I admit that my possibly offensive title probably sounds like I think volunteers are a nuisance. Actually, the point of this article is to help you find practical ways to involve school volunteers who are always asking, “how can I help?”
First of all, while volunteers are a blessing, they come with conditions. It cannot be denied that volunteers on your marketing team operate differently than paid staff or outsourced consultants. Administrative officials and hired contractors work for results which are often tied to how much money they make or how long they keep their job. It’s one reason to consider NOT assigning critical, timely marketing tasks to volunteers. While they may indicate a willingness and eagerness to help, they MAY not operate with the same sense of urgency you have. Nor may they offer the same level of excellence you would demand of an employee or contractor. You want to have the freedom to dislike their work without feeling like you are going to offend them and run them off from volunteering ever again (or worse, writing a bad review about your school . . . uh, see #7 below). You want to be able to “fire” them if they do not perform. But how do you fire a non-paid volunteer?
So what jobs can you create for your eager beavers? Here are 7 ideas your school volunteers can do from any computer or mobile device: (more…)
LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL WORKING 1-on-1 WITH RANDY
In a conversation recently with one school, the Communications guy responded to my inquiry of why the Facebook postings were so few lately. His response surprised me.
“It’s summer. Not much going on around here.”
Wrong. I could not have disagreed with this person more and sought to explain why the summer months are not a time for slowdown.
- Some families are still looking and investigating for last minute transfer from the public school to your school. Remain top-of-mind to these folks.
- Even if you are full and have closed enrollment, consider that you should already be in RETENTION mode for next year. Absence of any communication does not help you keep families. It alienates them.
- But more importantly, you have hundred of current families who need to see their school in their news feed. This is crucial for brand exposure in the event any family is having last minute doubts about returning, or better, so they will talk up your school to their friends.
First of all, while not as busy as April, there are no doubt things going on THIS SUMMER. There are also plenty of things you can REPURPOSE from last year, or post about the UPCOMING school year.
Below you’ll find a list of 11 suggested things you should post during what you may call a “slow time”:
(more…)
If there’s one topic that ignites our email signup list or our Facebook page engagement, it is word-of-mouth marketing! In this post, I wanted to share with you 23 easy-to-implement word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing ideas that any private Christian school can work on starting today:
- Stories are WOM fuel – curate them and create them and showcase them!
- Treat families like kings and queens – they will tell their friends about it.
- Engage your fans – especially on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter.
- Give families reasons to talk – take queues from bigger brands who offer memorable customer service.
- Empower them to share – put videos on YouTube or Vimeo, post them on Facebook and invite families to share.
- Explain how families can refer – map out a system and exactly the procedure for referring (and outline any incentives)
- Educate families about any perks or bonuses – referral incentives should be simple to understand, not so complex no one does it. (more…)
As we continue to offer marketing consulting for private Christian schools all over the U.S., I wanted to give many of our new visitors a summary of the way we deliver free marketing ideas for private schools. We love to give away free ideas and freely share resources that we find all over the web. Here are a variety of ways we share marketing ideas with private schools:
- School Marketing FREE REPORTS (see bottom of this page) – we invite you to download for free any of our free reports (we hope to add a few reports in 2013)
I also found this article that you may want to review as well. What I found interesting is, at the end of the article, the Asker of the question tells you what idea meant the most. You will want to check it out: “Marketing ideas to help increase enrollment in private school?“
NOTE: If you missed any of the posts in this 3-part series, click here.
In the final post of this 3-part series, we look at some ideas and realities of referral and word-of-mouth marketing! As we discussed in part 2 of this series on private school retention strategies, I want to remind you of the term “LOYAL AMBASSADORS.”
Loyalty speaks of the extent to which your families are not just re-enrolling out of a lackluster attitude of “aw shucks, I guess we’ll stay put.” This lukewarmness will never produce a quality referral. Loyalty is retaining families who would do whatever it takes to have the opportunity to continue another year. And they are not swayed by another school’s tuition rate or even extra-curricular offering. Fierce allegiance is earned and is intentionally cultivated.
In the same way, ambassadors speak with boldness and clarity. Just as the United States Ambassador to Benin speaks on behalf of the President, your school will struggle or thrive based on how many ambassadors you nurture. (By the way, read a little more about why I lived in this French-speaking West African nation.) From a biblical standpoint, 2 Corinthians 5 speaks to believers as being
“ambassadors” as though God were “making his appeal through us.” Ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the one who appoints them and they represents the interests to those to whom they are sent. Does your school’s leadership “appoint” your families as ambassadors? Do you place expectations on families to “make appeals” to their friends? Probably one of the sins (am I sounding preachy?) committed by any school is the omission of asking for referrals . . . better yet, asking your families to make them for you!
There’s an old adage in business marketing: the referred lead is easier to close and costs less to obtain. In lieu of spending thousands and thousands of dollars strictly on advertising only to generate a few clicks, an ambassador’s referral optimizes the leverage of their friendship to validate the lead. In other words, you are going to listen to and trust suggestions from your friends more than you’ll believe bullet points from a slick brochure. And when I ask schools, most of the time, they admit that referrals are by far the best source of new students. So why are you still having trouble filling seats year after year?
3 of the most common reasons why referrals are not made: (more…)
Recently, I posted a blog article entitled, “One of the best reasons to post pictures of your school on Facebook.” Last summer (wow, I can’t believe we’re at the end of the school year already!), I suggested, “11 Things To Post on Facebook During the Dog Days of Summer” which has been one of our more popular posts.
Photos play a huge part in your school’s marketing. Are you using them wisely, strategically and effectively?
Just this week, Enrollement Catalyst’s Dr. Rick Newberry released a new article worth your look:
“Four Photo Strategies to Tell Your School’s Story“
