Oklahoma City Community College Business / Content Strategy / RFP Report Emma Lasher Table of Contents Executive Summary Overview Oklahoma City Community College Intended Audience Purpose Goals and Audience OCCC’s Goals OCCC’s Audience Key Performance Metrics Strategic Alignment Summary Core Strategy Statement Current Strategy Content Alignment Goal Centric Strategy Observations Website Socials Messaging Framework Competitor Analysis 11 Redlands Community College 11 Rose State College Outline Priority Matrix Priority Matrix Chart Core Matrix Core Matrix Chart SiteMap Sitemap Image Wireframes Program/Major/Degree Page Image Class Page Image Club Page Image Writing style Tone and Voice Style Guide 4 4 5 7 8 9 10 12 13 13 14 15 15 16 16 17 17 18 19 19 19 20 Final Thoughts References 23 24 Executive Summary Oklahoma City Community College is a two-year community college looking to revamp their website to drive more and higher quality applications as well as improve overall image and impressions of the college They recently released a Request for Proposal to revamp and clean up their website, while delivering an OCCC “story” aspect to their content OCCC currently does not have a large focus on their students on either their websites or on social media The focus is on staff and faculty, as well as events and awards the school receives Information about who makes up the student body, such as race, gender, and age, is almost impossible to find Some college information sites have conflicting information, leaving the student with no real idea who they will be attending classes with Finding clubs and other activities for involvement involves digging through the site, and a student who may have just been casually looking at schools may find themselves giving up before finding what they are looking for By shifting focus to a more student centric approach, OCCC will be able to entice more and higher quality applications Shifting social media to focus on student and club activities, as well as their everyday life will help drive engagement and outwardly show an involved student body to those thinking about enrolling Goals can be measured with the following KPI’s: - Amount of applications received - Overall image and impression of the college based off surveys - Social media engagement, both from students and prospective students Overview Oklahoma City Community College Oklahoma City Community College is a two-year community college serving over 20,000 students each year The college offers associate degree programs in a variety of fields Offered degrees and certifications prepare students to transfer to bachelor programs at other institutions as well as immediate employment Intended Audience This report is for the Oklahoma City Community College (OCCC) Marketing and Public Relations Department to help them better organize the college’s webpage to provide a more comprehensive user experience Purpose The purpose of this report is to provide OCCC with a response to their RFP requesting a revamp of their current website When redesigning a site for an audience it is crucial to understand what changes they may be looking for in a new site, and what they like or dislike about the current one The content strategy portion of this report outlines the target audience’s wants and needs as well as how OCCC and their competitors are meeting them This knowledge allows for growth based off OCCC’s strengths and weak points The report also presents the ability to improve upon competitors strengths and weaknesses and offer a superior site 5 Goals and Audience OCCC’s Goals OCCC’s website’s last redesign was in 2006 This has left the site outdated and is contributing to a negative user experience leading users to associate OCCC with a lower quality education Specific improvements requested with the new redesign include; navigation/user-journeys, overall design, dated/inaccurate material and information, storytelling limitations, social integration, as well as others listed in footnote The goal is to create a positive user experience with an easy to use interface that aids in diminishing misperceptions about the college’s quality OCCC’s Audience OCCC’s website’s audience is primarily made up of current students, prospective students and faculty / staff members According to collegeboard, the average age of all students is 26 years old and the average age of full time students is 24 years old 58% of the student population falls between the ages 18-24 according to USNews Collegeboard also notes that most students are from in state College review states 43% of the student body are minority, with the majority being Hispanic and Black According to International Student, 4% of students are international The student body also skews female with a 41% male and 59% female ratio according to USNews Given this information, our target audience would be men and women ages 18-30 with a slight focus on minorities ​ “OCCC’s is seeking improvement on; navigation or user-journey issues; design issues (poor and dated); cluttered URLs; dated and inaccurate material and information; storytelling limitations including limited focus on video content and news; lack of social media and chatbot integration; low standard of SEO on key programs; dormant user accounts; multiple editors; noncompliance issues with visual brand identity standards (in-process); conflicting voice, style and tone in writing, and more.” - From OCCC’s original RFP Goal Measures - KPI Key performance indicators (KPI) help determine the success of a goal In this report we will be looking at KPI’s specific to OCCC’s goals of improving overall public image/impression and increasing application submissions The first KPI is number of applications and enrollments submitted This will measure enrollments/application submissions received in a set time period Things to keep in mind when evaluating success would be: actual number of applications, number of