Montessori School of Louisville: Tours Booked for Months and Calls Every Day!
Key Highlights
- Montessori Website
- Automations & Customizations
- Communication Streamlining with the Montessori CRM
- Montessori Content
- Montessori Thrive Marketing & Leadership Resources
About Montessori School of Louisville (MSL)
Montessori School of Louisville was founded in 2006 by a group of Montessori parents and educators committed to supporting the growth of Montessori education in the Metro Louisville area. MSL opened its doors with just 28 students in August, 2006 with one Early Childhood classroom (ages 3-6), one Lower Elementary classroom (ages 6-9), and one Upper Elementary classroom (ages 9-12). MSL currently includes four early childhood, two lower elementary, one upper elementary, and one middle school classrooms. Each space is uniquely designed to meet the developmental needs of our community. MSL serves over 180 students, their families, and 30 full-time employees, representing a 500% enrollment growth in just nine years.
On March 17, 2016 Montessori School of Louisville became one of three American Montessori Society (AMS) accredited schools in Kentucky. MSL is also the only Montessori school in the state that holds dual accreditation with AMS and SACS. MSL is also a member of the National Association of Independent Schools. Their mission is to support children’s innate love for learning in a diverse and nurturing community that integrates authentic Montessori philosophy with contemporary, research-based educational methods. Students of the Montessori School of Louisville are empowered to make knowledgeable, responsible, and peaceful contributions to the global community.
Why Nido Marketing?
MSL worked for many years to develop high quality Montessori programs for their community... they just wanted to attract the right families to fill them! They wanted a new school website that could show families their programs and how beneficial Montessori is for children. They wanted to partner with marketing experts who also had a background and an understanding of the Montessori space. Nido Marketing was the clear choice as it was the only digital marketing agency that worked exclusively with Montessori schools.
MSL signed up for the Complete Marketing Plan with Nido Marketing in February of 2022. We were excited to work with a school that provided such great programs to its community and looked forward to transforming their website into one that would help them grow their enrollment!
A Montessori Website That Shines
Nowadays, parents are forming their first impression of a school through their website. It is crucial to have a website that is beautiful, functional, easy to navigate and informative. Nido Marketing specializes in building successful websites for Montessori schools. Building a school website that would shine to prospective families was the first step in MSL's marketing journey.
To start, MSL had a consultation call with us where they were able to get all of their questions answered and describe their ideal school website. Nido Marketing advises schools on a few key features to make their website stand out such as:
- Automated tour scheduling
- Compatibility across devices (smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc.)
- Great graphic design
- Montessori content
- Automated tours
- Montessori Images
- An easy to navigate layout
MSL was then paired with a Client Success Manager at Nido Marketing, a person that they could communicate with directly so that their website and marketing requests could be taken promptly. Our Client Success Managers are very helpful and make sure that each client can get the support they need. Our web development team got to work building a website to their specifications. The result; a beautiful school website that would wow prospective families and encourage engagement was built for MSL in a month.
While scrolling through the website, prospective families will come across graphics and content that will teach them about the unique benefits of Montessori. As part of our complete marketing plan, MSL has access to unlimited graphic design. This includes graphics for their websites and any other marketing needs such as videos, brochures, posters, and more!
The MSL website is full of beautiful photography and images that showcase Montessori classrooms and students families. Parents are able to find information about the admissions and application process and can easily request more information and fill out forms.
All of the pages on the MSL website are strategic and intentional. With a gated tuition page, MSL is able to collect important parent contact information so that they can deliver tuition rates alongside valuable resources and information on the benefits of Montessori. This helps justify the cost of tuition to families and has been a successful approach as this is usually the most requested and desired piece of information a parent wants while researching different schools.
Automations and Customizations
Automated forms are an important element of a functional school website. They allow families to engage with school websites and request resources and information that they are interested in. In return, schools receive the valuable contact information of these interested parents so they can send follow ups and check-ins. This allows schools to take a personalized approach to marketing.
A great example of this would be automated tour scheduling. When schools have automated tour scheduling forms on their school website, a prospective parent can easily book a tour directly on a school website in 2 minutes. Not only is this more accessible for today's busy parents, it leaves the school with a parent's email and phone number so that the CRM can confirm the tour and send any additional information a parent may need to prepare.
