Immanuel College sought a website that would set a new standard in education websites. The result is a site that caused quite a buzz!
The Immanuel College website acts as the first entry point for most people on “a journey of discovery”. The new site had to showcase life at Immanuel for prospective families – and provide a personalised experience.
The design was critical.
Boylen recommended a powerful visual approach that centred on full screen, immersive video and minimalist content. The idea was to distil the essence of Immanuel into as few words as possible.
A gallery of “best-in-class” images, videos and websites was created to act as touchstones for inspiration – and as a world-class quality benchmark.
Immanuel sets incredibly high standards and each section of content had to be continually refined until the perfect fit was achieved during the development process. This is rare.
Also rare was Immanuel’s commitment to the design vision. This not only includes the visual aesthetic and user experience design, but the tone of voice. Boylen assisted with copywriting, to help create powerful, original statements aligning with the College brand.
The result is a credit to the vision and quality standards of Immanuel’s Marketing Manager, Colleen Young and Director of Development, Steve Blight. The site reflects Immanuel’s reputation as an award-winning innovative college.
The website is a critical tool for enrolment marketing. It is the College’s primary vehicle for communicating with prospective families and tracking their progress to enrolment.
These families are not homogenous. The challenge was to interpret the available data to determine the main demographic groups and their aspirations, which in turn informed the personalisation of the site.
Prominent on the home page is an invitation to “Start Your Journey”. Visitors choose either the Middle or Senior School, and then select their two main areas of interest from the curriculum (eg. sport, boarding, music etc).
As an example, a person might choose “I am interested in (Middle School) and learning more about (music) and (global experiences).
The WordPress website then dynamically readjusts so that relevant content is presented first. For example, the sport and boarding options in the Middle School.
Key calls to action are highlighted. Book A Tour sits at the top of every page and is highlighted in Immanuel’s yellow.
As a school, Immanuel required a range of standard features, including a calendar, an easy-to-update events module, news and enrolments. However, each of these elements was considered with new eyes. A seamless user experience was paramount.
There is strong international interest in Immanuel, especially from China, Hong Kong, Germany and Japan. To provide them with the best possible experience, key sections of the site are delivered in multiple languages.
Beneath the beautiful outer layer, the site represents best practice in digital integration with advertising campaigns, the ability to incorporate lead generation tools, and accommodate automated marketing functionality.
Boylen’s online marketing team:
Heat tracking is being used to measure the success or failure of key aspects of the site. SEO statistics are informing decisions about where to invest valuable marketing dollars.
Since the website has launched, great improvements have been recorded in user engagement and online traffic.
The open source nature of site means it has the ability to evolve with Immanuel. It also has the flexibility to incorporate future technological advancements. The site was developed to integrate with all major digital marketing platforms and third-party tools, such as Google Ads, Facebook Pixel, digital remarketing platforms and Google Analytics event tracking.
From the outset it was clear that such a sophisticated site would require personalised training. Ongoing support and training are part of the Immanuel-Boylen partnership, as is SEO, hosting and information security.
"Boylen took our vision and made it a reality. They remained committed to a bespoke solution, pushing the boundaries of the conventional school. The collaboration between Boylen and Immanuel was paramount in the success of this project. We are very much looking forward to working together into the future."