enrollments, and quality of enrollments based on predetermined factors such as GPA, extracurriculars, etc The second KPI is overall public image and impression of the college This can be measured through quarterly, bi-annual, or annual surveys to the students, parents, faculty and staff, and alumni These surveys can be sent out via email and be completed either through the website itself or a third party such as Survey Monkey, which will collect and categorize the data Questions for this survey should include: relation to the college (student, staff, etc.), how they feel about the school in relation to other schools in the area, how likely they are to recommend the school, how likely they are to tell someone about an event going on at the school, ect There should also be a blank comments field allowing survey takers to express comments, concerns, praise, or suggestions Things to keep in mind when evaluating success are: the percentage of surveys completed and returned, the percent of answers coming from each group (students, staff, parents, etc.), improvement (or lack thereof) in scores over time, and content of the individual comment field The third KPI is levels of engagement from students and prospective students on social media This can be measured in: likes, reactions, number of shares, comments, and quality of comments (positive or negative) Things to keep in mind when evaluating success are: percentage of interactions coming through current students/prospective/faculty/other, are the interactions positive or negative, is the content reflecting what is relevant to the audience, improvement (or lack thereof) in engagement rates over time vs spikes on individual posts Companies (and colleges) with higher levels of social media engagement are typically seen as more invested in their students and community, which boosts public image Students particularly are more likely to engage with content relevant to them Higher student engagement can show prospective students that the current students are engaged and valued by the school, making them more likely to enroll Strategic Alignment Summary Core Strategy Statement To encourage prospective students to enroll, we will present our story through engaging video and visually aided text content featuring student life and positive student opinions showcasing the various benefits of attending Oklahoma City Community College Current Strategy OCCC’s current strategy is to entice users to enroll using “creative and factual products and endeavors that educate, inform and inspire our various publics and/or audiences.” (OCCC’s RFP) The strategy’s execution should succeed in telling the “story” of OCCC in a way that improves the reputation of the college The site also has a large focus on driving enrollment from international students 8 Content Alignment While OCCC’s website contains endless facts and suggestions about the area the college is located in, there is little to no information on the actual student population Blog style posts, images, and lists of activities and locations near the college are featured on the home page There is no video content on the home page but there are videos featured throughout the site None of the blog posts shown on the front page at time of writing showcase students or student efforts Currently the site struggles to tell a story about the college and those who go there, making it less appealing to those looking to apply Since most of the focus is around offered events or things to in the area, the “story” being created tells more about Oklahoma City than Oklahoma City Community College Goal Centric Strategy Observations Many prospective students want to know what type of person they will be interacting with on a day-to-day basis and it can play a large roll in their choice of schools The fairly even male to female ratio and high minority rates can easily be used as selling points to prospective students Most other information a prospective student would be looking for is buried under drop downs and hyperlinks To find out what clubs are offered from the homepage is anywhere from 3-7 clicks and it’s easy to mistake the end destination of the drop down choices Students applying for college often want to know how they can get involved, especially if they will not be meeting others through college housing Showcasing these social interaction opportunities can increase a prospective students perspective about the school New students are more likely to view the college as a more friendly, approachable place where they will be able to make friends and form bonds outside of class This will improve the school’s reputation overall by improving first impressions and showcasing those engaging and involved in bettering their community If the end goal is to drive more and higher quality students to apply, the site needs to show them why they should want to Website The site should feature a video on the home page from the perspective of multiple students and faculty; full time, part time, international, engaged in clubs and activities, and engaged in independent studies or honors programs The students should be expressing opinions related to why they love OCCC and felt like it was the right choice for them Student testimonies should be featured throughout the site instead of only tucked away on their own page Pages that feature contact information or the ability to ask a question are present, but lead to 404 errors and need to be adjusted Socials OCCC’s socials a slightly better job at representing the student body but the focus still seems to skew heavily towards faculty, staff, and hosted events Student focus seems most present on instagram, showcasing student events and real life situations such as students in class or studying in the library OCCC’s Instagram bio also calls out their large level of diversity, reading: “Official Instagram account for Oklahoma City Community College, the largest and