Visit the St. Clair College website. Analyze it strictly from a visual marketing strategy perspective targeting:
Local domestic high school students.
You are to provide three strategic visual enhancement recommendations. For each recommendation:
a) Clearly identify the issue or missed opportunity (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)
b) Propose a specific visual improvement (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)
c) Explain why it would improve recruitment effectiveness (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)
d) Connect it to student psychology and digital behaviour (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)
Do not provide vague suggestions like:
• “Add more pictures”
• “Make it more modern”
• “Use better graphics”
You need to be specific based on class content only:
• What type of visuals?
• Where?
• Why?
• What behavioural outcome would it influence?
Think like a digital strategist. (24 Marks Total)
1. The very first missed opportunity which i can highlight within the website of St Clair is the lack of anything within the website content which could help to create an emotionally compelling first impression. The actual homepage of St Clair’s website is mostly relying on having a very cleanly laid out professional seeming and informative visuals however I found that these all were heavily lacking in any strong emotional intensity. In saying this, I mean that they did not have a strong immediate visual impact deposit show the imagery is successfully able to help communicate that St Clair is a structured and credible educational institution, it doesn’t do a great job at properly capturing the attention of users which as discussed and short spanned. Furthermore, this website is lacking the compelling first impression for its visitors that would fulfil the purpose of differentiating it from any other educational institution alike. On this website the visuals are functioning primarily as being representational meaning that they are just simply showcasing what exists at St Clair. These visuals are not acting persuasive in any manner as they are not helping to evoke any emotions in students. These emotional responses that this website is missing out on the opportunity to evoke here are including excitement, aspiration, belonging and curiosity. All of these emotional response potentials are significant as they could have been conveyed easily and quickly through the usage of intentional visuals through imagery which would help in the critical influencing of prospective students who are currently within the TOFU most likely within the sales funnel. Therefore this creates a missed opportunity at the most important moment of initial user interaction for any website which is the very few first seconds that people spend on a page where they determine whether they want to stay and explore further or just simply leave the page.
When it comes to actually working towards the strengthening of this first impression, visuals can be used through the simple creation of a high impact and visually dominant hero section. This would essentially be functioning as a highly effective means of immediately being able to gather the attention of users while also engaging them both emotionally and visually. Some specific ways that this could be achieved is first going to be through showcases dynamic camera angles and movement to replace that current static images that are not attention grabbing. Secondly, the implementation of contrast creates a sort of “break” in the user’s attention on the page to encourage their sense of curiosity to want to see what the image is rather than leaving the website immediately. The third is showcasing short form video and motion based visual content through looping very short clips and cinematic sequences throughout pages in order to act as sort of an immediate attention anchor as it will be placed near the very top of the page to be an aspect of the website visually that users see immediately after entering the website itself.
Such a recommendation for visuals will help significantly to improve the effectiveness of the recruitment that stems from this website through the fact that incoming prospective students from local high schools are not just evaluating programs at St Clair alone but rather they are trying to actually imagine and envision what exactly their daily lives will look and feel like at the college, Therefore, by including something like a visually and emotionally engaging hero that immediately catches user attention when they enter the page, the website would be not only informational but also experiential. This is because users would now be able to see the visual hero within the first few seconds of entering the page, stop, explore and visualise themselves at the college with regard to what their lives would be like. By actually taking the time to show incoming potential students what their real moments of interaction, energy and engagement could look like, St Clair starts to become more than just an educational institution but also a lifestyle choice. Using visuals to frame this as a lifestyle choice from a digital marketing perspective is very significant as this helps to increase the level of perceived value and overall emotional connection (both key drivers in decision making) that the college has to offer students.
