Experience the Cotter Schools Website Reimagined
For more than 110 years, Cotter Schools has served students from Winona, Minnesota and around the globe, as an independent Catholic school. The 2021-2022 year marked a new chapter, as the school grew from Grades 7 through 12 to serve younger students, with dynamic teaching and learning for children as young as 16 months old.
CEL partnered with Cotter to design an integrated communications and engagement campaign that targeted students, families, staff and alumni, as well as prospective students. As the refreshed Cotter Schools brand identity was applied to the original school website, plans were already underway to develop a new digital strategy and site to launch later in the fall of 2021.
The most important need — shifting a site designed for a typical boarding school student to one that engages families with students in a wide age range — required CEL’s team to completely reimagine the sitemap and content strategy. Turning the traditional enrollment marketing approach on its side, the new Cotter School website engages all visitors — current students and families, as well as both local and international prospects. And it does this through rich storytelling about the Cotter Schools experience, rooted in Learning, Serving and Community.
Based on user statistics, the new site was developed mobile-first and designed for multi-device use. The homepage and primary content is now geared toward current Cotter families, with subtle enrollment marketing hooks throughout the site. A new admissions hub microsite can also be found on the homepage, taking prospective students to information tailored and segmented for both local and international visitors.
