A New Website Powered By Our Montessori CRM for Alef Bet Montessori School
Key Insights
- Montessori Website
- Montessori CRM
- Custom Automations
- Client Support
- Montessori Leadership Community
About Alef Bet Montessori School
Alef Bet Montessori School is a Jewish Montessori Day School in Bethesda, Maryland. They serve children from Primary to Elementary. Their curriculum includes daily prayer, the weekly Torah portion, Judaic studies and Hebrew. They believe the Montessori approach to learning is all about creating a self-guided, self-correcting and immersive learning experience that nurtures the whole child. Alef Bet is dedicated in providing families with a high quality and authentic Montessori education and a great school community.
Why Nido Marketing?
Alef Bet Montessori school was curious about how they could improve their school website and incorporate a better communications system throughout their admissions process. They wanted to work with a marketing agency who understood the Montessori space and its unique audience. Nido Marketing was clearly the right fit. We were happy to partner with Alef Bet in 2020 to help them build their school website powered by the Montessori CRM.
Growing Admissions Starts With A Great School Website
An effective Montessori marketing strategy is built upon a captivating school website. As it serves as the initial point of contact for many families, it is crucial to ensure the website is engaging, informative, and beautiful. This way, prospective parents get a positive first impression of your school.
Built specifically for Montessori schools, all our websites come complete with Montessori content and our Montessori Admissions CRM. We also recognize that while a school websites are our priority as digital marketers, it's not the main priority of a school administration team. That's why we provide maintenance for you so that your school website is always running properly and up to date.
This was a huge help for Alef Bet Montessori school as they wanted to focus their time and energy on their families, staff, and students.
When Nido Marketing began working with Alef Bet, we knew could that we could transform their website into one that would help them grow their admissions. Their previous website:
- Looked a bit outdated
- Was not compatible across devices such as a smartphones or tablets
- Didn't have enough Montessori content or a blog to engage and educate prospective families
- Lacked calls to action such as online tour scheduling
- Wasn't ADA compliant making the website less accessible
We got straight to work building Alef Bet Montessori a website that reflected the quality of their programs and would help them connect with mission appropriate families.
The Website Building Process
We strive to make the website building process as easy as possible.
Following their first consultation call, we connected Alef Bet with one of our client success managers. This ensured that the administration team at Alef Bet had a dedicated point of contact who understood their school and vision for their website. Throughout the website building and customization process, Alef Bet met with our team multiple times to ensure that their new website was tailored to their preferences and requirements.
Their new homepage is now complete with:
- Beautiful branding and photography
- Calls to action such as lead generators and tour scheduling
- Blog content that parents can explore
- A design that is easy to navigate and encourages engagement across devices
Inclusivity is an important feature to consider when building a new website. This is why we include the option to incorporate ADA compliant software in all of the school websites we build. This allows visitors to navigate the website more easily using a special ADA compliance navigation bar. It also ensures that each school we work is adhering to the American's with Disabilities Act.
So... What’s the Timeline?
The website building process typically takes a four to six weeks from start to finish and our team is always there to offer support. We made sure their website was branded and designed to their liking and the automations were running smoothly through the Montessori CRM (client relationship manager).
Our client success managers worked closely with Alef Bet's admissions team and head of school, Ellie Lichtash, to onboard them to the CRM admissions software so that they could make the most out of all the communication features. Here's what our support team had to say about working with Alef Bet:
“I worked closely with Ellie to help her configure the CRM and help them with their whole admission process. We have created multiple custom automations, calendars, and email campaigns to make the admission process a lot easier and organized. I love it when clients fully utilize the CRM and ask me to build different workflows to help them make their job easier.”
- Micel Aragoncillo, Client Success Manager at Nido Marketing
Communicating Effectively using our Montessori CRM (Client Relationship Manager)
Calls to Action are an important element of a highly effective school website. When a website has compelling calls-to-action (e.g. schedule a tour, download our paper, contact us, request our tuition), it invites families to engage at anytime, regardless of their busy schedules. Automated forms also allow schools to gather more leads and important contact information so they can communicate with prospective families more efficiently. This is where a Montessori CRM can make all the difference!
