![Private / Christian School: How to set up your Head of School blog in 15 minutes or less [using WordPress]](https://www.yourschoolmarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/christian_private_school_marketing_NEW_blog_HOS_wp_blog2.png)
As the Head of School, you want to have a voice where parents, students, alumni and prospective families hear directly from you. While inviting them to campus a few times a year may allow you face-to-face interaction, people nowadays expect more frequent communication.
Watch the video below to learn how to set up your own Head of School blog in 15 minutes or less using WordPress, one of the most popular blogging platforms.
RECOMMENDED LINK: https://www.yourschoolmarketing.com/hostgator
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.In case you are new to blogging, here are 3 ways a Head of School can effectively blog for your school:
- PERSONALITY – your school, especially to prospective families, is an institution. While you likely are familiar with the many families and faces of your school, to the prospective family, you are a building with brick walls and curriculum. Having a weekly or biweekly blog (or more often, but not less), these families get to your heart and your vision. Even current families and alumni (who may not know you if there were different administrators) will be encouraged by learning more about the individual leading their school. You can be serious, funny, or offer a combination of emotions that stimulate interest in your school. Let them know about your family, your hobbies, and the things you do outside the school, too.
- MULTI-SENSORY – most of the time, we think of blogs as platforms for written content. However, from time to time, or exclusively, you can offer a video blog (or “vlog”) if you find this easier or more effective than writing. In a vlog, families and students are inspired by your words, but also captivated by your body language and eye contact.
- CHALLENGE – when choosing your content to blog about, consider more than just boring announcements about the latest fundraising campaign. Rather, take trending topics (especially peruse Facebook and Twitter for what’s on the minds of people) and address these from your point of view. Perhaps there is education legislation that needs explaining, a spiritual examination of a controversial topic in the news or providing a unique worldview challenge for a global crisis making headlines. You are a leader so use this platform to show your students and families what kind of leader you really are!
Additional blog resources:
No one believes your billboard, brochure, postcard or even your website.
This may be over-dramatizing a reality but it’s not far from the truth. Why? We live in an age where consumers are skeptical of marketing spin and speak. We are sophisticated consumers armed with a plethora of tools of research and connected with social networks like we’ve never seen before. Having lived through several generations of manipulation by marketers, consumers are savvy to your ways.
Families are suspicious if your school seems too perfect.
Your prospective families may doubt the authenticity of your representation online. It is almost as if, in effort to put your school’s most polished brand forward, you may have subsequently put a distance between you and the families you’re trying to reach. That’s not the way communication is supposed to work.
Families may assume they will fit in at your school (especially true if coming from the public school where kids get to wear normal clothes instead of uniforms). They may assume that the proverbial elitism of private schools will keep them on the outside (they may have witnessed this at church where all the Christian school kids hang out together after worship). Some of your picture-perfect presentation may reinforce the feeling that your prospective families may not be a good match with your school.
This is why the parent review or testimonial is so crucial. The impact that authentic voices of experience will far outperform the slick presentation of your marketing materials. In my guest article on social media.com I outline the 3 best venues where you need to be getting reviews so that prospective families can begin believing in you again.
Click here to read the full article
In Texas, we have 4 different seasons. Winter, Summer, Friday Night Football and March Madness!
In August, Friday Night Lights sweeps over our schools with incredible enthusiasm [RELATED ARTICLE: “Friday Night Football – A Modern Mobile Marketing Marvel”]. As many people talk this week of NCAA’s college basketball March Madness brackets, this is a prime time to talk about your school and COLLEGE. Here are 3 ways to tie in your school marketing to what will likely be a trending (more…)
Coming on the heels of Episode #28 where we discussed the definition of school marketing, now we talk about a term “loyal ambassadors.” In previous episodes, we talked a little more in depth about what it means to be a “loyal ambassador” (see the SHOWNOTES below for the links to those shows). When you think about what you are doing in school marketing, only pushing “enrollment” is short-sighted. You need to recruit new students, but also focus on retention (loyalty) and referrals (ambassadors and word of mouth). Making this episode even more interesting, we also talk about Taco Bell, Amy Grant, Quebec City and Randy’s upcoming speaking engagement at the National Christian School Association Annual Conference in Nashville.
RELATED: Download our free report on “The 3’s of School Marketing”
SHOWNOTES: (more…)
Every school’s marketing team must be on the same page when it comes to defining “marketing” – if not, chaos will ensue! Everyone knows we are ultimately talking about enrollment growth (“filling seats”), but the path of getting there will be challenging if the Head of School, Admissions Director, Social Media Coordinator and Marketing Team Volunteers (Parents) are all on a different wavelength in terms of what marketing is (and what it is not).
In this episode, we lay out a clear definition of marketing that applies to every school. It sets the stage for future episodes where we talk about the strategy and tactics that are essential for successful school marketing.
SHOWNOTES: (more…)
