A New Website & Montessori Content Helped Bellevue Montessori School Thrive!
Key Insights:
- School Website Transformation
- Automations & Tour Scheduling: CRM
- ADA Compliance Software
- Montessori Content
- School Leadership Resources
It's crucial to leave prospective families with a lasting impression when they visit your school website. Nido Marketing was excited to partner with Bellevue Montessori school and help them build a website that would be a memorable experience for every prospective family visiting. In this case study, we'll explore the changes we made to improve Bellevue Montessori's website, take a look at the resources they can now provide families, and see how their admissions process has been transformed to help them grow their enrollment.
About Bellevue Montessori School
Bellevue Montessori School has proudly been offering Montessori programs for children aged 18 months to 12 years in Bellevue Washington. A premier school, Bellevue Montessori School has served as a model for the Montessori community. For many years Bellevue Montessori School was accredited by Montessori Schools Accreditation Council (MSAC), which has since been merged into the American Montessori Society. After a detailed review by the American Montessori Society in 2012, Bellevue Montessori School was accredited by the American Montessori Society, a distinction they share with only eleven other schools in the state of Washington.
Bellevue Montessori School develops an academically, socially, emotionally and culturally educated community of students within the framework of acceptance, compassion, and understanding, all in accordance with traditional Montessori curriculum and philosophy. They support each individual student in building a foundation for life-long learning in preparation for future educational endeavors. They are focused on providing a high quality Montessori experience to all of their students, staff, and families.
The team at Bellevue is dedicated to serving their community and was curious to learn how they could reach more prospective families and grow their programs. They heard about Nido Marketing and wanted to work with us to build a new school website that would help them increase tours, provide value to families, and build trust and credibility with prospective families.
A Website Transformation
Before partnering with any school, the team at Nido Marketing will take a good look at their school website and look for opportunities to improve and implement marketing strategies. Let's take a look at Bellevue's original website:
Pictured above is Bellevue's original homepage. The navigation bar is clear and they did have a "schedule a tour" button on the top corner. The design was clear and simple, but a clear and immediate call to action is absent. The imagery used made the text hard to read. When it comes to creating a powerful homepage, it's important to include a clear invitation or call to action for the visitor. It's also important to clearly state what ages a school serves so that a parent can immediately see whether or not the services are relevant to them.
When visitors scrolled down, they would get a quick glance at the programs offered by Bellevue. This is an effective way to introduce programs to families and invite them to click where they are interested. Our main goal here is to make the information more interactive and provide a "learn more" button so visitors have a clearer understanding on how to keep reading.
In this section, families could learn that tours were available and spots were limited. The text layout is not dynamic and appears as just a wall of text. This makes the information less obvious, and there was still no call to action or button where parents could easily schedule a tour apart from the one tucked in the top corner.
Many of the pages on Bellevue's original website offered large walls of text and information without enough visual appeal. While this information is valuable and relevant, it is less inviting to the website visitor. This provides areas of opportunity to include graphics or photography that will help tell Bellevue's powerful story.
Pictured above is a page that offers insights about what parents might expect when they join Bellevue's community. Pictures and graphics would enhance the visitor experience on this page.
Areas of Opportunity
After reviewing Bellevue's website, we identified the following areas of opportunity:
- Adding more imagery (graphics and photography)
- Breaking up text
- Including clear calls to action and automations
- Creating more learning opportunities with purposeful content
- Including social proof and testimonials
- Expanding on their school blog
- ADA compliance software
- Ease of use across devices (mobile, tablet, desktop, etc.)
After discussing these areas of possible growth with the team at Bellevue, we were able to align on some goals and designs that would help them create a better experience for their website visitors. Our Client Success Manager was able to keep communication clear and open so they understood what changes would be taking place.
