“March comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb.”
“April showers bring May flowers”
“April…hath put a spirit of youth in everything.” (Shakespeare)
Believe it or not, I proposed to my wife on April 1, 1995! No joke. It had to be a Saturday night and that was the weekend that particular spring when it was the perfect timing. Nevertheless, it still makes for some good laughs when I tell that to people.
As your school get swamped in year-end activities, do not forget that potential moms and dads are also busy looking at school options for their kids. In order to continue to be top-of-mind with all of them (when your to-do list is already full), you must continue to produce content that is relevant to their lives. And if it is part of the cultural conversation on social media already, why not create content that would keep you in the forefront of their minds?
As I have done in the past with content ideas for the months of January, February and March, here are 11 content ideas for the month of April:
- April Fool’s Day (4/1) – while you may wish to discourage student pranks, you may want to publish a prank school lunch menu (with worms and bugs for lunch) or have some fun on your social media channels with various pranks for this oddball holiday (here’s a list of what many top brands pulled off in 2015 on April Fool’s Day; also, check out Katie Couric’s prank on a late-night talk show – so funny!)
- PB & Jelly Day (4/2) – have some fun with the younger kids and older kids and even the staff all enjoying a PB&J feast! According to Guinness World Records, one man holds the record for eating 6 sandwiches within a minute – who will accept the challenge to beat that record? As I have said in other months, think “free news coverage”!
- College Basketball Championship (first part of April) – as March Madness winds down, the Final Four is college basketball’s “super bowl”! Make student connections with former students who are attending any of the competing schools; especially noteworthy if any former students are playing in the big tournament (interview them via Skype about the behind-the-scenes or about how your school helped them to prepare for college).
- MLB Opening Day (usually around the first part of the month) – in the same way, recognize any former students playing in the MLB or interview your staff about who their favorite MLB player is. Hot dogs, nachos, peanuts and Cracker Jacks may be a fun lunch menu that on Opening Day!
- National Library Week (4/10-16) – if your school has a school librarian, this is the week you want to do a special feature on this staff person (note: featuring all of your staff throughout the year is important!)
- The Masters (ends on the 2nd Sunday of April) – golf’s most heralded tournament with the prized green jacket.
- Tax Day (April 15) – publish FAQs on your website (that will remain year-round) that answer common questions like “can I deduct my daughter’s private school tuition?” or “can you use a 529 to pay for son’s private high school?”. People are likely asking you these questions already (or wondering in their head), so provide the answers.
- Earth Day (4/22) – your local news stations may be looking for young people who take pride in the environment, so this may be an opportunity to do something unique that gets media attention.
- Administrative Professionals Week (last week of the month) – another opportunity to introduce potential families to the personal (and personnel) side of your school.
- Arbor Day (last Friday of the month) – plant some trees around campus and feature ones you have planted in previous years.
- NFL Draft (toward the end of April) – while we watch our TVs and devices to see what round our favorite college players get picked by our favorite NFL teams, you may want to explore any connection you have to former students in this year’s draft (or you can list out other famous former student who have played in the NFL). You may also wish to have a video or essay contest if you can have students talk about the best character qualities of some of their favorite NFL players.
BONUS: the third Thursday of April is always “National High Five Day” – how cool is that! Here’s a Twitter feed about this bizarre holiday that also might give you ideas for some fun short videos around campus.
If you need more ideas on having your own content calendar, download our FREE spreadsheet calendar and a complimentary content guide.
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This week, we are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, an unusual holiday with all of it’s weird traditions (who likes getting pinched?)
But rather than focusing on those odd things, my wife and I have focused our conversations with our 4 kids on the historical account of Patrick himself. It’s a pretty fascinating story. In this video, I share some inspiration that we have found from looking at the life of a man who suffered greatly, but learn to hear the voice of God and embrace His mission.
Inspiration #3: Patrick the Missionary from yourschoolmarketing on Vimeo.
from Randy Vaughn – insights from the life of Saint Patrick, missionary to Ireland. Learn to hear the voice of God and embrace His mission.
ALSO MENTIONED IN THIS VIDEO:
Related articles about the history of St. Patrick, the missionary to Ireland:
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Most Christian schools share with me that their biggest struggle is bringing order to their chaotic marketing efforts.
This chaos may be in the determination and implementation of the right kind of marketing tactics and tools. Should we still do direct mail postcards? How much do we spend on Facebook advertising? Do we host more than one Open House event in the spring? If the competition is on Instagram, should we be doing it, too?
I appreciate these questions and understand why people ask them. But in reality, if you are struggling with your tactical plan, it is likely that you have a poor marketing strategy.
Trendy fads do not make up a sound marketing strategy. Just copying what you see other schools doing is not a smart way to market your unique school. And if you are just continuing year after year, doing the same things in marketing, then you know that most likely, you are going to get the same results.
Here are 3 things you can do to stop the chaos:
- MAKE IT A SYSTEM: I always tell Christian schools that before you develop your tactical marketing plan, you must have a strategy. But before you can begin to craft a strategic approach to marketing your private school, you must have built a marketing system first. A system ensures you have the “big picture” in mind. A system for marketing Christian schools is different than marketing a business, but in today’s integrated (traditional/digital) marketing world, a system ensures you are not marketing your Christian school the same way you were doing it 5 or 10 years ago. A system makes certain you have the right resources to do marketing the best way for your school (budget, personnel, skill sets, etc.) A system is also holistic in its marketing approach, solidifying your schools’ efforts at the 3 Rs of school marketing: recruitment, retention and referrals. A customized marketing system for your school will be the engine behind your school’s strategic vision and a catalyst for the strategy and tactics you put in place.
- STRATEGY BEFORE TACTICS: I once did church planting missionary work in West Africa (hear John 3:16 in the local dialect that I learned). In a meeting of the minds sitting on a wooden bench under a mango tree, discussing a daunting task of communicating the gospel to unreached peoples in the area, I once heard an older gentleman describe a proverb that is based on a 100-year-old legend of their tribe conquering a once larger neighboring tribe to gain access to land. As he likened it to the David-Goliath battle, he reiterated “nsu sensenwo wugan enuwawa sensenwo”. This proverb essentially means that “smart thinking beats large weapons”. Schools face stiff competition from the other private schools in town, but also from homeschool movements, online education and free public and charter schools. But if you have a strategy in place, you know who you are targeting, how to communicate with them, and how to reach them and turn them into loyal ambassadors for your school.
- PRACTICAL & TACTICAL: Rather than just tossing time and money at the same things that you did last year, you have to build your targeted assault that is based on how to reach your ideal target market. Copycat marketing does nothing but cause you to spend your resources unwisely. Having a billboard on the highway because your competition does too is not way to market your school. Advertising in a publication only because “our competition does” is not a marketing plan based on leadership in the market. If you build a sound system and work through a targeted marketing strategy, the tactical tool box builds itself.
If this is intriguing and you wish to learn more about installing a customized marketing system, contact Randy for a free 30-minute phone consultation.
I have spoken with Christian schools across the country and have seen tuition rates range from $3500 to over $20,000 per year. But you know what is interesting about that range? Each school tells me there are families that struggle to make that payment and some prospective families who claim that the tuition is out of their price range (yes, even in the $3500/year category). Depending on the size of the town and the socio-economics of the region, some parents write the check with ease while others work extra hard to make that happen.
So what do tuition payments have to do with marketing your school? Here are 5 considerations:
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