most diverse​ ​#communitycollege​ in​ ​#OKC​.” However, although there is more student content, even Instagram is heavily shifted towards other topics 10 Messaging Framework In order to deliver the appropriate message, it’s important to make sure the user’s needs are met and that the content invokes the intended feeling For Prospective Students The first impression prospective students should have upon interacting with OCCC’s content is, “I can see myself here.” The prospective student should feel like the current students are valued by the school and in turn, they would be valued by the school if they went there This can be done by highlighting student accomplishments and achievements as well as by showcasing student life at OCCC For Current Students The first impressions current students should have upon interacting with OCCC’s content is, “I matter here and am a part of something bigger than myself.” The current student should feel a sense of community with the school and other students This can be done by highlighting student accomplishments and achievements as well showcasing club and organization involvement in the community For Community Members The first impression community members (faculty, staff, local area residents, and other stakeholders) should have upon interacting with OCCC’s content is, “OCCC is a strong asset to our community.” They should feel the school is working toward bettering education for their students as well as enhancing the local area around the school This can be done by: promoting free/low cost events, showcasing student community involvement, showcasing club/organization community involvement, and highlighting those who attended the school and now have local jobs in the area 11 Competitor Analysis Redlands Community College Redlands Community College is another community college in Oklahoma that offers two year programs to transition to four year colleges and universities They offer similar programs for lower cost than the area average Their audience is the same as OCCC’s and they are competing to enroll high quality students from the same pool Advantages/Differences over Oklahoma City Community College: - Website is easy to navigate and find information quickly Lists hours, email, phone number, and address in the footer No graduate-student teachers Offers housing for students apartment style “Distance-Learning” classes through interactive educational television - Sports Teams Disadvantages/Differences to Oklahoma City Community College: - Does not offer week terms Their website is easy to navigate and vital information categories such as student life, finances, programs, and applications all link from the homepage The site includes statistics about the population, their programs, faculty and finances Everything is easy to find and links lead to the page you would expect without having to navigate through multiple pages Overall the school offers more of the feel and benefits of a traditional four year university Redlands Community College seems to surpass OCCC in most ways a prospective student would be searching for 12 Rose State College Rose State College is a public two-year state college in Oklahoma with an open-door admissions policy It offers associate degrees made to transfer to a four year college or go directly to jobs in the field similar to OCCC Their audience is the same as OCCC’s except less focus is on minority and international individuals They are competing to enroll high quality students from the same pool Advantages/Differences over Oklahoma City Community College: - Classes offered in 2, 4, and week terms Sports Teams Offers housing for students apartment style Student Login is in the footer of each page as well as the top navigation bar Disadvantages/Differences to Oklahoma City Community College: - Lower focus on international students - No concurrent high-school enrollment Their website is similarly difficult to navigate compared to OCCC’s and pages not always lead where the user would expect Rose State College is able to accomplish the “story” feel OCCC is looking for by having “blog” posts relevant to the students, the community, and the school The pages also include statistics and plenty of images and video showing student life Overall, while the site’s functionality is around the same level of OCCC’s, the higher focus on the students provides a more welcoming interface 13 Outline OCCC’s website requires a shift in focus in order to better organize their pages and deliver a seamless user experience Priority Matrix To determine which areas should claim priority, they must be broken down into the following categories: Drive - Pages that the user may not have come to the site searching for, but are beneficial to OCCC if the user reaches Examples include: enrollment and request information/contact Focus - Pages that the user has come to the site searching for that are also beneficial to OCCC These include topics that entice a user to enroll Examples include: courses, financial aid, clubs/organizations, and majors/degrees/programs Guide - Pages that the user has come to the site searching for that are not really beneficial to OCCC These pages need to be easy to navigate to, to improve user experience, but not need to be a focus Examples include: maps, faculty, and faculty resources Meh - Pages that the user is not typically looking for and are not really beneficial to OCCC but should be included on the site Examples include: college history, president's letter, and legal policies 14 Priority Matrix Chart Drive and Focus pages should take priority over Guide pages, and all should take priority over Meh pages The Focus pages are delivering what the user wants, in order to prompt them to the drive pages In this case the priority pages would be: enrollment, request information/contact, courses, financial aid, clubs/organizations, and majors/degrees/programs 15 Core Matrix Once the priority pages have been