In this episode of Apply Yourself, Tim talks with Jennie Winton, Co-Founder of Mission Minded, to discuss the differences in marketing and branding, the importance of each, how schools can cut through the typical school jargon, why paying attention to what the competition is doing is so important, and how schools can only really successfully market themselves once they understand what makes their brand unique.

Mission Minded works exclusively with nonprofits and independent schools to help clarify marketing and branding to better communicate what makes each nonprofit and independent school unique with the goal of attracting new students and families.

In this special episode of Apply Yourself, Senior Client Success Manager and Higher Education and Independent School Sales Manager Lorrie Jackson sits down with Courtney Joyner, Webmaster at Parish Episcopal School in Dallas, Texas, to discuss how Parish Episcopal redesigned and rebranded their website with a larger focus on mobile visitors and delivering content more efficiently, their partnership with Blackbaud to power all of their data-based needs, and the school's entrepreneurial spirit and unique campus. Oh, and some of the best places in Dallas to grab some food on your next visit!

In this episode, Tim sits down with Will Gay, Director of Communications and Marketing at Riverside Presbyterian Day School in Jacksonville, Florida. Their discussion includes Riverside's wholistic approach to education, choosing a mobile-first website design philosophy, and how Riverside increased their applications and improved their admission funnel through improved search engine optimization and pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Listen to this podcast and learn more about this approach in this blog.

More about Will Gay:

Will has been the Director of Communications and Marketing at Riverside Presbyterian Day School since 2013. He previously worked in television news as a Technical Director, Chief Video Editor, and Newscast Director. Will made the switch from television news to school marketing in 2011. In total, Will has seventeen years of professional experience developing creative and effective communication, marketing and public relations solutions that utilize design, video, photography, and emerging web-based technologies. 

In this episode, Tim sits down with Mark Siegel, Assistant Headmaster at the Delphian School in Oregon, to discuss the success behind the school's approach with proficiency-based education. This has helped shape their students' experience when learning the material in school. It has also transformed the traditional grading system by ensuring students are mastering the skills they are learning to be successful in the future. Listen to this podcast and learn more about this approach in this blog.

More about Mark:

Mark Siegel, JD, is Assistant Headmaster at the Delphian School (delphian.org), Oregon’s premier international day and boarding school in Sheridan, Oregon. Mark has held many different positions since helping start the school in 1974. He was born in Boston, went to school in southern California and graduated from California State University, Fullerton. He attended UC Davis School of Law and moved to Oregon in 1974 to help found the Delphian School. He has headed the Oregon Federation of Independent Schools since 1989, and he is now serving his 24th year on the board of the Council for American Private Education. He’s served on Oregon State Board of Ed and the Oregon Department of Ed Task Forces, and he serves on the Department’s Private School Partnership Committee. He travels the country speaking to educators and parents as an advocate for private education and for proficiency-based education. He wants to see all schools shift from the factory-model to more personalized, student-centered approaches. He works with public and private schools to help them in that transition. He is also very active in the business community and has chaired the McMinnville Area Chamber of Commerce. He takes about 30 students on 10-day business seminar field trips to the east or west coast each year.

In this podcast, Tim sits down with former NAIS president and president of Heads Up Consulting Pat Bassett to discuss how schools can engage with millennial parents and alumni, based on his popular webinar "Marketing to Millennial Parents: Winning Engagement in the Busy Realm of Social Media" with Finalsite's Content Marketing Manager Mia Major.

Pat shares best practices for school marketers to consider, including the types of content that see the best engagement, the best ways to reach millennials online, how to use data to improve school fundraising efforts, and more.

Tim joins Kristen Kerwin, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications at Avon Old Farms School, in the FinalsiteFM Podcast studio to discuss her role, the school’s social media content strategy, successful blog, and great ways they are involving the students in their marketing efforts. She has experience working in the Marketing and Communications field at several New England private schools for the past five years.

You can learn more about Kristen on the Avon Old Farms School website here.

Read the latest on Avon Old Farms School Blog.

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Tim sits down with Emily Cretella, Content Marketing Strategist & Copywriter at Cursive Content Marketing, for Episode 19. Emily Cretella is a marketing strategist and copywriter who helps her clients create and share stories that make audiences take action. During the podcast, you'll hear more about how she is influencing independent schools and higher education. She also highlights their NEW free resource 2018 Big Book of School Blog Prompts available now.

As owner of Cursive Content Marketing, Emily provides consulting, copywriting services and workshops to independent schools and higher education. Read her stories at cursivecontent.com, and sign up to access her FREE School Marketer's Toolkit of e-books and worksheets designed to help you tell a stronger school story. You can also contact Emily at:

twitter.com/emilycretella

facebook.com/cursivecontent

linkedin.com/in/emilycretella

[email protected]

Finalsite's Tim McDonough, alongside Liza Fisher Norman and Rob Norman of InspirED School Marketers, continue their popular podcast with part two to discuss the upcoming 2017 Brilliance Awards deadline, the judges, and why you should enter the Brilliance awards. They also spend time during the podcast reflecting on the feedback their team has been receiving on their recent Mar/Com Survey Report.

As an important reminder, the submission deadline for the 2017 Brilliance awards is Friday, October 27th at midnight! Best of luck to those that enter.

Be sure to stay tuned for a special announcement at the end of the podcast!

InspirED School Marketers is a free, online professional development resource and community that provides inspiration, education and information to school marketers. Learn more at www.inspiredsm.com.

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