The New Bellevue Website
Pictured above is the re-designed Bellevue Homepage. Immediately, visitors are greeted with a clean design and a clear call to action front and center to "schedule a tour". This invites and encourages action. As a parent scrolls down, they will see a breakdown as to why they should choose Bellevue, how the admissions process works, and what programs are available.
There is a lot to explore, but everything is broken down with imagery and purposeful design. Families can also see reviews as social proof is important, and take a peak at the educational blogs that are available for them to explore so that learning can take place directly on the Bellevue website.
When website visitors click on the blog section, they'll see the page pictured above. Everything is sectioned with photography making it easy to browse on a phone, tablet, or computer. As a Montessori Content subscriber, Bellevue Montessori school has access to Nido Marketing's blog content. This will allow them to publish regular blogs. It also gives them access to Nido Marketing's extensive Montessori stock photo library, helping them embellish their website and blogs with images that are relevant to the Montessori space.
By publishing regular blogs, Bellevue Montessori is providing value to current and prospective families. When families are able to learn about the unique benefits of Montessori directly from Bellevue's website, they'll build a sense of trust and credibility with the school. This content can also be repurposed into social posts, newsletters, and more.
We also built out a new page to explain the admissions process. By being clear about the admissions process directly on their school website, Bellevue can invite immediate action and leads to be funnelled through their website easily. We've included imagery and lines to break up the easy 4 step process. The goal of this page is to encourage families to start the process and schedule a tour with Bellevue.
We made a few changes to the parent expectation page by adding imagery, breaking up the text, and providing a free resource that families can easily access.
We've also included a contact us form where parents could easily submit a request for more information or ask questions. This is a great way to generate leads automatically through your website and collect information on interested prospective families so that Bellevue can send them valuable information about enrolling.
Finally, we've included ADA compliant software on Bellevue's new website—which is a legal requirement nowadays!
When you don't make your website ADA compliant, you are missing out on families that cannot access your website due to a disability. It's important to make your website a place that celebrates inclusion and allows any family to take part in engaging and connecting with your school. If your website isn't accessible to everyone, you’re effectively shutting out up to 61 million people, or one in four U.S. adults living with a disability. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make “reasonable modifications” to serve individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including the internet.
What are the Benefits of ADA Compliance?
- Reduce your legal risk of an ADA-related lawsuit
- Improve your search optimization
- Improve your overall user experience
- Position your school as one that values inclusivity
- Reach a larger audience
Now Bellevue has a more accessible website.
Automations: A CRM That Works Behind The Scenes
Bellevue was thrilled with the new design and ease of use of their new school website... but it really is the functionality that sets Nido Marketing websites apart. This is due to our Montessori CRM (Client Relationship Manager).
A Montessori CRM 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 Bellevue Montessori since they started working with Nido Marketing.
We custom designed all of Bellevue'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
Powered by our Montessori CRM, prospective parents can easily schedule a virtual tour with Bellevue directly on their website. They will receive a confirmation and reminders about their tour automatically. Bellevue receives a notification on their calendar along with contact information so that they can check in or call the interested prospective family.
Is Our CRM Easy to Use?
There is a bit of a learning curve with the CRM, but the Nido Marketing team works closely with clients so that they fully understand the software.
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 want every client to have a good experience, which is why you'll always speak to a Client Manager who is familiar with you and your school.
What Does Bellevue Have To Say About Their New Website?
It's our aim to make sure that all of our clients have a great experience. We know that building a new website can be stressful, especially when implementing new admissions software. We feel confident that Bellevue's new website will continue to help them increase admissions and save time through the use of effective automations.
“Our partnership with Nido Marketing has been great for our school. Their dedicated team helped us create a new website and increased our online presence through consistent blog and social media posts. We are extremely satisfied with our partnership.”
- Jennifer Hamilton, Assistant Primary Program Director at Bellevue Montessori school
We hope to have a continued partnership with Bellevue Montessori in the future and continue to help them grow their school and reach more prospective families. Thank you to Bellevue for all that you do for Montessori and for future generations!
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