The Finalsite Blog

Web accessibility isn’t just about adhering to WCAG guidelines to avoid a fine — web accessibility is about helping all schools and districts improve the overall experience on their site. Discover 6 easy web accessibility best practices every school and district should follow in this blog.

Mary Ellen Rowe, Marketing Director for Clarkston Community Schools in Michigan, joins Mia on Episode 2 of the #LIKEABOSS podcast to share school marketing strategies for success from both her independent and district background.

Rowan-Salisbury School System recently launched their new Best-in-Class website for its 20,000 students in 35 schools. Check out what makes their new website, and the intentional approach behind its content, so unique in this new case study.

Even though social media isn't always perfect, there are so many reasons to use it for your school marketing. We tackle the top concerns school pros have with some solutions to work around them.

Marketing to millennial parents is different from marketing to any other generation, and it is essential that you adapt your marketing strategies to effectively reach them where they are. As you build your 2018-2019 marketing plan, here are eight important truths to consider.

As of June 5, 2018, WCAG 2.1’s guidelines are not regulations and/or requirements at this point in the U.S. Here's what schools and districts need to know.

There is no silver bullet to social media engagement. Not even the 4-1-1 rule. However, from our research and work with more than 2,200 schools around the world, we can say with certainty the following three types of post get the most engagement time and time again.

Many schools go without good photography or videography because of budget, but we're here to tell you, it is possible to have amazing photos for your school marketing from something you use every day: your cell phone.

It is about consistent, relevant and timely engagement year-round — not just when you need them to advocate. Discover six ways to keep your school’s alumni engaged in this blog post.

If you are looking to spruce up your school’s website over the summer or redesign completely, this is the blog for you!

Notice anything different on Google recently? Some Google searches are now appearing in a list-like display called a carousel. Learn how this feature is impacting school's search results and how to improve yours.

Mia Major kicks off her first Strategize Like a Boss podcast with Ty D’Amore of AudioEye to discuss a topic affecting schools today — web accessibility.

Good SIS integration is critical to an independent school’s day-to-day functioning. It saves so much time. Plus, if you can’t rely on the accuracy of your data, life gets complicated fast.

Discover how one international school is engaging their community, driving traffic to their website, and offering a unique online experience for parents with Portals.

Amazing photography can be accomplished on a budget and brings your website to life. Get inspired by these 8 schools and districts doing it right!

Looking to do content marketing on a budget? Here's what you can do with a humble $2,000 annual budget.

Discover how creating a microsite for this school's college fund improved its engagement with alumni, donors, and more.

Toby Brunt, Social Media and Communications Specialist at American School of Warsaw, joins Max and Meredith on Episode 2 of Finalsite #WorldTour to share his background and role at the school.

The new Finalsite website is here! Want a sneak peak of what went into the redesign process? We tell all in this post.

Jon Morgan, Owner, Director and Producer at JM Films shares four aspects your independent school videos should cover.

At Finalsite we pride ourselves on collaborating with our clients to create amazing user experiences and user journeys. This week UX/UI designer Rob Potter delves into the differences between UX, UI and CX and why they matter.

What people are saying about your school on the Internet matters. Learn why you should care about online reviews and what to do with them in this podcast.

Convincing your school's higher-ups or stakeholders to redesign can sometimes be a difficult task. We tackle how to work around five common reasons schools avoid redesigning to help you kickstart your next redesign project, improve traffic to your website, and get the website you need for your school to meet your marketing and communication goals.

Learn how to craft targeted messages for your personas to help improve your school marketing and engagement in this guest blog from Bart Caylor, President & Founder of Caylor Solutions.

Jon Morgan, Owner, Director and Producer at JM Films shares the top five most popular videos independent schools should create or invest in this year.

Learn new, creative ideas for boosting yield this season and beyond with Avon Old Farms School. 

The way districts should communicate with families has changed. Here's how to ensure you're meeting their needs and expectations on every channel.

Discover how the most effective marketing messages are the ones that zero-in tightly on your target audiences and ways of segmenting your school messages in this guest blog from Bart Caylor, President & Founder of Caylor Solutions.

Learn more about Caylor Solutions' influence on education marketing, from website management on CMS platforms like Finalsite Composer, to tailored marketing efforts through personas, and more.

From setting up communication to going live, and the process of implementation, our final post for our Accessibility Blog Series this week explains what you can expect after installing the AudioEye Ally toolbar on your school website, as well as answers some of your FAQs.

The fourth post for our Accessibility Blog Series this week should help you determine how to best understand the results of your website accessibility testing and how to assure everything you are sharing on your website is accessible to anyone.

The third post for our Accessibility Blog Series this week breaks down the best way for schools to use accessibility evaluation tools, such as AudioEye's Toolbar, to begin working towards full web accessibility.

The second post for our Accessibility Blog Series this week discusses who should be responsible for making website content accessible on your website.

Welcome to Finalsite #WorldTour, a new podcast highlighting trends and best practices international schools should know with Max Eisl, Director of International Sales, and Meredith Kaplan, Head of International Client Success.

Kicking off our Accessibility Blog Series this week, this blog compares the effort schools need to take to remediate and manage their site accessibility on your own, versus using a managed service, such as AudioEye.  

A redesign may just be the next best thing to add to your spring cleaning list! Find inspiration from this school's recent redesign and how they made it a successful, effective project.

From the term "Ally" to WCAG 2.0, I'm clearing up the confusion around web accessibility in this post!

Learn top tips and strategies for a successful redesign from the team at WAB who launched an award winning site.

Learn how the team at Avon Grove School District's website remains ADA compliant and fully accessible without any extra effort from staff.

From new features in Google My Business, to Advanced Site Search, and even Facebook's algorithm change, we narrowed down what you'll love about digital marketing this year and what you'll wish could go away.

Around 50-60% of our clients' traffic comes from search engines, with 80-90% of that search traffic coming from Google. Because search traffic makes up a large portion of overall website traffic, it is essential that your district understands how search works, and more importantly, how current and potential families are using search to learn more about your district.

Here are four easy steps to help you start building an effective inbound marketing campaign for your enrollment which will help prospective students move through your funnel.

In this post, you will learn what local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is, why you should care, and the steps you can take to help your school optimize their online presence for local searches.

Learn more about the top five, research and experience-based trends for international schools in 2018 and beyond according to Finalsite's CEO Jon Moser.

Heather Hoerle, Executive Director and CEO of The Enrollment Management Association, returns to the Apply Yourself with Tim podcast to discuss their recent report, The Ride To Independent Schools.

Storytelling boosts engagement and lets you connect with right-fit families at a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing. Learn more about how you can implement storytelling strategies this year.

Discover how this private school successfully built awareness and strengthened its brand behind their original leadership conference through content marketing, an engaging microsite, email campaigns, and more.

With the help of the Finalsite Platform, the district has improved the way they communicate online.

Make your district stakeholders happy and informed by sending them targeted, personalized and visual emails with these 10 tips for success.