Blackbaud K-12's Get Connected Podcast

Listen to K–12 private school attrition expert Jill Goodman discuss ways that schools can keep newly enrolled families engaged once the pandemic is over.

Listen to our panel of ed-tech leaders discuss the back-to-school considerations for hybrid and remote learning models.

Listen to Nicole Mann of SOS ThreeSixty discuss practical advice for school admins, teachers, and parents to keep kids safe online during COVID-19.

Listen to Blackbaud K–12 Advisory Board members discuss how their schools and communities are adapting to distance learning.

Listen to a roundtable discussion with representatives from the Blackbaud K–12 Advisory Board on how their schools are planning for potential closures due to the coronavirus.

Get the inside scoop on UC20 in Los Angeles along with travel, dining, and entertainment recommendations.

Listen to Travis Warren, president and GM of Blackbaud K–12, discuss the key initiatives for his team in 2020 on the Get Connected podcast.

Listen to Hiram Cuevas, the new executive director of Blackbaud K–12's Advisory Board, discuss his appointment and the hot topics from the recent board meeting.

William Bullard discusses how independent schools can increase applications and boost yield by focusing on the five stages of enrollment marketing.

Learn about the behind-the-scenes process for The Shipley School's award-winning website.

Listen to Nancy Kierstead, data administrator at Severn School, discuss the importance of the school's data committee.

Listen to Daren Worcester and Jeff Ritter discuss podcasting for schools during a best-practice breakout session at UC19.

Listen to Emily Cretella discuss how independent schools can harness the power of parents, alumni, and donors. 

Listen to Dr. Richard Kent discuss how writing can impact athletic performance.

Listen in as the Get Connected podcast discusses how ADA Title III website accessibility compliance pertains to K–12 private schools.

Learn how Bark for Schools can help keep kids safe by monitoring Google Suite and Microsoft Office 365 accounts.

Dr. Caroline Kill discusses the importance of competency-based education and the challenges K–12 schools face adopting it.

Travis Warren discusses the evolution of Blackbaud K–12 and the group's vision for 2019.

Get ready for UC19 in Washington, D.C. with advice from experienced conference attendees and D.C. residents.

Learn how planning ahead for the design process, navigation, content, and SEO is the secret to creating the best school website.

Listen to school marketing consultant Stacy Jagodowski discuss the crisis communication scenarios that schools should be prepared to handle.

Episode 54: Listen to Cheryl Fleming talk about the digital marketing initiatives taking place at Sanford School.

Episode 53 welcomes Emily Cretella, founder of Cursive Content Marketing, to discuss her new eBook and the contest to win a free trip to Blackbaud K–12's 2019 User Conference. 

Learn about the efficiencies Archbishop Moeller High School gained by connecting its admissions office through Blackbaud K-12's enrollment management, tuition management, and accounting solutions.

Guest host Chuck English interviews two dynamic heads of schools: Brad Weaver of Sonoma Country Day School and Dave Skeen of Harding Academy.

In this episode, guest host Jackie Christensen talks about the benefits of rubrics with educational consultant Jonathan Martin and Dr. Caroline Kill, director of curriculum and pedagogy at The Barstow School. We also talk to Scott Daniel, director of technology at Barstow, about the strategies the school used to roll out the rubrics feature in Blackbaud K-12's Learning Management System.

In this episode, we discuss school website design trends with Stacy Jagodowski from Milken Community Schools and Blackbaud K-12 designers Corwin Bermudez and Sean Fitzgerald.

In this week’s podcast, we dig into the triple threat model with Greg Martin. Greg is the chair of the History Dept at Perkiomen School in Pennsburg, PA and recently wrapped up his dissertation on the sustainability of the boarding school triple threat model.

We may be in the early days of summer, but marketing expert Emily Cretella, Cursive Content, urges every school communications pro to start planning now for the fall. 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.

The architects of Berwick Academy's 225th celebration (Tracey Boucher, Director of Communications, and Stephanie Caswell, Director of The Berwick Fund and Leadership Giving) join us to break down their entire planning journey — from deciding on the main 225th themes to how they measured success! Have a big event coming up? Don't miss this episode!

School marketing expert Stacy Jagodowski, Cheshire Academy, joins Peter & Hans to talk digital marketing & data best practices and to highlight her free e-book, Data-Driven Marketing Strategies: Using Data to Get Your School’s Message Heard.

In this episode of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast, Greg Bamford, Head of School, Watershed School, joins us to talk about his free e-book, Small, Fast, and Warm-Blooded: Leadership in the Small Independent School, and the problems and opportunities with scale and embracing the advantages of being small.

What impact should a head have on a school's fundraising strategy? How do they balance this responsibility and running day-to-day operations? For new Heads, how should they approach this task as they think about organizational leadership and long-term sustainability? Joining us to talk about this and much more on Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast is Joe Williams, Head of School at New Hampton School.

Many schools have moved from a paper newsletter in the backpack to a weekly email. But is the email newsletter dead? Are our email inboxes too cluttered? Has the newsletter evolved into something else? School marketing expert, Dr. Jim Cianca, joins us to answer these questions.

Brendan Schneider, Director of Advancement, Sewickley Academy, joined us to reflect on a recent article published by The Enrollment Management Association on the rise of the strategic enrollment manager.

In episode 40 of Blackbaud K-12 Get Connected Podcast, Tom Olverson, the former Head of School at The Rivers School and Seabury Hall School, and now a consultant with Resource Group 175, talks about the key challenge facing boards as they conduct a head of school search.

Jeff Shields, President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Business Officers Association, joins me to talk about how a business office can influence a school's marketing strategy.

Melissa Rekos, EVP of Digital Services at Carnegie Communications, joins me to talk retargeting. She has helped many colleges, universities, and private schools create and deliver successful retargeting campaigns making her an ideal person to break down this popular online marketing concept.

In episode 37, Daren Worcester, Blackbaud K-12's resident digital marketing expert, joins me to talk about why it’s critical to spend more time in GA. 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.

I’m thrilled to welcome Dr. Brett Jacobsen to episode 36 of Blackbaud K-12’s Get Connected Podcast. He’s the head of Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Atlanta, Georgia. 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.

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 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.