Digistorm Blog

Understanding A/B Testing for School Websites

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Thu, 20 Feb 2020 22:00:00 GMT

When it comes to measuring an improving your digital efforts, A/B testing is a method that you'll come across again and again. It's also known as split testing or bucket testing and it's the process of running two versions of a website, app or ad simultaneously to find out which one converts better. It's an absolute dynamite tool to have in your digital marketing toolkit, but it can be tricky to know where to start. In this post, we'll look at A/B testing for your school website: how to set it up, how to accurately measure performance and how to continuously improve.

How Digital Transformation Impacts Your School

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 22:30:00 GMT

It's 2020 and the phrase, "digital transformation" is everywhere. From independent coffee shops to billion-dollar enterprises, it seems that every business (no matter how big or small) is working hard to remain competitive in an increasingly digital world. Digital transformation has been trickling into schools over the past decade, with some schools hiring consultants or creating entire roles to create new digital frameworks and strategies and drive important change throughout all school processes.

Digi People: Meet Deb, Our Lead Designer

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Tue, 18 Feb 2020 05:41:28 GMT

Every month, we sit down with a team member at Digistorm to talk about their life, their career before Digistorm, and what their experience has been since working here. Deb has been working with Digistorm for four years and is currently heading up our talent Design team. In this interview, we chat with Deb about her journey to becoming a designer, how she swapped selling burritos for working at Digistorm, and what she loves most about our team.

5 Ways to Make an Impact With A School App

jamie.giblett@digistorm.com.au (Jamie Giblett) — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 22:24:00 GMT

Did you know that the average person spends around 3 hours and 15 minutes on our mobile devices every day? Our smartphones might just be the one device that's with us at all times. It's no wonder then why many schools are choosing to engage their community through a school app. In this post, we’re going to cover five key ways a school app can help your school to better connect and engage with families and students.

We Just Launched Our New Global Office

tim@digistorm.com.au (Tim Oswald) — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 22:41:29 GMT

Stop what you're doing for this important Digistorm news update. Today, we're excited to announce that we've officially launched our brand-new global office in wait for it -- Denver, Colorado! That's right, Digistorm has put its roots down in the home of the Rocky Mountains in order to better support our North American clients.

Apple's App Developer Program Is Now Free in Australia

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Sun, 09 Feb 2020 23:28:00 GMT

Exciting news for all schools with a Digistorm App or another school app in Australia: Apple's Developer Program membership is now available at no cost for all accredited educational institutions. The Apple Developer program is the best way for schools to publish and distribute their own apps on the App Store. You can get a brief rundown on the benefits of the program here.

Setting School Marketing Goals for 2020

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Wed, 05 Feb 2020 23:14:00 GMT

It's that time of year again! Your school is gearing up for 2020, making plans and working out what you need to do to achieve them. We all know that failure to plan means failure to succeed. But how do you ensure that your plans set up your marketing team for success?

How Concordia Lutheran College Doubled Online Enrolment Applications with Funnel

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Tue, 04 Feb 2020 22:00:00 GMT

Concordia Lutheran College is a co-educational school for Prep to Year 12, across three campuses in Toowoomba, Queensland. With a goal to boost enrolments and streamline internal processes, Concordia implemented Digistorm's customer relationship manager (CRM), Funnel, to better nurture prospective families from enquiry to enrolment. We recently sat down with Bianca Coleborn, the Director of Marketing and Enrolments at Concordia Lutheran College to explore what impact Funnel has had on their enrolments.

Optimising Images for Your School Website

chris@digistorm.com.au (Chris Lang) — Sun, 02 Feb 2020 22:45:00 GMT

A quick note from Digistorm: this post was originally published in August 2017 and has since been updated to include more up-to-date and relevant information!

We all love a well-designed school website that uses images to tell an impactful story and provoke an emotional response. A great example is Ivanhoe Girls' Grammar School, which uses thoughtfully placed photos of students to communicate a story of friendship, connection and inclusion from the moment you hit their website.

Mobile Apps vs. Responsive Websites for Schools

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Wed, 29 Jan 2020 21:00:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in March 2017. We've updated it to include more relevant information.

What Your School Needs to Know About the Notifiable Data Breach Scheme (NDBS)

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 21:15:00 GMT

Let’s be honest. With the digital world consuming so much of our day-to-day, and so much of our data circling around the interwebs, it’s no wonder that data security has become a hot topic in the last 12 months.

Tips to Kick-Start Your Digistorm Systems Like a Pro in 2020

Monica Gill — Fri, 24 Jan 2020 05:20:00 GMT

Are you ready to make 2020 your most productive and successful year yet? We recently shared our most-read blogs from 2019 and top recommendations for social media management tools to shift you into a goal-kicking mindset, but what about your Digistorm systems?

