Q: We are in the process of setting up our marketing plan. What is the best way to set up our website? Personal Enrichment has a good brand under Lifelong Learning, however, we are not sure our PD folks will look for Professional Development offerings under Lifelong Learning. 1. Should we change our name, i.e. to Continuing Education, and house both departments under a new name with one link on Western’s website? 2. Should we leave Personal Enrichment under Lifelong Learning with its own link, and create a Professional Development link on its own, thus having two websites? 3. Should there be one home page, where a person can choose Professional Development (PD) or Life and Leisure? And if so, that may mean we need to change our name as we do not feel PD folks will look for Professional Development under Lifelong Learning.

A: 1)      If you can have two links on Western’s home page, then have one that is titled “Professional Development” (or even Continuing Professional Development) and a second that is “Lifelong Learning” (if as you indicated below that is how your program is currently known) or “Personal Enrichment”.

2)      Each of the links, would go to their own landing page which describes the services you offer under that category and additional links for more information or to register (however, they are all going to be back pages on Western’s website, not separate websites of their own).

3)      Each landing page should have a link or statement to the other in case the person initially choose the wrong category. (For instance, on the Personal Enrichment page, a statement that says “If you are looking for classes to help you develop or expand skills for the workplace, please visit the Professional Development page.” and have the words “Professional Development” hyperlink to the actual page.

4)      On your program’s promotional materials, instead of using Western’s general URL, you would be better served using the URL for the landing page of the types of programming the materials are advertising (i.e. if you are sending out an email about supervisory and leadership classes, then use the URL of the Professional Development page).