Emily is our guest on Episode 47 of Blackbaud's Get Connected Podcast, and she's here to share her top tips for getting the most of the summer planning.

He's here to help you focus your effort in Google Analytics, demystify reporting and give some advice on how GA can help schools who are prepping for a site redesign.

Since assuming the leadership position at Mount Vernon, the school has redefined its brand position in the competitive Atlanta private school market and become a leading voice nationally. He's here to share how the school achieved such great heights in a relatively short period of time.

Given you have 7-8 seconds to capture the user's attention, is it ok to overwhelm prospective families with information that may not be relevant to their admission journey?

In episode 34 of Blackbaud K-12's Get Connected Podcast, Emily Cretella from Cursive Content Marketing joins me to answer some of these questions and talk about the evolution of the school website.

Susan published a new book, Digital Citizenship: A Community-Based Approach, that dives into this topic and offers concrete advice for schools grappling with how to best approach developing a program.

It only makes sense — for many families, a private school tuition is the biggest expenditure they make each year. They expect the value provided by the school to match their investment.

But how can schools make sure they clearly articulate their value proposition? What kinds of tools do they have at their disposal to share that story?

In episode 31 of Blackbaud K-12's Get Connected Podcast, Mike Connor, Connor Associates Strategic Services, joins me to talk about value vs. cost. Mike has been thinking long and hard about this topic, and I'm excited for you to hear his tips for schools.

Tom wrote an article on admission staffing for SSATB, which evolved into an infographic produced by NAIS, and he's here today to break it down in more detail.

Written by Scott Allenby, Proctor Academy, and Hans Mundahl, Hans Mundahl & Associates, their guide establishes and explores the core principles of inbound, but it take it one step further and shows you how you can be tactical within your strategy.

It takes theory and shows you how to put it into practice. Given their teaching backgrounds, their approach makes perfect sense.

In episode 29 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast, Scott & Hans share their thinking behind the book and share some of its highlights.

From a single person office that may have been part of a development office, to a multi-person team with the director reporting to the head of school, there’s little doubt that marketing and communications have become a critical component of school life.

But what does the ideal office look like? How should it be organized? What types of job positions do we need to manage all of the different ways we need to communicate including print, web, social and more?

In episode 28 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast, Stacy Jagodowski, Director of Strategic Marketing & Communications, Cheshire Academy, joins me to talk about the growth of the marketing and communications in private schools.

But what about the very first school to launch an onMessage site. Which school embraced the early adopter role? How has their site evolved over the past few years?

The answer to first question? Rodeph Sholom School (New York, NY)

In episode 27 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected podcast, Emma Castro, Communications Manager, Rodeph Sholom School, joined me to share their story (and to answer the second question above).

So fast, in fact, that older end of the generation is beginning to research private school opportunities for their children.

What does this mean for school marketers? How should they tailor their strategies to meet the unique needs of the millennial generation?

In episode 26 of Blackbaud’s Get Connected Podcast, we’re talking generational marketing.

How have schools adapted their approaches over the years to meet the generational differences of parents — from Baby Boomers to Generation X to Millennials?

Joining me to dive into this (with a good deal of emphasis placed on the Millennial generation) is Dr. Arnaud Prevot.

What if the offer produced stats this:

628 downloads -> 194 admissions leads -> 27 enrolled students

Am I correct to assume you’d say, “sign me up, teach me how to do that!”?

If I’ve guessed right (and I certainly hope that’s the case), then let me introduce you to Tannika Wester, Director of Communications, and Luke Chaffin, Content Manager, at Darlington School, a co-ed boarding & day school in Darlington, GA.

In episode 25 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected podcast, they joined me to share how through the use of content offers, they’ve generated more leads and enrolled students for their school (Note: the stats above are direct results of Darlington campaigns run in 2014-2015).

Before we dive into the episode, let's break down the idea of the “content offer” by starting with these two questions.

While creating content is something many of us do on a daily basis, are you packaging it into a bigger, gated offer (say an e-book or how-to guide) that answers the fundamental questions that families are asking as they are searching for the perfect private school. After a parent raises their hand, enters their information to acquire your offer, are you nurturing them with additional helpful content as they work their way through the admission process?