It's very easy for a parent to book a tour, they can just select from available dates and times that are set by the school. The school will receive a notification on their calendar and can then call to follow up with the parent. We were able to customize MSL's tour calendar to their specifications and it has led to a big increase in tours booked.
"We are booked with tours months out and phone calls everyday. We attribute most of this to NIDO's CRM and website. It has streamlined our enrollment process!"
- Rachel Flavell, MSL Director of Operations
There are several automated forms throughout the MSL website that has allowed them to collect more contact information from interested parents such as lead generators and a general inquiry forms. Having these forms and automations throughout the MSL website has allowed them to grow their enrollment, and they are all powered by our Montessori CRM.
Communication Streamlined with the Montessori CRM
A Montessori CRM (client relationship manager) is software that is used to manage interaction with current families and prospective parents. A CRM has been a huge help with keeping communications organized and maintaining relationships with interested prospective families.
We custom designed all of MSL's forms using the Montessori CRM and then integrated them into their school website. With the CRM they are able to:
- Respond via email or text thanking the visitor for their interest and letting them know that they'll be in touch soon.
- Organize the visitor’s contact information and any other information captured on the form for future reference
- Tag them as a “lead” or a “prospect” - or any tag that makes sense!
- Automatically reminders to follow up with them by a specific date.
- Track them through your admissions pipeline
It became much easier for MSL to track admissions through the CRM. They were able to customize their admissions pipeline to fit their process so they could track all their leads on their way to enrollment. Our Client Success Manager helped them learn the software and all of the features they now had access to. Now, it's easy for MSL to keep track of their contacts and communicate with prospects.
MSL can even send SMS messages and emails automatically through the CRM to confirm tours. This means less manual entry for their admissions team, which has been a huge time saver! Here are all the features that MSL now has access to through our Montessori CRM:
Montessori Content: Informing Families on the Unique Benefits of Montessori
Unlike traditional schooling models, Montessori needs to constantly educate prospective families. Many families already know what to expect when enrolling in public schooling or a traditional daycare... they may not know yet what Montessori is really about. This is where Montessori content can really make a difference in a school's marketing strategy.
As part of our complete plan, Nido Marketing offers Montessori content that helps schools communicate the unique benefits of Montessori to families. Our content services include:
- Weekly Montessori blogs written by an accredited Montessori guide
- Weekly emails
- Weekly Instagrams posts with photos
- Daily social posts on Facebook
- Access to our Montessori stock photo and video library
We also help post all of this content to the school website and social platforms, we just need a seal of approval. We can even post blogs that have been written by the MSL staff for them, they just need to submit them. This has been a great solution for MSL. Now they can utilize informative content, decide what is posted on their school website, and have it posted for them!
MSL has been able to grow a great blog section with a mix of their own blogs, blogs that we have provided, and imagery from our Montessori stock photo library. Now they offer this as a resource for prospective families so that they can learn more about Montessori directly from the MSL website. Not only does this help with educating families, it provides content that schools can utilize in newsletters, social media, and it can help with SEO.
Montessori Thrive Marketing & Leadership Resources
Through a partnership with Nido Marketing, MSL also has access to Montessori Thrive, a school leadership resource and community membership site. Montessori Thrive offers an array of resources to help schools with:
- Marketing
- Communication
- Parenting education
- Operations
It also offers a private school leadership forum where school leaders can ask each other questions and find support. We even hold weekly town hall meetings on Zoom to discuss various school leadership topics that leaders and administrators are always welcome to join. We believe it is important for school leaders to have access to a greater community that can collaborate and help Montessori grow across communities. MSL has joined our town halls and contributed some great ideas to the wider Montessori community. It has been great having them as part of our community.
Everything has really come together wonderfully for MSL. They have been able to book more tours and enroll more families, which has allowed their programs and community to thrive. At Nido Marketing, we love helping schools with their marketing because we know that it will leave them with more time to serve their families and staff. When
We hope to have a continued partnership with MSL in the future and continue to help them grow their school and reach more prospective families. Thank you to MSL for all that you do for Montessori and for future generations!
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