Over the past several weeks, 215 Marketing conducted a structural audit of the explore.rowan.edu microsite — its theme, modules, data layer, form architecture, tracking infrastructure, and content production workflow. The brief from Rowan MarCom was clear: optimize look-and-feel within the existing HubSpot-native framework, keep changes lightweight, find scalable ways to manage and reuse program information, and unlock easier testing and personalization.
What we found is a microsite that's been built carefully by a capable team — but at scale, the per-page authoring model creates a maintenance ceiling. Content is duplicated across pages. Modules drift into date-stamped duplicates. Form code versions diverge between programs, with downstream impact on ad attribution and Slate routing. The "edit once, reflect everywhere" goal cannot be delivered by polish alone; it requires an architectural shift.
This proposal lays out that shift as four sequential phases, aligned to the Option 1 approach Rowan selected in our diagnostic review: foundation-first, with a cleaner end state and less rework. Phase 1 delivers visible UI/UX wins on existing pages — every component built with the future architecture in mind, so the investment carries forward. Phase 2 designs and builds the HubDB content layer that becomes the single source of truth. Phase 3 adapts the existing agency module ecosystem to render from that data layer, preserving the visual investment Rowan and its agency partners have already made. Phase 4 deploys in priority waves and enables the personalization signals Rowan MarCom named — student type, residency, and inquiry status.
The result: a microsite where launching a new program page is a HubDB row, not a multi-day clone-and-edit cycle. Where casing, structure, and component design are guaranteed by the template, not by editor discipline. Where program content is written once and rendered everywhere it's needed — program detail pages, area-of-study hubs, and the online umbrella alike.
Rowan reviewed two paths during diagnostic and selected Option 1: accept a longer time-to-first-launch in exchange for a cleaner end state and less rework. This proposal reflects that choice. Every Phase 1 component is built to plug into the Phase 2/3 foundation — no work gets thrown away.
The visual library Rowan and 215 Marketing have built — Value Props, Title and Content, Action Prop, the new accordion direction — represents real investment. Phase 3 adapts these modules to receive structured data from HubDB; the visual treatment, brand alignment, and design tokens stay intact.
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Before we recommend a path forward, we ground the plan in what's actually on the site today. The findings below come from a structural audit conducted across the explore.rowan.edu theme, modules, HubDB tables, form architecture, tracking layer, and live page source. Each finding maps to one of Rowan MarCom's stated priorities — and each one points toward the same underlying conclusion: the current model is well-executed for the workflow it was built around, but that workflow has a ceiling.
Explore is a four-tier hierarchy — microsite root, online umbrella, area-of-study hubs, and program detail pages — all rendered from a single shared landing-page.html template. The agency module ecosystem provides a coherent visual library: Title and Content, Value Props, Action Prop, accordion, hero-banner-form, and more. The design system is sound. What's missing is the data layer that would let it scale.
Launching a new program page follows a documented sequence: clone an existing page, swap content module-by-module, send to the agency for QA, send to strategy for review, fix all flagged edits, and wait for ad readiness. Content lives in Wrike and on the landing pages themselves. There is no single source of truth — meaning every revision risks drift between Wrike, the live page, the form's hardcoded program catalog, and downstream consumers.
HubDB is already in use through the Programs of Interest 2 table, which serves as the form's program selector and the bridge to Slate. But page-level program data — names, descriptions, value props, testimonials, career outcomes — lives inline in each page's Head HTML as a hardcoded JSON catalog and inside the modules themselves. Rowan MarCom has confirmed a HubDB-driven approach is the desired direction; the architecture has not yet been built to support it.
The custom form-rendering code has diverged between pages. /business runs v3.3 with the rowan_hashed_pii cookie, the slate_inquiry_term_of_interest hidden field, and the rowan_form_submit_success GTM dataLayer event. /cybersecurity-online runs v3.2 — missing all of the above. The implication is degraded ad attribution and Slate routing on some pages relative to others.
Patterns indicate the natural drift of a per-page editing model at scale: date-stamped duplicate modules (4-27Toggle, 5-4OnlineToggle), -modified variants of base modules, hidden-but-rendered sections preserved in the DOM via CSS, and inconsistent letter casing across pages despite documented brand rules. None are failures — they're what happens when a manual editing model is asked to scale to dozens of pages.
Rowan MarCom's four priorities — look-and-feel optimization within HubSpot-native constraints, lightweight UX improvements, scalable ways to manage and reuse program information (edit once, reflect everywhere), and easier testing and personalization — all point in the same direction. The first two are achievable through Phase 1 polish. The last two cannot be delivered without an architectural shift. This proposal is structured to deliver all four.
The engagement is structured to match Rowan's Option 1 preference: a longer time-to-first-launch in exchange for a cleaner end state. Phase 1 delivers visible UI/UX wins on existing pages, with every component designed to plug into the architecture coming in Phases 2 and 3 — no work gets thrown away. Phase 2 builds the HubDB content layer that becomes the source of truth. Phase 3 adapts the existing agency module ecosystem to render from that data layer. Phase 4 deploys in priority waves and enables the personalization signals Rowan MarCom named.
Quick wins on existing pages while the foundation is being built.
Phase 1 delivers the kind of visible improvement that builds organizational confidence and unlocks immediate conversion gains, without waiting on the architectural shift. Every component is designed against the brand guidelines Rowan provided — GT Standard typography, the Defy Definition campaign palette, and the documented casing rules.
Critically, every new component is built as a parameterized module — meaning when Phase 3 wires the templates to HubDB, these same modules accept structured data without rework. The bento grid built in Phase 1 becomes the area-of-study program listing in Phase 3. The Lightcast wrapper built in Phase 1 becomes the career outcomes section for all 220+ programs. Investment compounds.