Tannika & Luke explain how adopting this approach has become a critical piece of the school’s overall approach to inbound marketing and student recruitment. For any school concerned with new student enrollment, take 30 minutes to hear the Darlington story. You’ll walk away with ideas that you can fold into your marketing strategy.

But one stat, in particular, answered a question that I think many of us were curious about:

With the rise of mobile devices, how are private school websites adapting? More specifically, are they offering an option built on responsive web design (RWD)?

(Wondering about the mechanics behind RWD? Check out this post.)

Our research revealed that 22% of private schools sites (August 2014) utilized responsive web design — meaning their designs responded to whatever device was accessing it — mobile, tablet or desktop.

We took another look at this group in early 2015 and saw a 9% jump to 31%. Here we are a year later, and I think it’s fair to assume another significant leap in RWD adoption.

Here’s the takeaway — schools understand that they need to display their content in the best possible way across all devices, both in front of and behind the password.

Just imagine a parent visiting the admission section of a non-RWD site via their phone? What kind of an impression does that leave?

But have you ever wondered about the origins of responsive design and how it became a standard in such a short time? Who had the foresight to see the need for a better, more flexible way to display web content across the ever increasing range of devices?

Joining me to talk about the birth and rise of responsive design is the man who founded the concept, Ethan Marcotte. Ethan is a designer, developer, author, and podcast host in Boston, MA, who unveiled the idea of responsive web design in a blog post on a list apart in May 2010.

From that simple post, a more flexible approach to design has been adopted by a huge range of sites including the Boston Globe, Time Magazine, CNN, Starbucks, and of course 31% of all private school sites! His approach has redefined the way we all interact with websites today.

Tony Trumbo, Sr. Director Of Educational Technology And Information Systems at The Bishop’s School, and Travis Warren, SVP/ President of Blackbaud’s K12 Group, joined me for a recent webinar to talk about the transition.

This is a little bit different of a podcast in that I’m showcasing the audio from the webinar in episode 23 of Blackbaud's K-12 Get Connected podcast. The conversation was so helpful that I wanted to share it here with our regular listeners.

We talked about how Tony and the school successfully staged their roll out to the Bishop’s community, and the positive response it has garnered from the school’s stakeholders.

Also, with any plan comes challenges. Learn what Bishop’s encountered and hear how they overcame the inevitable bumps in the road.

Let me know what you think about Bishop’s journey from Data Siloed to Connected School. We’d love to hear how your school has either approached or is approaching the challenge.

But what does this mean for schools and the health professional who support them? How should schools assess and respond?

In episode 22 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected podcast, Sherlee Johnson, Chief Operating Officer, Magnus Health talks about educating and building community awareness around the issue along with ways schools can manage concussion protocols.

Earlier this fall, we published Jonathan’s new e-book, Grading And Assessing Online Student Work (you can get your free copy here). He explores the core concepts and key strategies that you can use today.

In it, Jonathan shares fourteen methods for effective online assessment and grading to help teachers broaden their thinking and consider new opportunities.

In a return appearance on the show, Jonathan shares his top five methods (you’ll see an outline of what we covered in the show notes below) and talks about some of the things that surprised him the most as he researched and wrote the book.

You’re probably thinking about all the different ways a parent may interact with your school.

Where does their initial connection happen? How are we nurturing the family through the admission process? What kind of experience are we delivering after they’ve enrolled in the school? Are we consistent?

In an ideal world, we’d have this all plotted, but it’s a complicated recipe to prepare. It takes time, and it’s not easy.

In understanding the complexities associated with mapping the overall parent journey, Chuck English of English Marketing Works spelled it all out for us in his recently released free e-Book, “Tailoring the Parent Experience”.

Chuck has been doing a lot of thinking over the past few years around how schools can build a better experience for their families, and I’m excited for you to hear his ideas in episode 20 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast.

Take the course, learn about the latest techniques, roll up your sleeves and apply some of his tips, and on the other side, you’re a little bit better at your job.

Plus, you’re building an even better connection to Hans as a teacher, marketing consultant and person.

It’s a fantastic example of how being helpful isn’t just nice, it’s a great marketing strategy.