It’s also important to take note of how many high school students are going to be very heavily influenced by emotions in the sense that they are often feeling their emotions before they actually think as they engage with content. This is because of the fact that this is an audience which is having their content expectations shaped by platforms like TikTok or Instagram where the content is fast paced and engaging visually which stimulates their emotions. Therefore, the more simple and mundane visuals like what St Clair currently has are much more likely to be overlooked and even ignored often. This is in contradict to the more stimulating and emotion evoking content that works to immediately capture attention and increase engagement as a result of its inclusion. Furthermore, having very emotionally engaging visuals also helps to improve the likelihood of people actually being able to remember them. This means that the local high school students are going to be much more likely to remember the college and associate it with positive feelings should this recommendation be taken into consideration and applied. This is very critical within this stage of the sales funnel for students being the top of the funnel as they are considering many different schools within a very competitive landscape as a whole.
2. The second missed opportunity for St Clair’s website content here was within the sheer lack of visual hierarchy allowing for easy scanability throughout the website’s homepage where many users are going to land especially local high school students, This website does contain a good amount of valuable information for these potentially incoming students through the usage of organised navigation menus and internal linking. The issue here lies within pages such as the program’s display page where there are extensive lists and filters being showcased all at once in a manner that lacks clear structure. This is a negative for St Clair as this can very easily lead to users feeling overwhelmed. In addition to this, the website organisation is logical however the actual visual hierarchy is lacking in any strength with regard to guiding users attention effectively. This is because of the fact that throughout the website, the headings and links alongside the various page sections are appearing very similar in size, spacing and emphasis which is really just giving the pages all a very flat visual experience this will lead the viewers of this website to either having to actually search for what important information they need instead o benign eld directly to it if they do not choose to leave the website all together.
In order to make improvements to the visuals hierarchy and overall scannability for which this website is able to possess, I would recommend that St Clair allows its website to make a shift from having a text and link dominant layout to one on the other hand which is more visually based and structured. This should also help to furthermore, offer a guided experience for website visitors which includes a strong hierarchy within the hero website sedition which contains a more dominant focal point visually within the top of the pages in order to efficiently anchor in attentions of users as soon as they enter the page. Then from here they should consider using a card based layout for programs that showcase images, program categories/departments, programs names and a quick call to action per card. I also know that contrast within typography and scale could hel;p here as having much large headings with the calls to action being in body would help to signal to viewers which content is of the most importance.
Having this change could easily help to improve the effectiveness of recruitment at ST Clair as when users are actually able to easily and quickly scan right throughout a page in order to gather a good understanding of it they are much more likely to feel inclined to stay within that website and implement it. Looking specifically at ST Clair as a recruitment focused website, this is extra critical here because these local high school students are an audience of individuals who are often going to be actively looking into competitor institutions to compare them to each other in deciding which they feel is the best fit for them. Within the currency information heavy layout that lacks good structure , users are presented with friction as they must use more effort in order to properly navigate this website. Now, since visual hierarchy has been improved from here users can actually identify the key areas of the website easier such as programs or college news. They can also see that important calls to action for them including ones regarding applying to or exploring the programs at St Clair will become significantly more visible. Due to these reductions in friction, there will likely be an increase in the time users spend on the website in addition to the page exploration and likelihood of conversion through applying to the institution.
Another important aspect of this missed opportunity is the psychology behind high school students and their digital behavior regarding college. It is well known that many current high school students are naturally going about reacting to the digital based content which they are seeing through scanning behaviours rather than full and in depth readings. This scannability is reliant on visual cites, contrast, sizing and pattern recognition quickly. They generally are using platforms like TikTok and Instagram which makes them expect a structured, quick and easily consumable continent. Therefore when it comes to websites like St Clairs, when they significantly lack a strong visual hierarchy, what feels like mental overload can be created for students meaning the users gain friction to a degree, as they must work even hard just to simply father a solid understanding of the written content that they are viewing. This is negative as users are likely to leave the page without exploring or engaging. On the other hand, strong hierarchy helps to reduce the amount of mental effort students need to edit while considering and applying their natural patterns for scanning through contentment in order to increase their satisfaction and encourage them to engage eight hr college website as long as possible here to potentially end up converting to a student ultimately speaking.
