3. 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: 

1. Clearly identify the issue or missed opportunity (3 x 2 = 6 Marks) 
2. Propose a specific visual improvement (3 x 2 = 6 Marks)
3. Explain why it would improve recruitment effectiveness (3 x 2 = 6 Marks) 
4. 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. Loosely Connected Visuals 

1. From my observation, one of the areas that needs improvement is the programs section of the website. When you click on the program, there is a hero image that appears. The problem that I am seeing is that a lot of these pictures feel generic or like they are loosely connected to the topic of the program. This feels disingenuous and sort of lazy on behalf of the college.

2. My proposed Solution for this is that rather than get images from the web for free or pay to license them, the college goes around and takes pictures of what happens in the program and of our students. 

3. This would improve recruitment effectiveness because people could see the picture and develop feelings, thoughts, or questions about the program. For example, rather than showing a generic image of someone using a calculator, the civil engineering technician program. Go and take pictures of people using the CAD or surveying equipment.

4.  This would help potential students develop an interest in the program and see more of what St Clair has to offer. This is also likely to boost open house attendance and program inquiries in general. In my case, I wasn’t sold on the advertising program until I talked to Steve, Casey, and some of the Grads. If we can get people in through the doors of the open house by developing interest, there is a greater chance of conversion. Additionally, they get to build human connections with grads, other students, and profs. This is important because Gen Z often has struggles with anxiety and feeling uncertain about their futures. This is why we can mitigate some of that, plus a positive human connection can never hurt when making a decision, let alone one as big as what career path to pursue.

2. Facilities / Campus Images Section

1. On the website, there is an option for a Virtual Tour. While this is a neat idea, I don’t think it is done to a very high degree of quality. When you click the virtual tour, there are options for which building you want to tour. While this is neat, there’s no map of where to go. If you have never attended college before and you have never been to that campus, how are you supposed to know where to look for your labs and classes?

2. Why not take clear, high-resolution pictures of not only the facilities but also students using the facilities? Rather than walking around a near-endless building, of which you don’t know the layout, and you can’t see things in high resolution. Yes, it is a cool feature, but it needs to be either fine-tuned or reworked. My proposed solution is that rather than having a tour where you walk around, you can select what kind of program you’re interested in and then see what facilities you want to see. 

3. This would increase recruitment effectiveness drastically. One of the biggest advantages that St Clair has over competing schools is its modern and advanced facilities. If students could see what they are working with more efficiently, that would retain their attention for longer and pique their interest in the programs that St. Clair has to offer, and our top-notch facilities. These are both things that are major factors when choosing the institution in which to pursue post-secondary education, and in comparison, we have the advantage over the University of Windsor and Fanshawe College.

4. Using an image search or sections containing images can allow students to have a deeper understanding of what they get access to when they attend St. Clair, such as facilities, technology, etc. As I previously stated, students like to know what they are signing up for. There are a lot of uncertainties in our generation about how I’m going to get a job, a house, etc. One thing that they do have control over is the couple of years they spend in post-secondary education. It is one of the first big life decisions that young adults/teenagers make. Showing them what they are getting into and doing it well, focusing on the user experience of such a function, is very likely to get more students to enroll at St. Clair College. 

3. Faculty Biography Section

1. St. Clair College’s Sustainable Competitive Advantage, or SCA, is our faculty, plain and simple. This is extremely helpful when students get through the doors of the open house to meet faculty and grads, but this step typically comes after they have already developed an interest in our school. This does us no good if potential students don’t see, hear, or know anything about the faculty. 

2. I propose that the college create a page on its website about the faculty.  This can be the professors’ department heads or anyone else. Additionally, I propose that we add a section of content under each of the programs, which will be the same biography or profile about professors of that program.

3. This would improve the recruitment rate significantly. If we can prove that our faculty is a cut above by listing things like industry experience and credentials in a short biography or profile about them, students can see that they aren’t just learning theory from someone who has never worked in their industry; they can see that they are going to be mentored and taught by people who have valuable industry and life experience. This gives us an avenue to communicate our SCA with our audience in a way that gives them valuable information about the program they may be choosing.
4. Students and young people enjoy connecting with others. Additionally, humans in general are naturally social creatures. We thrive on connecting with others. When you think about that in relation to how we make first impressions in advertising through visuals, and the small amount of time that it takes, having  a profile on the professors of the program that students are interested in will be monumental in gaining traction and interest within potential students.