Graceland.edu Gets a New Look

Our alumni and friends know that our Lamoni campus is a beautiful and tranquil place – full of lush green grass and beautiful trees, winding walkways and gorgeous sunsets. There is nothing quite like visiting campus, but more and more prospective students – especially during the pandemic – have been foregoing the traditional campus visit in favor of experiencing campuses virtually. So, the marketing department was challenged to ensure that Graceland’s digital experience matched the magic of the in-person experience and, thanks to the gift of an extremely generous donor, that project was made possible.

Project Scope

Partnering with Agency Off Record (AOR), an agency headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Graceland’s marketing team set off to completely overhaul its web presence. Helmed by Derek Newcom ’96, AOR specializes in marketing, branding, and digital projects. The project prioritized prospective student discovery by improving the user experience and design of the site, paying close attention to the navigation, and ensuring that there were plenty of alumni success stories on as many pages as possible.

Over 2,000 pages were migrated, redesigned, and rewritten, and new pages were created to improve the online experience. The approach was user-focused, aiming to boost key metrics like time on site and pages per visit. Achieving this goal translates to telling a more visual and interesting story for prospective Gracelanders, helping them imagine themselves as a student on one of our campuses or in one of our online classes.

Telling Y(our) Story

This extensive project is part of Graceland’s effort to tell our brand story more effectively to a larger audience and increase enrollment. Visuals are an important part of storytelling in this era, especially for members of Generation Z, so the team focused on using photography and video more intentionally, even creating a video viewbook complete with interviews from current students, administration, alumni, and faculty.

Alumni success stories are an extremely effective way for prospective students to visualize their own transformation into Graceland graduates. While the current website contains hundreds of alumni stories, the marketing team is always looking for more. Share your testimonial with future Graceland students.