Blackbaud K-12's Get Connected Podcast

In episode 35 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected podcast, Karlie Drutz, community manager at Blackbaud’s everydayhero talks about peer-to-peer fundraising and ways it can help schools scale their fundraising reach.

Competition to stand out online is fierce — the importance for schools to articulate their value and demonstrate fit is paramount when marketing to prospective families. 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.

In episode 33 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast, Susan Bearden, Director of Information Technology at Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy, joins me to talk about the challenges and opportunities that come with forming our next generation of digital citizens. 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.

In episode 32 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast, Arnaud Prevot returns to build on our earlier conversation about Generational Marketing and dive into a new concept: the role of social and community marketing.

More and more, school admission offices are being forced to anticipate and react to heightened expectations from parents. 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.

In episode 30 of Blackbaud K-12?s Get Connected Podcast, Tom Sheppard, Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at The Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ joins me to talk about the makeup of the perfect admission office in the 21st century. 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.

Have you heard? We recently publish a free e-book just for you, . Written by Scott Allenby, , and Hans Mundahl, , 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 and share some of its highlights.

As someone who has worked with schools for more than 15 years, I’ve seen communication offices undergo some significant changes. 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, , joins me to talk about the growth of the marketing and communications in private schools.

Since it’s debut in mid-2013, hundreds of private schools have launched new websites on , our content management system. 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).

Don’t look now, but millennials are growing up fast. 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 I told you that packaging existing expertise and materials into a compelling gated content offer could create an admission pipeline that yields a collective thumbs up from your school’s board?   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 , 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 crea

Measuring 3,000 private school websites in our report, (August 2014), uncovered lots of interesting statistics about website navigation and design. 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 ? Check out this .) 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 a

In just three short years, The Bishop’s School in La Jolla, CA went from printing and mailing report cards & comments to creating an online experience using the “ON” products to connect its key constituents together — parents, students and teachers. 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.

Awareness around concussions has never been higher. With the Center for Disease Control estimating occurring annually, it’s a topic that’s front and center for school athletic programs.   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, talks about educating and building community awareness around the issue along with ways schools can manage concussion protocols.

If you can’t tell by the headline, we’re talking grading and assessing online student work with Jonathan E. Martin, of , in episode 21 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected podcast. Earlier this fall, we published Jonathan’s new e-book, (you can get ). 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.

Before I introduce this episode’s guest, let me throw out a common scenario. Imagine you’re a school admission director or maybe you run communications. 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 spelled it all out for us in his recently released free e-Book, “”. 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.

Accomplished videographer Hans Mundahl’s upcoming got me thinking. Teaching schools to be better a producing video? What a great way to give back to your audience and share your expertise in a way that’s helpful. 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 returns to the show to talk about the concept of "helpful marketing” and how it relates to private schools.

Imagine you’re a new head of school. Enrollment’s down, and your board of directors tasked you with boosting the numbers. 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 , 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).

In episode 17 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected podcast, Suzanne Buck, Rector, Chatham Hall, joins me to talk about her journey to becoming a head of school. 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.

For Jonathan E. Martin, his career as an educator didn't peak after becoming a head of school, in fact, it only accelerated. While head, 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 () — 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.