We'd also recommend deploying behavioral analytics (heatmap and session recording) as part of Phase 1, so Phase 2 schema decisions are informed by observed user behavior rather than hypothesis.
Apply Defy Definition campaign standards to the highest-trafficked program pages: hero treatment review, value-prop styling consistency, GT Standard typography adherence, spacing and rhythm pass.
A CSS Grid-based module (no JavaScript dependencies) for asymmetrical card layouts. Built as a parameterized component so it can be populated by hand in Phase 1 and by HubDB in Phase 3.
Transform the raw Lightcast iframe into a designed page section with heading, intro, styled container, and attribution. Takes the program code as a parameter for later HubDB population.
Enforce the documented casing rules across all priority pages and establish documentation so 215 Marketing and Rowan's internal team operate from the same reference.
Catalog active vs. inactive modules in Design Manager. Mark date-stamped duplicates and one-off testing modules as unavailable. Document the canonical agency library.
Address audit issues: Get Started anchor mismatch (#RFI vs #requestinfo), hidden-but-rendered sections, testimonial/image mismatches.
Configure session recording and heatmap tracking (Microsoft Clarity reactivation or alternative) so Phase 2 schema decisions are informed by observed behavior.
The data layer — one source of truth for program content.
Phase 2 is the architectural commitment. We design the HubDB schemas, build the tables, migrate existing content from Wrike and the live pages into structured rows, and establish the governance documentation that defines who edits what in the new model. No live pages are touched in Phase 2 — this is foundation work.
The schema design is the most consequential 1–2 weeks of the engagement. Done well, the data layer scales cleanly to all 220+ programs and adapts to future use cases. Done poorly, it requires rework downstream.
Two parallel tables are recommended: a Program Content table at the individual program level and an Area of Study Content table at the parent level, joined together and joined to the existing Programs of Interest 2 table via PROGRAM ID. This three-table architecture is what enables AOS hubs and the online umbrella to render dynamically from the same source of truth.
A 30–50 column schema covering identity, hero, key facts, narrative content, value props, testimonials, integrations (Lightcast, Slate, form ID), and visual assets.
Parent-level content for the AOS hub pages: area intro, faculty highlights, area-level testimonials and career data, and dynamic linkage to all programs within the area.
Schema implementation, foreign-key relationships to Programs of Interest 2, dynamic page configuration (URL → HubDB row via hs_path), preview and staging setup.
Extract program content, structure into HubDB rows, validate field-by-field against current presentation, surface gaps.
Define who edits what, where, and when. Establish editorial workflow for the internal team and technical workflow for 215 Marketing.
Side-by-side validation tooling and go/no-go criteria for each program before its HubDB-driven page goes live.
The rendering layer — adapt agency modules to receive structured data.
Phase 3 is where the data layer becomes pages. We build the dynamic Program Page template that extends base.html, maps to the HubDB Program Content table, and resolves URLs to HubDB rows. We build the dynamic Area of Study template that renders the AOS hubs. And we refactor the existing agency modules to accept parameters from the template instead of expecting page-editor input.
The agency module adaptation is critical. The existing design library represents real investment; we preserve all of it. The visual treatment, brand alignment, GT Standard typography, Defy Definition palette — all of it stays. What changes is the source of the content.
Phase 3 also includes form code rationalization (resolving the v3.2/v3.3 drift), Lightcast script consolidation, and performance baseline.
Extends base.html, mapped to the Program Content HubDB table. Renders any program page from its corresponding row. One template, all 220+ programs.
Renders AOS hubs from the Area of Study table, with dynamic program listings joined by area. Supports online and on-campus filtering.
Refactor the existing agency library to accept structured parameters from the template. Visual treatment, design tokens, and brand alignment fully preserved.
Core Web Vitals baseline, Lightcast script consolidation, audit of preconnected vendors with recommendations for what stays, defers, or retires.
Partner on form code rationalization, Slate integration alignment, and theme-level architecture decisions. Clear delineation of who owns what.
Wave-based rollout. Personalization enablement.
Phase 4 deploys the new architecture in priority waves, enables the personalization signals Rowan MarCom named, and sunsets the legacy hand-built pages as their replacements go live. A pilot wave of 3–5 programs validates the system before broader rollout.
Personalization is positioned as enablement, not full activation: we build the infrastructure for three segments — student type (with transfer focus), in-state vs out-of-state, and student status (inquiry, application, enrolled) — and Rowan activates rules at the pace its team is ready to manage.
Training and handoff are explicit deliverables. The goal at the end of Phase 4: launching a new program page takes hours, not days — and once a program's content is in HubDB, every page that needs it is updated at once.
Migrate a small initial set end-to-end. Gather feedback from Rowan's marketing team and 215 Marketing. Refine template, modules, and schema based on what the pilot surfaces.
Migrate the remaining online programs from the 13 Rowan MarCom flagged — MBA, MSN, BS Healthcare Management, MS Cybersecurity, and more. Each migrated against the Phase 2 QA framework.
On-campus programs in order of strategic importance. AOS hubs migrated to the dynamic template. Online umbrella configured to render listings from HubDB.
Smart content rules configured for the three segments. Infrastructure-only — Rowan activates rules at its own pace.
URL redirects from old pages to HubDB-driven equivalents. Removal of orphaned modules and dormant tables.
Workshops for Rowan's internal team on the HubDB editing workflow. Documentation for both internal team and 215 Marketing.
All phases include direct access to the 215 Marketing engagement team, written approvals and reporting throughout. Phase pricing reflects the foundation-first sequence Rowan selected and assumes the scope outlined in Section 05.