St Francis Xavier College
UX/UI Design
Web Development
Paid Social Advertising
Paid Search
Organic Social Media
Industry
Services
Education
Web: sfx.vic.edu.au
Problem
St Francis Xavier College is one of Melbourne’s leading Catholic schools, providing a rich curriculum for students and an extensive selection of activities and pathways. Unfortunately, their digital presence has lacked this same prestige and wasn’t an accurate reflection of the College’s status. Their team wished to improve their reputation online to match the quality of education and facilities they offer to families and students in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.
Solution
We improved the organic traffic and rankings of the website through a dedicated SEO strategy, which included optimising the existing content through keyword research, adding optimised and relevant blog posts and pages, and identifying problems to be fixed technically. Combined with monthly paid social advertising campaigns, we highlighted the exceptional education, facilities and pathways offered by the College. This came together with a complete redesign of the College website, both visually and technically, improving the visuals, content, sitemap and overall experience for users.
Web Design & Development
The existing St Francis website was functional and home to a lot of important information, but its design lacked the sense of prestige and status that the College holds as one of Melbourne’s leading Catholic schools. The user experience was identified as a pain point, with much of the content hidden behind multiple clicks and difficult to navigate to. In discussions with the client, we identified website designs and features they liked and would be happy to see adapted in some form for their own website, and did extensive research into the category before wireframing and prototyping some concepts.
Process
The updated website design prioritises navigability and a more streamlined appearance with less clutter. An updated use of colour still reflects the College’s brand and existing identity but brings it forward into a more modern visual aesthetic, making it easier to view for users. The renewed site has updated typography that creates a sense of welcome as well as quality, reflecting the mission of the College: to provide an exceptional level of education for all. The web development process has also significantly improved the site’s speed and technical health.
Results
Paid Social Advertising
To keep their College at the top of mind for families when considering schooling options for their children, we recommended a paid social advertising strategy for St Francis to run throughout the year. This would involve highlighting their enrolling period and open days at key times, while also ensuring they were well-seen by families in local areas throughout the year, priming St Francis to be front of mind when it came time to enrol.
Process
Our campaign took into account the seasonality of school-based searching for prospective parents and families, with campaigns around the Open Day and Info Evening running during early portions of the year and towards the end of the year. Throughout off-peak times in the middle portion of the year, we ran lead-generation campaigns about enrolment that aimed to receive family information, but also keep St Francis in the minds of parents. We monitored overall spend to align with the College’s budget needs, maintaining a campaign that built their brand and delivered them leads across the year.
Results
2022:
1.1M
impressions
901
actions(75/month)
Paid Search
The secondary school category is deeply cluttered, making it difficult to consistently rank well across broad organic searches. To augment their organic search presence, we ran consistent paid search ads to ensure they appeared more prominently in relevant searches. We bid firstly on brand keywords relating to the College, including campus-specific and area keywords. Adding to this we also targeted competitor keywords, including other schools in similar areas to reach local parents searching for school options. Our ad titles and text highlighted key attributes and selling points for the College, including their curriculum, culture and private education.
Process
Our campaign delivered a steady stream of actions including calls and lead form fills from prospective parents and families. Given the seasonal nature of school searches, there were expected changes in monthly actions but we maintained an average above 300 actions per month for the entirety of 2022. The campaign enjoyed a high click-through rate and action rate over the 12 months, delivering a cost per action under $5 to keep the campaign cost-effective and efficient.
Results
2022:
100K
impressions.
