Mountain West Conference Best Practices: TCU's Aligned Recruiting Strategy

This blog is all about inspiration. We are in the midst of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the MWC. You can tune in on this blog, or you can follow along on Facebook (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Thus far we've seen how New Mexico takes us inside a legendary gym, here.

Let's keep moving...

Hit the TCU Athletics page and turn your attention to the far right menu, "TCU Recruits" (highlighted below).

I'll zoom in here so it's a little easier to see. Note the bottom call out on this menu, "This is Our Story." (Yes, that's the bottom call out in the far right menu... we are very thorough here!)

Clicking in takes us here, to a visual expression of TCU Athletics. You see action shots and emotion of every TCU team. And the result is powerful. It made me think that this is the type of visual we need upon hitting TCU Athletics (or any athletics site) in the first place. Hit us with the combined power of everything in one place. Love it.

When you interact with the page, you get access to a consistent menu within each program: Staff, Facilities, Next Level, Trophy Case, and History are revealed for Hoops.

Meanwhile, Football offers the same (with the exception that History has become Bowl History). I love this, because it shows us a truth -- that success in other sports can impact the vibe of your sport. TCU's success in football no doubt raises the profile for basketball, and vice versa. This is a visual representation of that fact.

When you dive into basketball, next level, you come here, shown below. And the theme, "This is Our Story" is paid off by the players that hit the next level.

How could this be better? The thing I'd say that really is missing is, ironically, the stories. When I hit the This is Our Story page, I was hoping to see just that -- a collection of stories. What I got was nice, consistent branding and access to each team. Solid, but to g0 to the next level, I'd love to actually read or see the stories of student athletes across all sports who have donned the purple and white.

That's it.

Tune in tomorrow as we share more inspiration from the MWC! And, don't forget, you can follow along on Facebook (here) or on Twitter: I'm @pawlow34.

Andy