Content Strategy: Blog.Rashi.org

The illustrations on this page serve two purposes: visualize the blog as you read, or click the image to see a writing sample. — **The illustrations on this page serve two purposes:** visualize the blog as you read, or click the image to see a writing sample.

storytelling to reflect a community

The content goal for The Rashi School’s blog is to contain stories that so deeply connect with our constituents that they are moved to share them with their own community. Rather than a billboard, our blog is to be a mirror through which our community members will see themselves, their families, and their children: their own values, philosophies, and mission.

Our Readers

The blog reaches our school’s Prospective Families, Alumni, Alumni Parents, Current Donors, Grandparents and Professional Contacts. These groups have different expectations, needs, and interests, so we segment and specifically target content to appeal to each.

Our Personas

Prospective Families.

Prospects told us they wanted to read about life at the school: our community, who we are - including profiles of faculty/staff, current families, students, and alumni. Specifically, they were curious about the school’s curriculum and curricular choices. Finally, they were looking for advice on parenting for school-aged children.

Alumni.

Alumni told us that they wanted stories about teachers they once had and programs they once participated in: major school-wide projects, social justice, STEM, etc. They also hoped to reconnect with their fellow classmates and learn what everyone has been up to.

Donors.

Donors are interested in seeing their dollars at work - namely, strong academics and Jewish values. Content for donors is aimed to motivate them to give, feel confident about their donation, and be moved to give again.

Grandparents.

From focus groups and surveys, we learned that grandparents were interested in learning more about the School’s brand (whether or not their grandchildren are receiving a good education) and seeing their own grandchildren at work.

Community Professionals.

Our professional contacts told us they sought content that reflected their own organization’s mission; highlighted our connection with their community: their kids, families and lay leaders; provided opportunities for personal or professional development; and better explained our program to increase their comfort with making referrals to us. This would include student profiles, the distinction of our program, who makes an ideal fit for our community, and finally, examples of their own kids who are current students or alumni.

Screen Shot 2019-05-04 at 12.54.12 AM.png

Blog Format

Following industry standards, we launched our blog through Wordpress. We decided upon a highly visual format intended to give the reader an immediate look-and-feel experience of our school and community. They will see faces of students at work, members of the community engaged, and representations of the school’s Core Values.

Template

We chose Canard as our template to gives the blog a visual format while allowing us to call attention to the different stories that are being featured.

Navigation

To further enforce our school’s branding and marketing efforts, we incorporated our Core Values with the Development office’s capital campaign called “Inspiring More,” which was reflected in the blog’s navigation. Different sections included terms that both alluded to the content subjects and included the terms used in the “Inspiring…” campaign.

Breaking Down the Content

**Profiles:** Donors, Alumni, Current Families, Students, Faculty/Staff
**Testimonials:** Alumni Videos, Parents’ Notes to Teachers, Graduates’ Speeches, etc.
**Student Life/Inside Our Classroom:** Classroom stories, Athletics, Curriculum, Holidays, Student Government, Theater, Jewish Life, Extracurriculars.
**Rashi In the News:** Current PR
**Beyond Rashi:** Alumni, Trips outside the school building, Community Items

Screen Shot 2019-05-04 at 12.55.01 AM.png

Content Creation

I anticipated pushback from members of the Advancement team because of the substantial time required for content creation. To preempt this, I included the following in my initial proposal:

“We should not feel daunted by the scope of this project: it is an ongoing and sustainable process that will support many facets of the school’s Advancement goals. This can and should be a high priority for the Advancement team.

The beginning of this process requires the creation of a content calendar which should ride the coattails of the multiple work timelines of the school year: Admissions, Development, and School calendars combined with general communication expectations of our readers.

Authors can be sourced from faculty/staff, lay leaders, students, alumni, and our parent community, as well as article content gleaned and repurposed from the classroom blog, surveys, etc.”

Screen Shot 2019-05-04 at 12.56.35 AM.png

Dissemination

After its creation, the blog became the hub of the school’s writing and content efforts. The blog supported every other publication and communication we produced.

The main dissemination process is monthly email: segmented messages for each constituency level. Segmentation serves two purposes: we easily judge each constituency’s engagement by tracking open and click-through rates. Secondly, we further refine our content decisions based on readership statistics.

Emails contain 3-5 articles per newsletter. The only call to action in the email is to read the articles. Any cross calls to action follow on the blog. For example, if we wrote an article about an award honoree, our main goal would be to sell tickets for the event during which we would honor them. However, in this email, we would only ask the reader to click through to read the blog. Once there, we would prompt the reader to purchase tickets. The email teases the article, but not the call to action.

We additionally publicize blog content through related posts on social media: LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.