In episode 19 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast, Hans Mundahl of Hans Mundahl & Associates returns to the show to talk about the concept of "helpful marketing” and how it relates to private schools.

Where do you start? How do you quickly (and thoughtfully, mind you) assess the school’s strengths and weaknesses? What does your plan look like to increase the student population with mission-appropriate students?

Greg Bamford faced this very scenario when he took the role of head at Watershed School, a small progressive private school in Boulder, CO.

In episode 18 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast, Greg shares how he and his team embraced the challenge and realized a 20% enrollment boost (growing their student body from 55 to 70).

Suzanne talks about graduating from the enrollment management chair to the head's position. I’m fascinated by the shift and am excited for you to hear about the process and the experiences that come with the first year of leading a school community.

While head, he started a blog that drew a large audience of educators interested in what he had to say about education.

This successful run at blogging ultimately encouraged Jonathan to embark on a new career as a consultant (JonathanEMartin Ed. Services) — one that allows him to share his ideas and direction with a much larger group of schools.

Jonathan & I explored this topic in episode 16 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast. 

You want your school to be a trusted domain expert that searching families turn to as they work through the admission process.

But how do you do it? Or, more specifically, how do you roll out a content marketing strategy that returns meaningful and sustainable results?

Scott Allenby, Director of Communications and Marketing at Proctor Academy, joins me in episode 15 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast to break down the school’s successful inbound approach.

Learn how over the past year, Proctor has embarked on a multi-year strategy to solidify their place in the private school content marketing world. If the year one results are any indicator (Scott dives into the stats during our conversation), the school’s well on its way.

Out of necessity, comes some really cool ideas.

With an admission office of two and a school of 650 students to keep full, Matt Evans, Director of Admission at Saint Mark's High School (Wilmington, DE), turned to predictive modeling to aggregate data and make more informed decisions. 

In episode 14 of Blackbaud K–12’s Get Connected Podcast, Matt joins me to dive into his model and its impact. It's a fascinating view — one that I think every admission office should hear.

Topic: Heather Hoerle joins me to talk about SSATB's new admission report, Sizing up the Competition: Exploring Educational Choice in Today’s Independent School Market.

Overview:

The pressure for private schools to stand out from the competition grows more intense each year.

It’s no longer a question of independent schools crossing applications with other private schools. Now they see increased competition from charter schools, online programs, low-cost private schools, to name a few. Plus, more parents are taking it upon themselves to build an “educational and extracurricular menu” in an a la carte manner.

SSATB’s new report, Sizing up the Competition: Exploring Educational Choice in Today’s Independent School Market, grew out of the need to understand and respond to these competitive challenges.

In episode 13 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast, Heather Hoerle, Executive Director, SSATB, joins me to break down the report’s finding and share recommendations.

Hear how they more than doubled their open rate and tripled clickthroughs.

In episode 11 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected podcast, Stuart Posin of Posin Consulting (where one of his primary roles is serving as the director of technology at Sierra Canyon School) shares his views on technology leadership and why it’s a key ingredient when it comes to supporting success in schools.

Framing much of our conversation is the recently formed Association Of Technology Leaders In Independent Schools (ATLIS).

While it’s true that you may have a few spots left to fill to round out your 2014-2015 class, some of your attention is likely starting to shift to the upcoming admission season. That means it’s time to plan!

Whether you want to build on existing programs or dream up new ways to benefit your recruiting efforts, episode 10 of Blackbaud K–12's Get Connected Podcast is all about winning the summer admission offseason!

Brendan Schneider, Director of Advancement at Sewickley Academy, is a seasoned admission pro who traditionally uses July and August to reflect and plan for the next admission year.

In his second guest appearance (click here to listen to our first conversation on personalized marketing), Brendan shares his tips on how to maximize summer “downtime” to get the most out of the 2015-2016 admission cycle.

Cyrus Shepard, the Director of Audience Development at Moz, joins me to talk Search Engine Optimization (SEO). He paints the SEO big picture for private schools and shares practical tips for earning better search results.

Hear Cyrus report on the early findings from Google’s mobile search deadline (aka Mobilegeddon), the ever increasing importance of page speed, plus Cyrus makes some bold predictions about what’s to come with search. 