A Montessori CRM (client relationship manager) is software that is used to manage interaction with current families and prospective parents. Our CRM has been a huge help keeping communications organized and maintaining relationships with interested prospective families for Alef Bet Montessori since they started working with Nido Marketing.
We custom designed all of Alef Bet's forms using the Montessori CRM and then integrated them into their school website. With the CRM they are able to:
- Intake new leads directly from their website
- Respond automatically 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!
- Send reminders automatically to follow up by a specific date.
- Track them through your admissions pipeline
The Alef Bet website utilizes several forms including automated tour scheduling, lead generators with helpful white papers, and a general inquiry form for prospective parents who have questions or want to get in touch.
Powered by our Montessori CRM, prospective parents can easily schedule a virtual tour with Alef Bet directly on their website. They will receive a confirmation and reminders about their tour automatically. Alef Bet receives a notification on their calendar along with contact information so that they can check in or call the interested prospective family.
Pictured above is a lead generator from Alef Bet's new homepage. Here parents can receive a free white paper that helps them make a more informed decision about schooling for their child. In exchange, Alef Bet receives contact information from this valuable lead so that they can reach out to them with a personalized message inviting them to learn more about the programs that are offered at their school.
We also make sure to include an automated general inquiry form where Alef Bet can receive inquiries from interested families. They will also receive contact information from these leads for future follow ups and check-ins.
Is Our CRM Easy to Use?
There was a bit of a learning curve with the CRM, but once the admissions team learned how to use the features, it saved them time in the long run.
We make sure to offer one-on-one guidance and a smooth onboarding process to all of our CRM clients. We will answer all your questions and offer support when needed.
We custom designed all of Alef Bet's website forms using the Montessori CRM and made sure it would be straightforward for them to organize and track their new leads. Here's what they can now do with our CRM admissions software:
- 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!
- Send reminders automatically to follow up with them by a specific date.
- Track them through their admissions pipeline
It became much easier for Alef Bet to track their 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. Micel, the Client Success Manager they worked with, helped them understand this software thoroughly and offered his support.
Alef Bet can even send SMS messages and emails automatically through the CRM to confirm tours and follow up with prospective families who showed interest in their programs. This means less manual entry for their admissions team, which will be a huge time saver! Here are all the features that Alef Bet can now utilize with the Montessori CRM:
“This is a fabulous platform for Admission, Website design and marketing. I particularly enjoy their response time and support.”
-Ellie Lichtash, Head of School at Alef Bet Montessori
Community Resources: Montessori Thrive
We believe it takes a village to run a school... that's why Nido Marketing launched Montessori Thrive in 2020! This is our school leader membership resource exchange site. We have hundreds of resources that have helped many Montessori school communities as well as a private forum for Montessori School leaders to find support and get their questions answered. Here school leaders can donate and request resources to help them with:
- Parent education
- School operations
- Communication
- Marketing
- Social Media Management
- School Leadership Connection & Community
All Nido Marketing clients gain access to Montessori Thrive at no additional cost so that they can access these resources and find support when they need it!
Alef Bet Montessori school has been with us since we launched Thrive, and Head of School, Ellie Lichtash has been a valued community member and contributor. We are grateful for the resources that Alef Bet has shared with the greater Montessori community.
At Montessori Thrive, we host weekly town halls throughout the school year as a space for leaders to come together and discuss important school leadership topics. Ellie Lichtash has volunteered her time and expertise by leading a few of our town halls in the past. This has been a huge help to many school leaders. It's great when we work with school leaders who give back to the wider Montessori community.
Everything has really come together wonderfully for Alef Bet Montessori. They are happy with their new school website and the Montessori CRM. They value the help and support the Nido Marketing team has been able to offer them throughout the build out and onboarding process. Most importantly, they are able to not only reach more prospective families, but communicate with them effectively and form a great first impression.
We hope to have a continued partnership with Alef Bet in the future and continue to help them grow their school and reach more prospective families. Thank you to Alef Bet for all that you do for Montessori and for future generations!
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