The Brief
Greenhouse School of Ministry (GSM) is an educational arm of Greenhouse Church that provides online courses that help students build a spiritual foundation in their lives. Through offering online courses, people of all ages and walks of life complete courses on their own time.
Participating students are led by GSM’s expert teaching staff and interact with other students in the course regularly. Because these students all have areas of their life in which they influence and lead others, GSM seeks to prepare them to serve others and lead themselves with excellence.
GSM reached out during the onset of COVID-19 in an effort to bring their in-person curriculum to a digital platform. In the past, GSM ran their programs completely in person, and they faced challenges around how to retain the personal touch of the program in a digital form. GSM came to PHOS to implement a learning management system (LMS) and develop key messages to communicate to prospective students how this program would change their lives. We saw this as an opportunity to support GSM’s mission of creating a new generation of leaders and help a business shift its service offerings in a time with an increased need for agility.
What We Did
Web Design
Our Vision
GSM has the unique qualities of being experts in the leadership development space while remaining highly personalized and connected to their students. Because of this, we made sure to focus on these three things while developing their website.
Clarity
Clarity in messaging and function of the website was imperative. We wanted visitors to easily digest the website’s content to understand their options. The learning platform also needed to be clear, efficient, and fast to support the on-the-go lifestyle of GSM’s students.
Warmth
Although education is the primary focus of GSM, people are at the heart of the mission. We wanted to make people feel connected to GSM just from reading their content. You should be able to see yourself as a GSM student long before you hit the enroll button.
Expertise
This is serious discipleship guided by some of Gainesville’s most expert Christian leaders. Both the website and the content had to convey subject mastery and instill confidence in visitors. It is unique for a business to be an expert at both people and their craft.
The Strategy
For GSM, we honed in on developing an exceptional experience while maintaining a personal feel to the website. After our strategic meeting with the GSM team, we began implementing this strategy.
- Custom sitemap development
- Handcrafted messaging strategy
- Custom designed-builder constructed website
- Strategic LMS platform integration
- Platform flexibility in future content design and insertion
- Ecommerce functionality for payment processing
Web Design
Previously, all GSM had access to was an individual landing page to recruit students and provide information. This landing page was underdeveloped lacked clear calls to action. This landing page did not do the GSM program justice or inspire trust in their visitors. Now GSM has access to a powerful marketing tool for their brand and an integrated LMS that allows students to take their courses online.
