The NetRaising Experience

Angela Jones

What’s your NetRaising experience?

The big thing was that [other vendors] would design out a website, but then they’re done. They have no more interaction really with you. And if you needed to do something and add something later or change up something, it would be additional costs. There was this feel that like you had to get it right the first time and if you didn’t get it right, you were going to be paying more down the road.

For me that was a big deal just because I would often get requests saying, “Hey, can we do this to the website? Can we add this to the website?” And my response was, “I’ll check with Kurt.” And I don’t know that I’ve ever been told no. And there was not an extra charge, it was just something, “Oh yeah, we did that for this site. Well, I’ll just add it to your website.” And so it was knowing that you didn’t have to try to and re-think of everything you wanted on the front end was a huge plus when we were comparing the different companies.

It was huge because we had a lot of things going on at one time, in the midst of beginning the web design. And we knew we wanted to redo it. But we were being careful with money and those kind of things as well. And what I appreciated was being able to have template options that were already created that were samples that they had designed for other schools that didn’t get used, so that there was a discount on the pricing. because it wasn’t starting from scratch. They’d already done the design piece of it and there were multiple options for us to look at for that, and be able to find one that we were like, “Oh yeah, we really like that.” So it gave a launching pad for the whole project without having to completely start from scratch.

I needed it to be something that we could move through quickly, so being able to just find something that we knew would work for us, and then begin just the tweaking at that point, was awesome. And even just the knowledge from working with other schools of being able to give suggestions and ideas. If I would bring up something, we really want to do this, but what’s the best way of doing that? And then just trusting that he’s going to give me the best scenarios to make that happen because he’s seen it happen and successfully elsewhere.

So there is a high, high, high trust level I have with Kurt. That takes away a lot of the pressure and anxiety of interacting with the website, especially with the redesign.

The way I see how we interact with Kurt and NetRaising, it feels very, very relational. If I’m having a really hard day and I need something done, I find myself able to say, “Hey, I’m just really struggling. I’m having a hard time can you… I’ve tried to figure this out on my own. I can’t.” But it’s more relational. It does not feel vendor. I know he is, but that’s not how I see the interaction. I appreciate it when he lets me know what’s going on with his team. He’s so good about communicating when they’re going to be gone or if they’re going to be in a meeting, especially if I had thrown an email out there asking a question. He’s so good and quick to respond, even if it’s to tell me, “I got your email, but I can’t take care of that right now. I’ll look at it in the afternoon.” It feels very relational. Almost like he’s just another staff person here at Salem Academy that I’m working with. Not like an outside vendor.

They are so easy to work with, accessible, and willing to help us make changes and updates to the site as things come up no matter what. And just being able to literally have no anxiety about emailing Kurt and saying, “Hey here, this is what they’ve sent me. Do you see any problem with us being able to implement in some way?” and him emailing back like, “Nope. Here are some examples of what we got.” This is a big thing that’s being asked like a new thing, a different thing. Not something that I’m just like, oh yeah, I can just make it on this page. 

The reality is our website is the best marketing for our school other than our own families. So, we could spend tons of money doing radio ads or billboards or try and do direct mail, there are all these ways. I have so many sales calls trying to get me to spend money on how to market to try and increase our enrollment at the school. And the reality was the majority of the inquiries we would get for the school when asked how did you hear about us? It was either a family or friend who was already associated with the school or it was an internet search on our website.

How important is our website? For most Christian schools “word of mouth” from current families will be the #1 recruitment by quite a bit. Website/internet search is our #2 and nothing else comes close (i.e. phone calls, billboards, mailers)
Since 2014:

• 65% of applicants heard about SA from current families
• 30% of applicants heard about SA from our website/internet search

And the reality is when current families share about SA, the new families are going to our website to move forward!

I have only ever really received positive feedback on our website. I’ve had other people, whether it’s from athletics or admissions, different people commenting how they really like the look and they were able to find what they needed.

I feel he’s very good about putting things in layman’s terms too and giving explanations. So there was a lot of back and forth and there has been, over the years. Kurt is very good about explaining why something I’ve asked for doesn’t make sense or can’t work the way I’m wanting it. And then providing, “But if you’re trying to accomplish this, we could do this.” And so I appreciate the explanations of why what I’m asking for is impossible so that I understand that instead of just saying, nope, we can’t do that. You know, and he’s always very clear. And the way he presents it is… I was kind of laughing about it being tough love. It’s like “I know what you’re saying, but this is really why that can’t happen. But here, let’s look at some other options to accomplish the same goal.”

They’ve been great to interact with to get our website to a point where if for some reason I end up not being in charge of the website in the future, I feel like somebody coming in would not need to have any kind of background in coding in order to be successful utilizing the website.

I love just having this relationship with Kurt where we can joke with each other. I can tell him I’m praying for him if there is something that maybe comes up. And like I said, it literally is just like another staff person and just for something that’s so important to the school, the public face of your school, your website, and then the internal pieces with the [online] forms. You have to have a good relationship with that person who is the one helping you make all those things happen. And I’m just very appreciative of how relational he is. And the whole team. I haven’t had to interact too much with the others, but I just really do appreciate that they are not just a vendor. The thing is, all the other stuff, you can probably find any company that can help you build out a good website. That you can maybe find anywhere. It’s these other things that make it, that’s what’s important to me when interacting with somebody.

Angela Jones
Communications Coordinator
Salem Academy