Also, make sure to listen to the entire conversation to hear what he considers to be the key ingredient for SEO success.

With the launch of their new site earlier this year, Sonoma Academy not only saw this exact boost in time on site, but with it came a tripling in the average number of page views.

Lily Thompson, the Director of Communications at Sonoma Academy, joins me for episode 8 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected podcast to share the plan behind the school’s success.

I doubt the reasons will surprise.

Consider the recession, changes in parenting, a slow decline in the number of high school aged students (a demographic reality that’s with us for the foreseeable future), etc. and the pieces fit.

But if the domestic numbers are down, why the slight growth in overall enrollment? International recruitment. Schools have responded to the greater international demand, which has helped to shape schools into more global institutions.

That said, concerns exists (by both day & boarding schools) about the reduction in the overall number of North American students.

TABS has heard this message loud and clear from its members and responded by forming the North American Boarding School Initiative (NABI).

This committee of 18 (which I'm honored to be a part of) has met for the past year to look at the challenge and provide potential solutions. At a high level, the group is advocating for the 300 TABS member schools to take collective action in the form of four areas of investments designed to boost domestic interest & enrollment.

While the program recommendations have yet to be formally approved (the TABS board meets this month to hear the proposed plans), Pete Upham, Executive Director, TABS, joined me for this episode of the Get Connected Podcast to:

1. share more about NABI and its goals

2. talk about the enrollment pressures that face boarding and day schools

3. and layout NABI's "Core Dimensions" that serve as the committee's guiding light.

Logic suggests that you’d want them to raise their hand and talk about how a teacher or experience on your campus prepared them for some form of success. It only makes sense to draw that line back to the school in order to evoke a sense of connection and pride.

Well, some might say that Babson College took a risk when they went down a different path with The Entrepreneurs: a True Babson Story.

Babson’s looking to change the way people view and value entrepreneurship, and they’re doing it by highlighting alumni in all sorts of settings via short, 2-minute videos. This is all part of a bigger, multi-year campaign to crowdsource a new definition of “Entrepreneurship.”

Each alumni story makes the case (and provides some excellent teaching lessons) without ever mentioning the school. It’s quite a feat, and one that I think can serve as inspiration for private schools fundraisers and marketers.

Sarah Sykora, VP & Chief Marketing Officer at Babson College, joined me to talk about the campaign. She shares their goals, some of the early performance metrics, and how they pulled this campaign together in a compressed amount of time.

Our 20+ minute conversation is jammed with great takeaways that I hope you’ll enjoy!

For many on campus, that means they’re mere days away from summer break. For school development officers? Well, it’s a different story. 

This last month of fundraising can be among the most hectic and stressful days of the year — it’s time to make a final push to hit any open 2014-2015 fundraising goals. 

What kind of tactics are you using to get your campaigns across the goal line? Are you wrapping in good storytelling to create a last minute emotional hook to engage your constituents?

The Fundraising Coach, Marc A. Pitman, joins me in Episode 5 of Blackbaud K–12’s Get Connected Podcast to give his take on how schools can maximize the impact of their EOY fundraising. 

He offers a primer on what every private school needs to know to get started with marketing automation and personalization. Lots of examples shared. Lots of inspiration to be gained!

For any school exploring a possible LMS implementation, this interview with Hans is a must listen.

You’ll walk away with excellent advice on how to not only assess your LMS options, but just as important, you’ll hear how you can get adoption buy-in from across your campus!

I know when I first saw the video, I was blown away not only by the production quality (the lyrics and voice quality were amazing), but the pure reach of their work is dizzying. How did they generate all of the Youtube views? What was the press plan behind it? Ryan fills us in.

But before you press play, let’s focus on the press for a second. 

The school earned coverage from some of the world’s largest media outlets. How’s this for a sampling of their press reach? 

The Today Show, Good Morning America, NRP, Access Hollywood, BBC, TIME magazine’s website, and many more showcased this incredibly fun take on canceling school (in the midst of what was a historic winter in New England). 

Like what you heard? Subscribe to our show on iTunes or visit us at http://k12.blackbaud.com to access our blog and podcast library!