The Client
Macalester College is a small, close-knit liberal arts school in Saint Paul, Minnesota with top-ranked academic programs, an active alumni community, and students from various countries and nearly all 50 states.
The Services
The Goal
Macalester’s communications and marketing department tapped Goff Public to evaluate and improve their campus and alumni communications strategies, identify gaps and efficiencies, and recommend tools to ensure they were reaching their audiences in the right ways.
Higher education is complex, with communications teams handling a variety of messages for multiple audiences at once. To evaluate Macalester’s current communications strategies, we planned and facilitated two comprehensive communications audits – one focusing on internal campus communications and the other on alumni communications. The audits included:
- Nearly 50 individual and group interviews with Macalester leadership, students, staff, faculty and alumni
- Interviews with five peer institutions analyzing their communications tactics and industry trends
- An internal survey garnering more than 300 responses from the campus community
- Assessment of current communications materials and digital analytics
After analyzing findings from interviews, surveys, digital analytics and communications materials, the Goff team assembled two detailed reports and actionable recommendations for how to improve Macalester’s internal and alumni communications strategies. We also gave in-depth presentations to Macalester leadership and communications teams outlining the results and recommendations.
“At every step, I noticed the expertise and care the [Goff] team brought, including a strong plan, flexibility, and regular check-ins to break down this giant project into manageable pieces and keep everything on track. I know our work will be stronger because of Goff’s efforts, and I’m so grateful.”
– Rebecca DeJarlais Ortiz, Director of Strategic Communication
View More Case Studies
