Chosen because Louise S. McGehee School won Silver for Website in the 2021 Brilliance Awards. Kristen Martty Dry ‘79, Director of Communications, shares the backstory of this winning website.

“This website warmed this girls’ school alumna’s heart with a bold yet simple design. It hits you right out of the gate with its strong message about young women and their potential, and that message follows you seamlessly across the site. I’m a firm believer that what separates good websites from great ones is an effective marriage between strong design and great copy, and this site has both.”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Begin With Strategy

A website redesign is not for the faint of heart. It involves the kind of detailed planning that makes your head hurt. It takes longer than you think. It’s more expensive than you think. And it’s up there with the top MarCom initiatives a private school can undertake. (No pressure.)

The Communications Office at Louise S. McGehee School figured all of this out ahead of time and buckled up to replace their old 2016 website with a new one by 2021.

“The main purpose of our website is to tell our story to prospective parents, to provide them with information, and to lead them, clearly, to the next step on their journey with the ultimate goal of enrolling them in our school.”

— Kristen Martty Dry ‘79, Director of Communications

Knowing that prospective parents research extensively before contacting the school, the team at McGehee wanted the new website to act as an extension of its admissions team by providing engaging content, information in an easily accessible and appealing way, as well as compelling them to take the next step in their journey.

Determine What Success Looks Like

For McGehee, success meant qualitative data in a beautiful and compelling website in addition to quantitative data such as an increase in website traffic, new users, page views and pages per session.

To be successful, McGehee knew they needed:

Compelling Imagery. This was an essential component for McGehee and one that Head of School Dr. Kimberly Field-Marvin quickly addressed at the start by hiring an experienced, renowned photojournalist with whom she had worked before.
Effective, Cohesive Messaging. McGehee worked meticulously with their brand consultant, almost page by page, to be certain they were on-brand, concise and telling their story in the best possible way.
Focused Planning. Amanda Hagood, McGehee’s Manager of Information Systems & Data Operations, produced a well-organized plan, that she constantly elaborated and finessed. Kristen says, “Truly, without a plan in place we would still be working on a mockup. It was ambitious and intimidating at times.”
Dedicated Project Managers. McGehee leaned heavily on Amanda to keep the project moving forward on their end. Their vendor, So Simple, and their branding consultants, Ovus & Ater, led the parts of the project that they controlled.
Input From Constituencies. McGehee’s Head of School noted that they needed “buy-in” from the stakeholders and held focus groups and regular meetings to tap into others’ knowledge, establish likes and dislikes, and learn how best to tell the McGehee (and the Little Gate, Early Childhood Center) story. Focus groups were conducted by the administration, Ovus & Ater, and So Simple.
- Focus Groups with Students whose priority was authenticity
- Focus Groups with Select Board Members who were well-versed in marketing and reviewed other websites to determine likes and dislikes. The idea of movement on a page was highly favored by this group and incorporated into the design.
- Surveys to key stakeholders. See sample.
- Weekly Meetings with Admissions for planning and brainstorming, as well as learning their needs for application forms, fee pages, etc. to ensure a successful admissions season.
- Weekly Meetings with Development for the same “groupthink” reasons as Admissions and to ensure successful fundraising and engagement with donors.

Above: Content and Site Maps. Click to Open.

“Very often innovative approaches to web design can compromise the clarity of the navigation. This site produces strong visuals and effective emotional appeal with an outstanding, clear navigation. The site should also be commended on its commitment to jargon-free copy.”

— Brilliance Awards Judge's Comment

Leverage Existing Assets

Since 2016, McGehee has worked with a branding company, Ovus & Ater, for projects such as rebranding, videos, admissions plans, and other strategic initiatives. This institutional knowledge gave the firm a leg up for consulting on the website. Ovus & Ater partners with web developer So Simple and brought them into the project.

Establish a Timeline

2020-2021

October-December: Research and interview website vendors
January: Commit to website vendor, Kick-Off Meeting
January-April: Research other websites and compile a list of wants, needs, likes and dislikes
March-April: Conduct focus groups
April: Photoshoot
May: Content review/creation by Division and Department Heads
May-June: Design review and iterations, finalize design
June-July: Website coding and build-out
July-August: Content and image population
August: Review, edit, test, repeat
August 16: Launch!

Celebrate Results

Quantitative (Year-to-Date Comparison)

Overall website traffic is up about 8%
Number of new users is up 6%
Number of pages per session is up 8%
Page views are up 9%
Average session duration is up 13%
Bounce rate is down 6%
Organic traffic from this year-over-year period is up 27%

All of the above means that site traffic is up and so is engagement.

Qualitative

“Like a very difficult and enormous jigsaw puzzle,” Kristen says, “all of the pieces had to fit together just right to achieve our goal of a compelling website. We are truly thrilled with the result and at a very reasonable cost ($20,000).”

Some rave reviews from McGehee fans…

“A website is often the first place a new family will engage with the school, and I think having a professional, cutting-edge website instills confidence in the school. It is one of those things that is hard to measure but is absolutely impactful.” — McGehee Alum and Former Parent

“...started floating through the website and it is GREAT. Congratulations. What an achievement!” — Board Member

“I was on the McGehee website yesterday and noticed how great it looks…I know that is a big lift — congrats!” — McGehee Alum and Former Parent

So…How did winning a Brilliance Award make you feel?

“Brilliant! After countless hours of work around the clock, it feels great to be recognized. Thank you to all of the judges and the InspirED community!”

— Kristen Martty Dry ‘79, Director of Communications

And if all this isn’t enough, McGehee won the Brilliance Awards Bronze for their Early Childhood Center’s website, Little Gate, this same year in the same category.

Congratulations, Louise S. McGehee School! You are brilliant.

TEAM
Amanda Hagood, Manager of Information Systems & Data Operations
Kristen Dry, Director of Communications
Ovus & Ater
SoSimple

See All the 2021 Winners

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Liza Fisher Norman

Master Electrician, InspirED School Marketers

Master Electrician isn’t just a fun title for me. It’s how I feel about sparking school marketers to do their best work, connecting them to one another, and helping to make their jobs easier. After working with close to 100 schools in the firm I founded — Turnaround Marketing Communications — I realized that school marketers needed a place where they could find brilliant ideas and brain food and feel supported. InspirED School Marketers was born in 2013 to fill that void, and with the help of my fabulous Best Boy, Rob, we are on a quest to make InspirED a resource you can't live without.

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