Enrollment is strong, communications are reaching your audience, and donors are engaged. Why even entertain the idea of change?

It’s a fair question. On paper, and likely in practice, things are going really well. That success reflects your school’s strength, so naturally, the instinct is to protect what’s working.

When it’s smooth sailing, it’s easy to overlook the quiet costs of sticking with tools that aren't built to carry you into the next chapter. The website might be “fine.” The communication system might “do the job.”

But are they helping you grow, adapt, and support your team at the level they need, not just now, but years from now?

When you’re in a strong position, that’s exactly the time to think strategically about what’s next to improve enrollment. It’s not about fixing a problem, but more about planning ahead while you have the flexibility, bandwidth, and resources to do so without the extreme pressure. Because when circumstances do change—and they always do—having the right foundation in place will let you respond from a position of strength, rather than scrambling to catch up.

So, the question isn’t whether if things are going well now, but if the tools you rely on today are built to support your success tomorrow.

The Cost of Standing Still

Success Today Doesn’t Guarantee Success Tomorrow

Most of us don’t wake up one day and decide to start a school website redesign, overhaul our communication tools, or enrollment strategy. Those decisions usually come when enrollment dips, there’s staff turnover, or when a rebrand is around the corner. By then, the window for a smooth, thoughtful transition has already narrowed.

Here’s what doesn’t always make it into the data dashboard:

• The hours your communications manager spends wrestling with a clunky CMS.
• The missed opportunities to reach prospective families because the inquiry form isn’t mobile-friendly.
• The slow rollout of a new program because the current tools don’t integrate with your SIS
• The friction between departments trying to collaborate with outdated systems.

Alone, these challenges don’t sound urgent, but over time, they add up and appear where it matters most: in staff productivity, community engagement, and your ability to pivot when needed.

We’ve worked with schools that had full enrollment and near-perfect parent engagement. On the surface, everything looked strong, but when their long-time manager left or a new initiative needed more reliable communications, they were locked into outdated platforms that slowed their momentum. 

In some cases, the cost of standing still wasn’t immediate, but it eventually cost them their edge.

Success can lull even the most forward-thinking schools into a kind of operational inertia. When the present feels secure, it's tempting to think the future will look the same. But the expectations of your community—parents, students, faculty, and alumni—are rising. The longer your systems stay where they are, the harder it will be to catch up when you're finally forced to.

The best time to plan for a school website redesign and make strategic upgrades isn’t when problems appear, but when things are going well enough that you can lead change with confidence, not react out of necessity.

At Annunciation Orthodox School, the transition from Blackbaud to Finalsite was a welcome change, thanks to a drag-and-drop, intuitive website and marketing platform. It wasn’t always that way, though.

"I used to need to have a cheat sheet," laughed web specialist Jeri Lodato. Nowadays, the team can create dynamic emails that pull in data from Blackbaud and content from the website, and automatic data transfers from Blackbaud ensure that all of their constituent information remains up-to-date. The hourly sync removes the need for manual updates, freeing up Jeri's time so she can focus on other website projects.

Happy Teams, Better Results

When the Tools Get in the Way, Your Team Feels It First

It’s easy to assume that the system is working if the metrics are strong. But often, your team members, not the platform, are holding everything together. They’ve learned workarounds. They know which buttons not to click. They stay late to make sure the website reflects the latest details, and they triple-check parent emails because there are no guardrails in the system.

Their success might actually mean they’re succeeding in spite of the tools.

Maybe your communications manager is jumping between four platforms just to send a weekly update. Your admissions team might be exporting contact lists manually instead of working from a system that speaks to your website and email tool. And your marketing team might avoid updating the website altogether because the interface is too clunky or the process feels like a chore.

Staff don’t always raise their hand and say, “Our current system makes my job harder to attract students.” It shows up in more subtle ways:

• Delays in content updates.
• Shortcuts that reduce quality.
• Burnout from repetitive tasks that could be automated.

When we talk with schools that’ve switched to an integrated platform, one of the first things they tell us isn’t about increased open rates or improved SEO (though those often follow). It’s about relief. Relief that they’re no longer wasting time, and that the tools finally match the pace and quality of the work they’re trying to do.

“Honestly, one of the main catalysts for the redesign was that our old CMS was not user-friendly,” shared Trinity Episcopal School. “To edit anything was extremely difficult, and it was a very cumbersome tool.”

Through Finalsite’s integration with Blackbaud, parents can easily sign in and access student information, calendar data is easily synced between the two systems, and admission forms are automatically entered into their admissions database.

Since the launch, the response from the school community has been great. “I’m not a tech person,” Evans admitted, “but I couldn't have asked for an easier tool. The whole process was pretty seamless. We didn’t have any trouble with anything.”