3. The third missed opportunity here on St Clair’s website was the limited relativity for incoming students. Though the website itself did actually include some imagery with regard to the students at the college and the on campus life, a lot of the visuals that are on there do come across as being quite generic and intuition focused rather than focused on the customer or also known as the potential student. This is furthermore, imagery is often representative of students within a very vague and not at all specific manner. This is a negative aspect of the website content as it makes it so much harder for prospective local high school students to form a personal connection to the lifestyle being sold to them by St Clair. This missed opportunity could be solved through the implementation of very niche and program specific visuals which are driven ultimately but being niche and envisionable for those within those programs generally speaking. For example, if a prospective student coming from a local high school to potentially join the Advertising program, if they were being consistently shown exactly what their actual St Clair college advertising program based experience would look like such as working on campaigns, learning SEO and collaborating with others to ultimately complete an internship, this creates a missed opportunity here. This missed opportunity within this area in particular with regard to relatability would exist because visuals would not be communicating that that life could be there at the college but rather just this is college.
To help in strengthening the overall reliability here the St Clair’s website pages should be looking to prioritise their specific visual improvements such as incorporating more authentic and student centred content using visuals. This can be done through first, showing program specific visuals such as real students at the college who are actively very engaged within their program. For example, marketing students at the college who are wiring on not only their classes but unique competition experiences such as the NHL Innovation competition. This could also be showcasing more candid and less posed or overly curated imagery. This imagery would be including very natural marketing student moments such as collaborating and celebrating wins as a class/group. Another recommendation here would be using student point of view style content that feels very authentic to feature. This is because this content in particular would be very relatable and show what students’ real lives look like to act like as social proof for the college. This could be successfully fulfilled through the usage of diverse and realistic representation from many students and featuring it on the website for the potentially incoming students.
Such a recommendation being implemented here with regard to the recruitment effectiveness would be successful due to the fact that these incoming students can use such relatable content in order to visualise themselves within a very specific program or environment at the college. This is impactful with regard to helping the college as it is reducing potential students levels of uncertainty while on the other hand increasing the confidence levels in not only the college itself but also the programs for which it offers.Instead of students just having to imagine what it will be like to experience a program, they can actually see what it is like through relatable visual content that is going to help them understand why St Clair is the best choice for them when it comes to their post secondary education school options. This is helping significantly to strengthen the emotional connection that potentially incoming students have towards the school as they can see people joyful and filled with ambition should these visual be added to the St Clair website.Thesse videos will also deliver potential students a perceived sense of belonging within the college which is beneficial as it makes them more likely to choose to attend the college for which they feel they would best belong in the environment of. Overall, this sense of visuals acting as relatable social proof based content is going to help increase the chances that students will either stay on the website and keep exploring and even take action to apply or visit one of the St Clair campuses.
When it comes to truly thinking like someone within a digital marketing space, it’s important to also consider how this recommendation is recognizing that students are in fact heavily influenced by the availability of social, proof and reliability. As opposed to using generic seeming or staged imagery, these students are much more likely to both trust and engage with the visual content presented to them if it actually feels rather authentic and is reflecting the real experience of college students who are at St Clair. On a psychological level most students when they are scrolling through the content on the St Clair website, they are asking themselves if they can actually imagine themselves attending this school. If the answer to this question is just no, they are much less likely to be engaged and interested within what is happening on the website with regard to information and messaging communicated through visuals. Many of these students are also just to some degree accustomed ti user generated continent t that often show very trustworthy and authentic content that feels less like it come from the hands of someone in marketing or advertising. This is also what drives engagement here when it comes to making the content more niche and student focused as people will see this and feel more inclined to engage while there is also an emotional connection being built as the content might feel like where they picture themselves for the next 1-4 years of their life based on even potentially a lifelong dream when it comes to a career. Therefore, by incorporating more niche, reliable and student centred visuals the St Clair website is creating better outcomes with regard to engagement and attention capturing for recruitment purposes especially.
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