How Your University’s Website Can Attract Both On-Campus and Online Students
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If you’re in higher education marketing, you know that the job has changed.
The uptick in online learning options means you’re not just selling a physical campus anymore; you’re selling a digital one, too. Your website has to speak to two very different audiences at the same time—the on-campus student and the online learner.
This poses a key challenge: two types of students need to find, learn, and do very different things on your website. And messaging that resonates with one could fall flat with or even alienate the other.
How can a single university website effectively serve both on-campus and online students while maintaining a strong, unified brand?
The Blended Campus: A Permanent Shift in Higher Ed
For decades, the university campus was the heart of the higher education experience. Iconic historic buildings. Manicured quads. Bustling student unions. Online learning was often seen as a niche or secondary option.
But according to the National Center for Education Statistics, 54% of all college students took at least one online course in fall 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a pre-existing trend, but what began as a short-term solution has now become a permanent fixture of the academic world.
The Puzzles of a Dual-Audience Website
Higher education marketers and web professionals face a new reality: the digital space is now as important as the physical one. It’s no longer about showing just one kind of university experience.
Having worked with higher education institutions for years, we’ve seen a few puzzles time and again.
Puzzle #1: The Information Architecture Conundrum
The first challenge is structural. Information architecture is the way you organize, structure, and label the content on your website to help users find what they need.
Both groups of students will come to your website asking very similar questions: What programs are available to me? How much will everything cost? How do I know I’ll be successful? But the answers may be very different for online versus campus students. One of the biggest puzzles is determining the best strategy for planning, writing, and organizing pages so that you’re communicating the right information to the right people without causing confusion.
Puzzle #2: The Conflicting Funnel Journey
A university website’s primary job is to act as a digital employee. It should guide prospective students through the enrollment funnel to ultimately attend and succeed at your university. It should support your admissions teams in their real-world process for recruiting new students.
However, to help them get there, your website is given two sets of fundamentally different instructions:
For an on-campus student, the website’s job is to facilitate a physical journey. Its core directives are to guide students to take real-world actions—scheduling a campus tour, exploring housing options, or meeting with an in-person admissions counselor. Their journey is about discovery and physical connection.
Conversely, the online student’s journey is entirely digital. Their primary goal is to understand the virtual experience and verify its quality. They need to find out what the online classes are like, learn what kind of technology they’ll need, and understand how they’ll get remote support from faculty and staff. Their key touchpoints are often a call or video chat with an enrollment counselor or a live Q&A session.
How can the website ensure that one audience can move smoothly through these touchpoints without getting sidetracked by road signs for the other?
Puzzle #3: The Value Proposition and Messaging Challenge
The messages a school uses to attract one group of students can fail to capture the interest of the other. This wastes the short, precious moments you have to make a positive impression. These conflicts emerge in three major areas:
Academic Experience and Support
For many on-campus students, the university experience is a journey of discovery. They may not know what they want to major in. The website’s messaging needs to acknowledge this, highlighting how the academic environment and diverse course options will help them find their path.
In contrast, many online students go in with a very specific degree and career outcome in mind. They want to finish as quickly and efficiently as possible. The website’s messaging must speak directly to supporting a more focused, deliberate approach.
Student Life
On-campus students are often drawn to the social and personal aspects of the college experience. They want to see what clubs, organizations, athletics, housing, and dining facilities are available, and what the campus community is like.
An online student, however, is likely juggling school with other commitments. They need to know how the program will fit into their busy life. They look for messaging that highlights flexibility and the ability to balance their studies with work and family.
Outcomes and Employability
As tuition and costs rise and the perceived value of higher education falls, both audiences are more concerned with their ROI. For both, numbers and statistics can be effective. But they look for different proof points.
On-campus students may consider the connections they can make with faculty and peers, career and internship opportunities in the local or metropolitan area, and campus activities that can boost their employability.
Online students may want to know that their degree is valued by employers nationwide, to view success stories from remote alumni, and to ensure that career services are tailored to remote students.
Solving the Puzzles of the Blended Campus
1. Scrap generalizations and get to know your students
You need to understand who you’re building for. We make some generalizations about campus and online students in this article, but your students will have their own unique needs. The best (and only) way to learn is by talking to them directly.
Hold interviews and focus groups. Conduct surveys. Talk to students from both groups. Ask them about their experiences, concerns, and decision-making process during their enrollment journeys. Ask about any concerns or struggles with using the website, as well as opportunities for improvement. This will help you create detailed user personas and journey maps that show what each student’s path to enrollment looks like for your university.
2. Your website structure should reflect your strategic priority
Your website’s structure should reflect what your school is all about. You have to make a choice. Do you want to be known as a traditional school with an online option? An online school with a campus option? Or a school that values both equally?
The Integrated Approach: For many schools, a single, integrated website is the best choice. It shows that you’re one school with different ways of learning. Website visitors see a single homepage and a single menu. However, your website’s main sections—Admissions, Tuition & Aid, or whichever you include—have different lower-level pages for campus and online prospective students that are easily findable within one click. The homepage may also route students to starting point pages for online versus campus students. Your website can also use personalization—showing different hero messages, call-to-action buttons, and imagery—based on website behavior that identifies them as a potential campus or online student.
The Siloed Approach: A separate website is a good idea if your online program has a strong, distinct subbrand. But if you go this route, you have to ensure the online site still feels like a true part of the main university. It should have the same branding elements (such as logos and colors) as your main website. You should also be careful to avoid SEO pitfalls and have a clear digital marketing strategy that links the two brands. This could include cross-promotion, shared content, and a unified keyword strategy.
3. Strategically map your messaging and value
Next, you need to make sure the content is just right.
Map Your Messaging Along Journeys: Remember the user journeys you created above? Map points of those journeys to specific pages on the website. Ensure you’re presenting the right messaging for the right audiences.
Highlight Shared Values: For the main shared pages, be strategic. You don’t have to totally shy away from showing images of your beautiful campus, dynamic locale, or student life. But focus more on highlighting what the two groups share without being generic. Talk about values like academic excellence, great faculty, and how the school prepares students for the real world. Use photos and videos that show students learning and working together, wherever they are.
Showcase Real Students: The most powerful proof of your school’s value is not a mission statement—it’s the voices of your real students. Put video testimonials and stories from both online and on-campus students on your website. Let them share their own success stories. This makes your message feel real and honest.
Redefining the University Brand
Ultimately, a university’s web strategy is a direct reflection of its commitment to every student. The old model of a one-size-fits-all digital experience is outdated. To succeed, institutions must shift their focus from a single on-campus identity to a unified, adaptable brand. This means building a website that guides each unique user to the right information, provides proof points that matter to them, and makes every student—whether they’re on the quad or on their couch—feel like a valued part of the university community.
Your Partner in Student Success
Solving these challenges starts with a deep understanding of your audiences. If your team is struggling to unify your website for both on-campus and online students, Mighty Citizen can help. With over 25 years of experience working with higher education institutions, we can be your trusted partner in this process. Our team can help you with research to truly understand your students’ needs, a content strategy that refines your core message, and UX design and branding to create a seamless user journey and a unified identity.
