Getting the Budget for a Website Redesign and New CMS

You know what you need to do. You know how you need to do it. You just don’t have the money to pay for it. Sound familiar? A website redesign project requires funds. You might need a budget for hiring freelancers or external partners who will collaborate on your digital strategy, design, content, and implementation. …

New Academic Year? Better Website?

There’s just something about the start of the academic year. New students, new campus initiatives, and for some … the planning for a new or improved website. Is this the academic year for greatly improving your website? Or, are you starting the academic year with a website that has aged beyond the point of a …

Web Governance: Use the influence of individuals to turn the plan into action.

Web governance is what allows your team to turn the corner from thinking about the website as a project to instead sustaining and enhancing it every day. After your web governance plan is in place, you need people to implement it. Don’t underestimate the influence of the individuals who take the plan from its consensus-formed …

Web Governance: What’s in it for them?

The goal is sustainability. Too often, we find ourselves approaching a website like a project, never turning the corner after a redesign. Never putting in place a structure that will ensure individual web pages on your site are current and accurate next week, next month, and two years from whenever. If you are still approaching your …

12 Months After Your Website Redesign

I've relaunched a website (a huge amount of work) and I've helped many clients relaunch their websites (a huge amount of accountability). I've been there; I understand the sense of relief and euphoria. But we all know that a website is never done done. Your website is an always on communications platform -- it is …

Website Governance: Still crazy after all these years

Let’s talk about some old times…the first time I thought about web governance was pre-Y2K. Twenty years later, people still ask me to advise on the right elements for a web governance plan. Have we made progress? Sure. Do we still struggle with similar challenges in website management? Uh huh. All these years later, web …

To Redesign Your Website, Get Out of Your Own Way

Campus communities center around a mission of transforming lives through education. People on your campus are proud of what they do — individually and collectively — and to them, the website is a symbol of that pride. At the start of a website redesign, internal stakeholders simply want to be sure the website will reflect …

Great City, Great University, Great Website

In late 2016, Tulane University launched a new website. When people think of Tulane, they think of New Orleans. Take a closer look, and you’ll find an institution deeply connected to its city and a university with public service in its DNA. The new site is a fresh, distinct, and highly usable representation of this top-ranked …

The Marcom Team at Saint Louis University Walked the Talk

mStoner has an office in St. Louis. So when an RFI for a website redesign at Saint Louis University hit our inbox, we were pumped. We work six miles from campus! Three people on the mStoner team are SLU alums! We got the project — right here in St. Louis. In late April 2015, we started our …

Making Your Website Memorable

With nearly 5,000 colleges and universities in the U.S., standing out is a very real challenge. With marketing goals that likely center around enrollment and elevating the institutional profile, it’s not surprising that every marketing pro in higher ed wants a website that is distinctive. In my time (nearly six years now) as a consultant, …