To help you hit the ground running, we've put together a list of commonly overlooked 'back to school' items that will get your Digistorm systems cleaned up and in gear for the new year.

Four Social Media Management Tools for a Productive 2020

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 23:15:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in February 2017 and has since been updated to include more relevant and up-to-date content.

It's no secret that social media is one of the best places to market your school to prospective families. In fact, we believe it's so effective that we created an entire social media marketing for schools toolkit to help boost your digital marketing strategy.

Here's the thing about social media success though, you have to be consistent! For many school marketers, managing multiple social media channels can be quite the time-consuming process. Think about it, you have to schedule posts, monitor communities, report on analytics -- and that's just for one channel let alone several. If you want to set yourself up for a productive year, it's time to step it up with a social media management tool.

There's a wide range of tools (both free and paid) on the market at the moment with varying capabilities. To make life easier, we've put together a list (in no particular order) of our top recommendations to organise your social media channels.

The McDonald College Finds Success With Funnel

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Tue, 21 Jan 2020 00:30:00 GMT

Digi People: Meet Jamie, Our Senior Account Executive

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 23:59:40 GMT

Every month, we sit down with a team member at Digistorm to talk about their life, their career before Digistorm and what their experience has been since working here. Jamie has been working at Digistorm for three years in our Sales team — first as a Client Success Manager and now as our Senior Account Executive. Jamie works with schools in Australia and the United States to understand their business needs and goals and how Digistorm's products can work towards them. In this interview, we chat with Jamie about his journey to Sales, his childhood hero and his favourite part about working at Digistorm.

Our Top 5 Reads of 2019 (Voted By You)

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Mon, 20 Jan 2020 04:45:00 GMT

It's a new year, which means that it's time to wipe the slate clean and start setting goals to ensure a successful year ahead. If you're still feeling a little hazy after the summer break, don't worry, we've got you covered. To help get you in the right mindset for a goal-kicking 2020, we've rounded up five of our most-read blog posts from 2019.

Covering a broad-range of topics, you'll find everything from key marketing trends to tips on engaging Millennial parents, fresh blog content ideas and more! So, what are we waiting for? Let's get into it.

Your School Website is Live. What's Next?

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 22:25:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: this post was originally published in September 2018. We've updated it to include more relevant information.

The Importance of Information Architecture

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Wed, 15 Jan 2020 23:00:00 GMT

When you hear the word 'architecture' your mind probably starts conjuring up images of buildings and floor plans. While this is the most common sense of the word, it's not the only one. Did you know that architecture can be applied not only to buildings, but websites and technology too?

Digistorm's 2019 Highlights

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Tue, 14 Jan 2020 04:30:00 GMT

That's a wrap! 2019 is done and dusted and the 'twenty-twenties' have officially arrived. But before we dive head-first into the new decade, let's take a moment to reflect on some of Digistorm's most memorable moments from 2019.

How to Build the Ultimate Content Calendar for Your School

jamie.giblett@digistorm.com.au (Jamie Giblett) — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 21:00:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in February 2018. We've updated it to include more relevant information.

If your school marketing team is feeling under the pump, it's no wonder! Schools in 2020 are constantly pushing out social media posts, blogs posts, website updates, photos and videos to keep their school community in the loop — and it can feel incredibly overwhelming. That's where content calendars can come in to save the day.

Using Lead Scoring to Speed Up Your School’s Enrolments Process

chris@digistorm.com.au (Chris Lang) — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 23:02:23 GMT

This year, we’ve talked a lot about increasing your school enrolment applications, by implementing tactics that capture the interest of a broader net of prospective families. After executing a cohesive enrolments strategy, you'll likely start to see more and more applications come through your enrolment portal — great!

Reducing the School Equivalent of Cart Abandonment

chris@digistorm.com.au (Chris Lang) — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 23:00:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in December 2017. We've updated it to include more relevant information.

In the online retail world, cart abandonment — where a user places an item into their virtual shopping cart and never checks out — is a closely monitored statistic that businesses work hard to reduce. It's incredibly important that businesses try to catch users before they abandon their website.

Six Ways to Improve School Relationships With Parents

chris@digistorm.com.au (Chris Lang) — Thu, 02 Jan 2020 03:00:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in September 2017. We've updated it to include more relevant information.

Over the past year, we've sat down with dozens of marketing and admissions staff from independent schools around Australia to talk to them about their enrolments processes. There is a big focus on nurturing new families into the school community and encouraging them to enrol. This makes sense — schools need a flow of enrolment applications to keep running effectively. But your existing families are also a huge asset.

New Facebook Post Ideas for the New Year

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 21:30:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in January 2018. We've updated it to include more recent content and statistics.