decided, they need to be organized by goal and content This helps determine which core pages relate to which business goal and how a user will typically end up at that page Core Matrix Chart 16 SiteMap The sitemap serves as a layout for a high level view of how the user will navigate through the site It’s an organization piece to help gain a better understanding of how to direct users to the intended page Sitemap Image 17 Wireframes The wireframe serves as a base layout for a pages content Included in this report are the wireframes for several core pages by category that can be adapted to fit the individual page’s need with few changes Program/Major/Degree Page 18 Class Page 19 Club Page Writing style Tone and Voice When addressing the intended audience, it’s very important to have one cohesive tone and voice carry throughout the content OCCC’s goal is to convey a “story” about the college through its website and social media To accomplish that, their voice should be more conversational in nature and focus on the benefits and positives of the college Tone should be upbeat 20 and engaging to draw in new and prospective students and convey a positive attitude about the school overall Style Guide One of the most important guidelines is to keep it consistent Differences in text between platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Websites, etc.), site pages, or even sentences, can come across as unprofessional and make the writer seem like they did not care enough about the end product to proof read This lowers trust of the company (or college) and is received with a similar distrust to spam mail Spacing between things like parentesis, hyphens, and periods should be kept consistent throughout all pages and platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Website, etc.) and should especially be kept consistent within sentences or pages where discrepancies can be easily noticed The following is text featured on the “Future Students” page: - “College classes at Oklahoma City Community ​College–​ that also provide top job skills and/or easily transferred ​credits –​ are the best you can find.” In this instance you would want to add a space after “College-” to match the space after “credits -” later in the sentence Alternatively, the entire sentence could be rewritten to be more concise and clear - Edit One: College classes at Oklahoma City Community College provide top job skills and/or easily transferred credits - Edit Two: College classes at Oklahoma City Community College are the best you can find, providing top job skills and/or easily transferred credits 21 In this situation, the first edit is stronger “The best you can find” does not add anything to the content and sounds slightly desperate rather than confident Example sentance’s full blurb: - “Taking college classes is a good step toward reaching your goals Small class sizes where professors and students know you and care about your success make it that much better College classes at Oklahoma City Community College– that also provide top job skills and/or easily transferred credits – are the best you can find.” The tone is overall conversational but far too wordy and poorly structured Since OCCC’s target audience is between the ages 18-30, keeping it concise is crucial to not lose their attention The above blurb could be rewritten as the following: - Take the first step toward reaching your goals with college classes that also provide top job skills and/or easily transferred credits Our small class sizes mean professors and students know who you are and care about your success The school name can be reincluded but is not necessary since it is also included in various other points within view on the page Best Practices - Consistency across all aspects including but not limited to: spelling of words, punctuation, use of the Oxford comma, tense, and names to images - Avoid negative comments about competitors It’s one thing to say OCCC offers a service competitors don’t, but another to say the competitor’s service isn’t good - Use common language Especially since a goal of OCCC is to improve overall impression, keeping language around an early high 22 school level (or below) will allow more individuals to enjoy the content, while still sounding like a professional academic institution Final Thoughts OCCC’s largest struggles lie in shifting their website from focus on the Oklahoma City area and faculty to focus on student life and community involvement Providing students with strong academic options as well as showing them a multitude of options for making new friends and getting involved can separate OCCC from competitor schools Students out in the local area improving their community can also work to boost the schools reputation Furthermore, the student’s constantly changing events and lifestyles can heavily aid OCCC’s desired “story” aspect of their content This, along with general cleanup of no longer needed or relevant content and quicker ways to access pages will aid application submissions and improve public image and impression overall 23 References Collegeboard, Oklahoma City Community College: https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/oklahoma-city-c ommunity-college College Review, Oklahoma City Community College: https://www.communitycollegereview.com/oklahoma-city-community-colleg e-profile International Student, Oklahoma City Community College: https://www.internationalstudent.com/school-search/2127/usa/oklahoma/okl ahoma-city-community-college/ Oklahoma City Community College Webpage: ​http://occc.edu/ Redlands Community College: ​https://www.redlandscc.edu/ Rose State College: ​https://www.rose.edu/ The Content Strategy ToolKit, by Meghan Casey: https://www.amazon.com/Content-Strategy-Toolkit-Guidelines-Templates/d p/0134105109 USNews, Oklahoma City Community College: https://www.usnews.com/education/community-colleges/oklahoma-city-com munity-college-CC06510