The Finalsite Blog

Personas are the foundation of your school’s inbound marketing strategy. Learn how to craft personas to improve your website's performance and email open rate.

Looking for creative and unique ways to collect constituent information? Learn how Conserve School and three awards runners-up built their exceptional online forms.

Thank you pages are a critical component of your inbound marketing strategy — but are you using them?

Need every bit of help to save time during your busy work week? Free your schedule with award-winning tips from Stone Ridge School and three awards runners-up.

Are you writing awesome news stories but not seeing awesome engagement? Try these six simple changes!

The King’s Academy in Jordan recently redesigned their website. Read more about their experience with Finalsite in this case study!

Looking to make the most of your community portals? Follow these award-winning best practices from Spring Lake Park Schools and three awards runners-up.

Is your school or district considering a new website? Get inspired by 50+ new, custom websites that launched in July and August.

The key to creating a great district website design is to have an understanding of your website’s entire audience. (Hint: it’s more than just students and their parents!)

Remarketing ads provide schools an affordable solution to stay top-of-mind to website visitors.

Content offers are at the center of your school’s inbound marketing strategy. Learn how to create an award-winning one like St. Benedict's Prep and other schools.

Wayzata Public Schools trimmed its website down by 16,000 pages! Learn how you can simplify yours, too!

Need to drive more traffic to your school's open houses this fall? Try these 10 proven strategies. 

Looking to make the most of our Resources module? Learn Resources best practices from The Hill School and three 2019 Double Diamond Awards runners-up.

Technology has exploded these past ten years. So what will the next decade bring? Here are four marketing predictions for schools this coming decade. 

Are your home-to-school communications the best they can be? Prepare your communications strategy for the new school year with these five tips.  

Focus groups are essential to market research and allow schools the opportunity to speak to the types of people they want to learn more about. From discovering how families learn about your school to the pains they’re experiencing, hosting a school focus group is an invaluable exercise.  
 

Looking to make the most of your theme web design? Learn best practices to design exceptional Theme websites from Heritage Christian School and three Double Diamond Awards runners-up.

Latin School of Chicago and three Messages Double Diamond Awards runners-up share email marketing tips from the first-ever Double Diamond Awards.

Sticky menus, sticky calls-to-action, sticky search... when it comes to navigation design for your website, getting stuck is a good thing! See how other schools use sticky navigation to engage site visitors and meet their goals. 

Prospective undergraduate and graduate students use the internet to guide their application decisions and often look for information on three key topics. Do you have these pages on your website? 

We’re at that midsummer point where admissions and marketing staff have an eye toward fall and open house season, wondering what steps to take next. Here are three top tips to give your marketing efforts a boost.

What's the difference between a carousel and a knowledge panel? Read on to find out how these two Google search features can alter  prospective families' school decisions--and what you can do about it!

Finalsite Internet Marketer Sarah Englebert shares how districts can use digital marketing to engage with the community and help retain students.  

Dozens of schools were nominated for the Posts Award in the 2019 Double Diamond Awards. Though the competition was strong, Seattle Preparatory School and three runners-up came out on top.

Learn how to create an effective athletic communications plan that will keep players, parents, and coaches happy this fall season with five easy tips.  

You have a meeting with your school's board of trustees and you want to give them an update on your school's marketing efforts. How much do you share? What specifically do you share? Kate Persons shares five takeaways from her conversations with other Heads of Schools. 

"So, you've signed on the dotted line for a website redesign project — now what? Get an inside look at the deployment process that's won our schools 100 design awards and counting."

Here’s a quick punch list of useful tips, reminders and ideas to keep your school website ahead of the curve in strategy, maintenance, and design.

Your school's tagline may seem like a small detail, but it often has a prominent spot on the homepage. A good one can improve brand awareness and keep prospective families intrigued! Debbie Eisenach shares 12 international school taglines that deserve a shoutout.    

Finalsite Designer Keisha Croxton walks you through the decisions Delaware County Christian School (DCCS) made for their site to create a beautiful, effective homepage. 

Learn more about the 12 schools who truly made the most out of Finalsite modules and tools—the winners of the 2019 Double Diamond Awards Show!

We know it can be hard to let them go, but PDFs are a no-go for accessible website design (not to mention search engine optimization!) Learn some accessible alternatives in this article. 

Athletics Manager makes it easy to update your school community with the latest athletics news through dynamic content in Messages and easy-to-build athletics pages.

With so many marketing options available to charter schools, your marketing department is left with the important decision - where to invest time and budget? This post shares five innovative strategies to help get your marketing campaign off the ground.

Do you have the case of the website blues? Feel like there's simply "no money" to even think about a new website? It's time for some cognitive restructuring! Chief Innovation Officer Angelo Otterbein tackles five excuses districts often make and why they shouldn't make them.

Taking great photos can be a challenge, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are three tips for taking better school photos to boost school marketing.

If you want to market your institution in a way that is mindful of Generation Z and the current trends that define their media consumption, one very effective strategy to embrace influencer marketing. Not sure what this is or how to do it? Don't worry. We'll answer these questions and more so you can start engaging Gen Z and turning college hopefuls into enthusiastic students at your institution.

Learn how Finalsite’s partnership with Ravenna supercharges your admissions process to increase applications with inbound marketing tools.

You asked. We listened! Check out this handy infographic outlining key factors for on-page SEO. Follow this checklist and you'll have page one rankings in no time. 

Amity International School launched a site with Finalsite in just under 3 months. Find out why the school's website became a critical piece of its marketing plan to reach four main stakeholders. 

In interview style, Finalsite Manager of Consulting Services Red Abbott shares great tips for keeping up with (and surpassing) the competition.

Learn how Finalsite’s community portals keeps your school website clean and marketing-focused by placing constituent resources within dedicated portal pages.

Schools embracing inbound marketing will have a competitive edge in the ever growing and competitive international school market.

Learn how Trinity-Pawling, an all-boys prep school in Pawling, New York, built best-in-class school athletics pages easily with Athletics Manager and Composer.

When it comes to low retention rates, it’s likely that the problem isn’t that cool drone shot you wanted to be commissioned for the home page but couldn’t get sign-off for. The problem is often much more simple! This post takes you back to the basics with three reasons your Charter School's retention rate isn't as good as it could be. 

Parents and community members are demanding up-to-date notifications and are no longer satisfied with traditional media as a means of receiving important school news. Quality communication can prevent misunderstandings in a world dependent on social media and the internet for news.

You thought you told your website contributors not to use PDFs. And not to forget add alt tags. And so many other things they seem to have forgotten. Here are some tips on communicating best practices to the teachers and staff members who add content to your site. We want your redesign looking it's best!