Knock knock. Who’s there? 2024!

In case you haven’t heard, 2024 is around the corner. If you are on a January-December fiscal year, congrats! You’re almost there. Spend that remaining budget, throw a few hail marys to reach your fundraising goal (if you planned out your EOY campaign in October, gold star for you), and get those ad buys in for January. 

It’s also time to determine where you saw success in 2023, including what messages were effective (and those that were not), where you saw great web traffic (and where you did not), and if social media insights matched the time and effort you put in. 

Conduct a digital audit. 

You don’t need to spend hours and days in GA4 to gauge areas of improvement. What is your traffic source split? What are your top visited pages and are there high-priority pages with low traffic and/or low engagement? What is your average number of events per session?

What did your transactional vs. value-added content split look like on social media? What are your audience demographics on each channel and do they align with your personas or intended audiences? Are users engaging with your content and following calls to action (P.S. likes are not enough)? 

How did your welcome sequence perform over email? What does your average click rate look like (this is different from clickthrough rate)? Have you received feedback from your constituents that they feel in the loop/out of the loop? 

Send a satisfaction survey and conduct focus groups.

Digital analytics only tell part of the story. You need qualitative feedback.  Segment your focus groups by audience type and compare results. 

Create an informed strategy and plan.

• How you will reinforce your value proposition and the associated key messages that will serve as your guidepost. 3-5 key messages are sufficient. 

• The journey(s) that you will take your user on. Understand how they make decisions. 

• The stories you will tell. The media that you need to tell them (hint: snack-size video). 

• The channels you need to tell these stories and that align with where your users exist. 

• The ambassadors that will publicly reinforce your brand and the toolkit you will give them. 

• The editorial and content calendars that you will use to plan your emails, social media, advertising, and website efforts. Plan out as much as you can so you don’t have to fly by the seat of your pants. Determine how often you will peek at performance (e.g. monthly, quarterly). 

Constant ideation and churning means quicker burnout. 

On a July-June fiscal year? Perform a quick audit and gauge your efforts year-to-date. Share this report with your CEO, Head of School, Board Chair, etc. along with a plan of the mid-year changes you are making that are reinforced by data. Also, start thinking about the budget dollars you want to ask for and how you want to spend them. Ask your CFO when these conversations will be taking place so you can ensure you are included. At a school? It’s a great time to conduct focus groups with families that matriculated in the fall and also ensure that you are communicating your application deadlines AND staying in touch with the families that have already applied. 

Need a content calendar template? Here you go. Not sure how to perform an audit? Schedule a call.