Rabdan Academy is a young post-secondary school in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. It is a school that was created to meet the needs of Abu Dhabi 2030, a strategic plan to build the resiliency of the capital. Rabdan Academy current offers three bachelor degree programs and one associate’s degree program. They are all connected to the Security, Safety, Defense, Emergency Management and Crisis (SSDEC) community in the UAE. Rabdan Academy currently has a website (ra.ac.ae), but it offered limited information and very little opportunity for interaction for potential students.
Rabdan Academy’s website was not interactive or modern. It failed to include calls-to-action that would help the school gather information about visitors and potential students. The information about the degree programs was limited and students had nowhere to request more information. Creating new content was challenging because of the limited information on the website. The student life section of the website had nothing to offer students and there was nothing for alumni. The message from the Academy’s Vice President was not welcoming, but was matter-of-fact. In truth, there was little reason for potential and current students to even use the website. Even the library portion of the site had nothing that students could actually use for their coursework. The school needed to become more than user-friendly, it needed to be useable with content that would actually entice visitors to look around and get to know the school.
Rabdan Academy uses this website as an important marketing tool. Even though their potential student body is limited to Emarati students who want to work in the SSDEC community, potential students still need to be able to see what the Academy has to offer.
After looking at the needs of the website, the content marketing specialist from DM Solutionz FZE analyzed what schools in the UAE and in other countries used to market their schools. The content writer redesigned the menu, adding sections that were missing. The writer redesigned the content for the degree programs and continuing education classes. The writer also drafted several blog posts that included information that potential and current students could use. The library section of the website was rewritten to include information that students could use while working on research projects and important papers. The student life section was opened up with suggestions for students to get involved at school. An alumni section was created and will continue to need content added as the first batch of graduates cross the stage soon.
Calls-to-action were added to the main menu sections and home page slides so students could request more information and be taken to the necessary pages. Prior to this, the website directed everyone to an enrollment page that did not have much information about actually enrolling.
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