Four Emails Your School Needs to Automate Now

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 23:00:00 GMT

Writing, testing, and sending emails is mundane and time-consuming at the best of times, let alone during those busy school terms. Thankfully, email automation is now an expected tool that comes with most (if not all) modern email marketing systems.

The Best Time to Post on Facebook (Backed By Data)

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Wed, 25 Dec 2019 22:00:00 GMT

If you’ve created a strategic content calendar for your school, are posting regularly, but still aren’t seeing the results you’re looking for – it could just be a matter of time…

The Difference Between UX and UI (And Why They’re so Important)

chris@digistorm.com.au (Chris Lang) — Mon, 23 Dec 2019 23:00:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in April 2017. We've updated it to include more relevant information.

Digi People: Meet Heather, Our Marketing Manager

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 22:30:00 GMT

Every month we sit down with a team member at Digistorm to talk about their life, their career before Digistorm, and what their experience has been since working here. Heather joined the team in January, taking on the role as Marketing Manager! In this interview, we chat about building 'creative confidence,' the key qualities of a great marketer, and why her younger siblings are her greatest inspiration.

Omni-Channel vs Multi-Channel Marketing Explained

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Mon, 16 Dec 2019 22:30:00 GMT

As marketers, we know that our industry is fast-moving and with it comes an array of terminology, trends, and "buzz words." One that's caught our attention recently is omni-channel marketing. Have you heard of it?

The 3 Key Features of a Great 'Letter of Offer'

Monica Gill — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 23:50:35 GMT

Every school has its own unique spin on the enrolment journey, but if there’s one thing that they all have in common, it’s that it can take years to nurture prospective families from awareness to enrolment. You’ve put in a lot of time and resources in the lead up to this moment and now you’ve finally arrived — it’s time to send your ‘letter of offer.’

A Beginner's Guide to SEO vs. SEM

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:29:00 GMT

Search engine optimisation (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) are two terms that you've probably come up against in your school marketing efforts. But what's the difference between them?

5 Time-Saving Ideas for Your Marketing Team

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 01:08:00 GMT

According to imageseven's recent survey into school marketing, 63% of school marketers report that their biggest challenge when it comes to social media marketing is lack of time. This echoes similar sentiments that we heard in the Interactive Minds Digital Summit earlier in the year, where marketers talked about growing demands on their already under-resourced teams.

Digi People: Meet Chris Love, Our Software and Implementation Developer

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 22:45:00 GMT

Every month we sit down with a team member at Digistorm to talk about their life, their career before Digistorm and what their experience has been since working here. Chris has been working at Digistorm for three years, first in a tech support role and now working alongside Gus as a part of the Digistorm development team. In this interview, we chat about his career progression in Digistorm, a Hackathon highlight, and why a shoe visionary is his biggest inspiration right now.

How to Increase Opens and Clicks on Your School Newsletter

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Wed, 27 Nov 2019 22:58:00 GMT

School newsletters have evolved a lot over the past few years. While some schools are still creating beautifully-designed, printed versions to send home with students, many schools have abandoned printing in favour of a digital format. The upside to this is that newsletters are no longer found crumpled and torn at the bottom of a child’s backpack at the end of term. The downside is that digital versions are getting missed, ignored or are, at best, lightly skimmed.

Highlights From Hackstrom 2019: Our First-Ever Hackathon

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Mon, 25 Nov 2019 04:20:43 GMT

A few weeks ago, we ran our first-ever Star Wars-themed hackathon right here at Digistorm HQ. The event (which we've fondly dubbed 'Hackstrom') took place over two and half days and was fuelled by passion, innovation and A LOT of snacks!

How to Run a Charity Event at Your School (And Maximise Donations)

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Wed, 20 Nov 2019 23:30:00 GMT

We all know that supporting charity and giving back to those in need feels good, but it's about so much more than that. It installs altruism and a sense of responsibility for helping our community. It also allows us to see that we can make a difference and make an impact on those around us.

Ideas for School Social Content Over the Holidays

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 22:00:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in November 2017. We've updated it to include more relevant information.

Every Christmas, Easter and term break, we see the same thing happen — your school is no longer abuzz with students, activities and excitement, so social media can get a little bit quiet. Even though it seems like less is going on, it is important to remember that your audience is still checking social media throughout this period. In fact, they are probably using social media more than usual with their extra free time! To help you to keep you posting engaging content, we’ve put together some quick, easy and interesting ideas to keep you going over the holiday period.

How to Plan and Run a Successful Social Media Campaign

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 23:15:00 GMT

If you are anything like us, you are always on the lookout for different ways to shake things up on your social media channels. From brainstorming unique social post content to encouraging your school leaders to connect on social, schools are trying a number of tactics to capture their users' interest, boost engagement and support marketing goals.

