Point Loma Nazarene University is known for being forward-thinking. At PLNU, academics, faith, and community are all vital. Students benefit from this balanced approach to education and leave PLNU prepare to think, act, and contribute to the world. In addition to more than 60 undergraduate areas of study, PLNU offers graduate program regional centers throughout Southern California. PLNU serves more than 3,500 students.

In the process of creating a website specifically designed to attract and convert undergraduate students, the PLNU digital marketing team ran into serious challenges in the middle of its Drupal CMS deployment. Time was short. Demands were high. Scope of work was tight. The agency they had hired over- promised and under-delivered. At 80% completion, it was clear they were unable to bring the development and delivery over the finish line. Word on the street was PLNU could use some serious Drupal talent. Through a referral, we made the call to step up. We were brought on board to finish the undergraduate site—working side-by-side the PLNU team.

Challenges

PLNU originally engaged a Drupal development agency out of Canada to create a high-end, attractive responsive marketing tool to speak to prospective undergraduate students and their parents. The PLNU main site was monolithic, difficult to navigate, and outdated. The undergraduate section on the main site was difficult to use. The new site needed to be a comprehensive catalog of information, yet simplified and easy to navigate. PLNU’s goal was to have a user friendly and inviting website solution integrated with its lead generation strategies to engage and convert visitors into enrolled students and happy parents. The original agency stumbled in the areas of responsive service, communication, and project management, fueled by a series of personnel changes. After launch dates were missed and frustrations were high, we met with the PLNU team and put together a plan to finish the job using the work that had been completed to date. In addition to the undergraduate website, PLNU was also in need of a similar Drupal site for its graduate and professional studies programs. With the success of our first Drupal rescue, we were also called upon to do the same for these programs.

Solutions

• The undergraduate.pointloma.edu and gps.pointloma.edu were given a clean Drupal installation – with the site reviewed and analyzed to ensure optimal performance.
• Drupal installation – with the site reviewed and analyzed to ensure optimal performance.
• The menu systems were updated to make them more intuitive.
• Incorporated UChat to make sure visitors were engaged within the first 15 seconds.
• Built out both undergraduate and graduate websites to make it even easier for content administrators and content writers to edit and update the content.
• Walked the content team through the workflow we created, and turned it over to the PLNU team.
• Created additional landing pages, integrating PLNU’s lead generation strategies into Salesforce.
• The site’s module was customized to allow the digital team to easily track users’ paths.
• Search engine fundamentals were included: page titles, meta tags, and more.

The Sagetree team continues to support Point Loma Nazarene University’s digital marketing efforts.