In this day and age, every single institution has a front door, accessible from almost anywhere in the world, and one that either welcomes an individual or turns them away. This “front door” is, of course, its website. Marshall B. Ketchum University’s faculty, staff and administration has long provided a caliber of education on par with its competition but up until recently, this wasn’t necessarily true of its web presence. However, upon the November 2018 rollout of the newly redesigned websites for MBKU and Ketchum Health, the digital front door of Ketchum truly reflects the elite standard of education being delivered by the University.
Room to Grow
“In addition to a website design that brings us up to speed with our competition,” explains Katie Santos-Coy, Director of Marketing and Communications, “it was vital that our site meet federal accessibility standards, be mobile friendly and evolve to become more intuitive to the end user.” Discovering the identity of those users was just one of the goals of the deliberate, year-long process to vet vendors and collaborate within the University to arrive at a beautifully designed, information-rich website that represents and serves every part of the Ketchum community well.
“With our Website Committee, we involved many different people from all over the University to take into account different voices and to bring people along in the process,” says Erin Hales, Assistant Director of Marketing & Communications. “This was a collective, group effort. We didn’t simply transfer content over from the old site. We created an enormous amount of new content that reflects MBKU’s identity as a cutting-edge health care institution.” The site also was designed and built with the idea that the University could expand, with a content management system that can easily accommodate growth. Edna Alfaro, Digital Marketing Manager, will spend a great deal of time training colleagues in each of the departments on campus to manage their respective sections – something that is now much easier to do and results in content that is more relevant, and which is updated more frequently.
Reaching Prospective Students
“These days, boards and leaders are making data-driven decisions,” says Katie. “We can now provide better analytics and more insights into user pathways. This results in reaching more prospective students and taking advantage of digital marketing space to increase the exposure of MBKU’s physical campus.”
Big changes like these don’t come out of nowhere, however; Katie and Erin point out the essential support of Ketchum’s leadership team. “President Alexander and Dr. Julie Schornack were incredibly supportive. They recognized the new site as an investment in MBKU that would pay real dividends, and we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without their support.”
One of the key discoveries during the process of researching and building the new site was the discovery of just who the majority of MBKU’s website users were: prospective students and patients. With the launch of its new sites, Ketchum has a beautiful, innovative front door with which to welcome them.
The full Spring 2019 issue is available online. Read Now