Better tools lead to better work because teams stop spending energy fighting friction. And in a school environment, where your people are your greatest asset, that kind of lift matters.

Investing in new software makes their lives easier and empowers them to do their best work. When they win, your whole school feels it.

Implementation Takes Time — and Timing Matters

The Best Time to Prepare Was Before You Needed To.

One of the most common misunderstandings about switching communication platforms or content management systems is the assumption that it’s a quick flip. Sign a contract, hit a button, launch a new site, move on.

In reality, a successful transition takes time, typically several months from planning to launch. That timeline includes:

• Auditing and organizing your current content
• Mapping out what your school needs (not what the old system was limited to)
• Collaborating on design and messaging
• Training staff on a new platform
• Testing, revising, and finally launching

Each step is critical, and if you wait until you need to make a switch because of a leadership change, a crisis, or a system failure, you’re often making decisions under pressure with limited time and fewer resources.

“Our timeline was urgent,” said Stephanie Newton, director of communications at Christ Presbyterian Academy. Facing a coverage gap for its internal communications and emergency notifications, the school needed a mass alert system that could be deployed as soon as possible.

After switching to Finalsite’s solution, the platform's features proved valuable when it came time to notify parents that the campus was safe and secure during a soft lockdown. The announcement saw a 99.9% deliverability rate, zero bounces, and an impressive 88.2% engagement rate.

If schools start this process from a position of strength, they’re able to:

• Move at a comfortable pace
• Make thoughtful, future-focused decisions
• Involve the right voices without scrambling
• Set a realistic launch window that works with their calendar and team capacity

You wouldn’t wait until the roof is leaking to remodel your home. You plan renovations well in advance, knowing that downtime and disruption are harder to manage mid-crisis.

Keep Reading: When’s the Best Time to Launch a New School Website?

We’ve worked with schools that had every intention of switching platforms but were sidelined by budget changes, enrollment shifts, or leadership turnover. The timing was never right. And by the time the need became urgent, the process was harder and longer.

“Our competitors had much better websites, and while we had the best product in the area, our previous website didn’t do it justice," shared The Heritage School.

After their redesign with Finalsite, the website is far beyond their expectations, with inquiries running 3x higher and alumni contact updates 4x what they were in the past. “With every data point,” they said, “We’re seeing increased traffic and engagement with our site."

Still, change doesn’t have to be reactive. In fact, the best results come when it isn’t.

Positioning Your School for What Comes Next

The expectations of families, faculty, and students continue to evolve. A website and communications platform that was “good enough” years ago may now be outpaced by the very audience you serve, especially as habits shift and personalized experiences become standard. People expect more.

• Prospective parents want clear, intuitive access to program information on their phones, during lunch breaks, often within a few clicks.
   
• Returning families want effective communication that’s timely, relevant, and centralized, not scattered across inboxes, apps, and portals.
   
• Staff want tools that save time, reduce duplication, and allow them to focus on mission-aligned work rather than troubleshooting or workarounds.

"Like most independent schools," explained Siobhan O'Neill, director of marketing and communications at Notre Dame Academy- LA, "the demands for marketing and admissions just continue to increase exponentially each year.”
From initial awareness to enrollment and participation in the community, NDA now leverages Finalsite's full platform of products to engage families at every stage of their journey.

It starts with building awareness through online ads and NDA’s website, and as families consider their options, targeted marketing emails and more web content help prospects explore NDA’s programs and activities.

The "full-funnel" approach brought a consistent user experience for families and staff alike, something that NDA had been missing before its website redesign.

Since the new site went live, organic traffic to the homepage has increased by an impressive 82%, and with Finalsite’s team, NDA reworked its landing pages and launched SEO, PPC, and social ad campaigns to drive web traffic back to the school's website, seeing an average growth of over 41%.

But planning also means staying compliant, secure, and accessible. Accessibility standards are tightening, data privacy regulations are changing, and schools that haven’t upgraded their platforms in recent years may already be out of step with current best practices, even if they’re not aware of it yet.

Key Takeaway

Lead from a Place of Strength

Think about where your school needs to be three to five years from now. What tools will your team need to communicate with clarity, attract mission-fit families, and maintain a high level of trust in your community? Updating your website and communications platform is a strategic move that positions your school to keep winning, even as the landscape shifts.

By starting now, when your team is stable, your enrollment is healthy, and you have the space to think strategically, you have room to implement the right solution, the right way.

You don’t need to overhaul everything overnight, but a conversation about where you want to be and whether your current tools can take you there is a smart step toward long-term success and future-readiness.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. At Finalsite, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.