Challenge
EducationPoint was set up in 1999 as a source of information on Australian schools and other educational institutions. It was meant to be a central ground for students, parents and teachers to bring up issues and news about areas in the Australian Educational System and was also to be a one-stop resource for those seeking educational institutions and material.
Creative & Execution
Although it was a relatively straight forward project it required great deal of coordination and many features of the website required multifaceted coding. The core feature of the website was to be its interactivity with its users and its co-dependence on user-generated content. Our team had decided on using a blog format which allowed users to post comments and news about educational issues in Australia.
The CMS was also to be amalgamated with a directory. Our team firstly began to collate data to assemble a database containing all Australian Educational Institutions and related businesses. This was accompanied with a proxy search system that categorically used each institution’s geographical co-ordinates to give out the closest business relative to the user’s location. A back-end control panel was also developed that allowed for easy alterations of the 30,000+ schools, universities, technical institutes, etc in the database.
The last feature was the shopping cart system for their text book and stationery sales. Our marketing team approached a major e-commerce site and offered a collaborative partnership agreement that allowed EducationPoint to sell books on their behalf based on a commission basis. This was all integrated into a basic shopping cart system which linked to the main CMS to allow modifications with a user-friendly control panel.
Performance
Specific figures are always kept confidential, however EducationPoint achieved ROI from just advertising within a month. Additional revenue streams including the directory and shopping system were launched 2 months later that bring in 50% to 250% profit every month based on seasonality. The site has been featured in various Australian newpapers and other news mediums for the first hand insight it offers into the educational system and continually praised by students, parents and teachers alike for its contributions.
