Newport Central Catholic

Newport Central Catholic High School (NCCHS) prides itself on its strong academics, faith-based atmosphere, and plentiful extracurricular activities. Located in Northern Kentucky, just a short drive from most Greater Cincinnati neighborhoods, NCCHS is the kind of high school where every student feels like they belong. 

Despite all the school’s offerings, the administration recognized that many people outside of the NCCHS “family” did not know their story. Faced with declining enrollment and outdated facilities, NCCHS knew there were two important audiences they needed to reach: prospective students and their families, and prospective donors, which includes alumni. 

Enter USDP. Our team worked closely with staff from NCCHS and used the StoryBrand framework to identify a few key messages to communicate to these groups. These centered on the school’s differentiating factors, particularly its highly involved students (“Small School Feel with Big School Opportunities”), affordability, strong academics, and its Catholic identity. The main challenge? Many prospective students simply did not have NCCHS on their radar. Or if they did, they associated it with negative or outdated stereotypes about the school. With these potential obstacles in the way of reaching the audiences they needed to reach, not to mention an outdated website, NCCHS and USDP developed a plan of action. 

First, we crystallized the messaging with the audience in mind. We condensed it into easy to read, easy to identify-with language that became the basis for all the text on the website. 

Then we put that messaging front and center on the site. Our team designed and built a dynamic, modern website to replace the static site the school had been using, creating the perfect platform for bringing the NCCHS story to life. A compelling video montage of life on “The Hill” took the hero spot. We used WordPress with a user-friendly page builder technology called Elementor to build the site, which will allow the NCCHS staff to easily maintain it over time. 

The entire process of getting to know NCCHS, crafting a consistent institutional story, designing, and building resulted in a website that will share the school’s story for future generations of Thoroughbreds.

Digital Marketing Services Used: StoryBrand, Website Design, Website Development