How to Attract and Engage Millennial Parents

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:11:08 GMT

The next generation of prospective parents have officially arrived: meet the Millennials. There are currently around 7.6 million Millennials in Australia (born between 1981 - 1996), with numbers expected to grow to 8.3 million over the next decade.

Digi People: Meet Monica, Our Customer Experience and Implementation Specialist

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 23:51:00 GMT

Every month we sit down with a team member at Digistorm to talk about their life, their career before Digistorm and what their experience has been since working here. Monica has been working at Digistorm for two years, first in the role of Client Success Manager and now as our Customer Experience and Implementation Specialist. In this interview, we chat about her journey to joining Digistorm, project highlights, hobbies outside of work, and her favourite part of working at Digistorm.

Maximising the Reach of Your Facebook Posts

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Mon, 04 Nov 2019 21:15:00 GMT

The Facebook algorithm is an ever-changing formula that dictates how successful your school’s Facebook post is in travelling through the newsfeeds of your audience. Unless your school is new to the social media game, you've probably noticed that it's becoming harder and harder for your school to reach new audiences on the platform.

While yes, it's true the algorithm continues to favour the posts of personal pages (and often requires business pages to spend money on advertising), there are still strategies that your school can use to improve your performance.

Spotlight on Paid Social Media for Schools

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 05:13:00 GMT

Ask any marketer and they’ll tell you that social media is a key player in their digital marketing strategy. While it’s one of the most common channels brands use to communicate with their target audiences, it’s also one that experiences the most change. Take Facebook for example, who earlier this year made some significant changes to the platform’s algorithm to prioritise more ‘meaningful connections.’

Shake Up Your Marketing and Enrolment Strategies with These 5 Tips

jamie.giblett@digistorm.com.au (Jamie Giblett) — Wed, 23 Oct 2019 22:53:48 GMT

I jetted over to my home town of WA a couple of weeks ago to spend some time on the ground with our Digistorm schools and host our first-ever Perth marketing and enrolments meetup! A special shout-out to the team at Presbyterian Ladies College, Perth for letting me take over their classroom for the morning. Now that I'm back at Digistorm HQ, I've had some time to reflect on some of the key innovations and challenges covered during the session and now, I'd like to share them with you. So, without further ado, let's get into it.

Why We Focus on Integration

jamie.giblett@digistorm.com.au (Jamie Giblett) — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 21:30:00 GMT

A note from Digistorm: This post was originally published in March 2018. We've updated it to include more relevant, valuable information.

Email marketing. Student databases. Learning management systems. Accounting. Document management. Enrolments registers. All of your school’s essential functions tend to operate in silos. This is great for the very few among us who love manual data entry, but not so great for maintaining data integrity and maximising your time.

The answer? Integration.

Digi People: Meet Gus, Our Lead Developer

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 23:08:30 GMT

Every month, we sit down with a team member at Digistorm to talk about their life, their career before Digistorm and what their experience has been since working here. Gus has been working at Digistorm for three years in the role of lead developer. Along with our Managing Director Tim, Gus leads a team of 12 software, app and web developers who build amazing products for schools around the world. In this interview, we chat about his journey to becoming a developer, his greatest passion outside of work, and his favourite part about working at Digistorm.

How to Write the Perfect Captions for Your School’s Social Media

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 05:28:00 GMT

Five Easy Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your School’s Blog Posts

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 00:30:00 GMT

If you write for your school’s blog, you can testify to just how much time, effort and research it takes to create a valuable piece of content for your audience. As a blogger, you also know that it in our ever-crowded digital environment, where over 4.5 million blogs are published every day, getting eyes on your content can be tricky.

3 Personalisation Case Studies That Make an Impact

heather.venz@digistorm.com.au (Heather Venz) — Tue, 08 Oct 2019 01:02:00 GMT

Personalisation is the marketing tactic of the year, and we can’t stop talking about it.

A School Marketer’s Guide to Marketing Automation

tara.gosling@digistorm.com.au (Tara Gosling) — Thu, 03 Oct 2019 10:08:00 GMT

As marketers, we're constantly trying to find ways to communicate effectively across multiple digital channels. But with so many online touch points, it’s near impossible to achieve the results we’re looking for -- especially if your team is under-resourced. To be a truly effective marketer in a multi-channel environment, you’re going to need some help: enter marketing automation.

20 Blog Post Ideas Your School Community Will Actually Want to Read

Charlotte B — Sun, 29 Sep 2019 22:40:00 GMT

Blogging is the perfect inbound marketing strategy for schools -- not only does it require zero cash and minimal resources, but it also provides your website with an opportunity for authentic engagement. Parents love to read real-life stories that help them feel like they’re a part of the process, even when they’re not physically there.