Most schools I consult with tell me that they are using email to communicate with families. At which point I ask, “which ones?”
If you are using Constant Contact or some other email marketing provider to communicate only with your internal families, that’s OK, but that is more about communication and less about marketing. Yes, good communication is vital for retention efforts (one of the reasons families often give for leaving a school is poor communication). But I’m talking about reaching out regularly with prospective families.
Here are 5 tips you want to consider with your email marketing:
- THINK LIKE A PUBLISHER: just like anything having to do with marketing, it is best to make sure it operates like a system. The “hit-or-miss” strategies you have used are no longer effective. Make your email marketing work on a calendar. Work with your creative team (staff and/or volunteers) to look at your school calendar and create email marketing messages around attractional events (sports, theater, etc), marketing events (open houses, preview nights, etc.) as well as community events that showcase your involvement in the town at large (Christmas shoe drive, Spring Break food pantry assistance, etc.) Holiday themed messages are appropriate as well. Think more like a magazine publisher and start capturing and creating high value content for these monthly or bi-weekly messages. For your December email marketing newsletter to prospectives, for example, you need to be gathering the content in October.
- BE USEFUL: (more…)
Keeping Custom School T-Shirt Costs Low [by Eric Uzelac of TheShirtPrinter.com]
Often we find that many design custom T-shirts only to find that it won’t be cost effective for their budget. Here are a few tips that will help you make your own T-shirt in the most cost effective manner possible.
- Tip #1. Order your custom tee shirts in large volumes when possible. Printing custom t-shirts is like printing business cards, newspapers, or any variety of items, the cost is in the set up. As such, the higher the quantity of custom apparel ordered the lower the cost per unit becomes.
- Tip #2. Look for a cotton mix product vs 100% cotton. The product chosen plays a factor in the price of custom apparel. Name brands, type of fabric and specialty items will drive the price up. Changing a product from a 100% cotton ringer tee to a 50-50 white tee will dramatically bring the cost down.
- Tip #3. Be flexible on the colors of your custom tee shirts. Color of your custom t shirt also enters into the mix. Because color shirts require extra steps in the printing process you will find that it is less expensive to print custom t-shirts on white rather than color.
- Tip #4. Be aware, the more elaborate and more locations of the t-shirt design, the higher the cost. When you make your own t-shirt for your school, your t-shirt design plays a big factor in the cost. How many colors and where you want it printed will determine how much you pay. Basically, the more colors and the more areas you print, on your custom t shirt the higher the cost. When you make your own t-shirt the best rule of thumb for a cost effective custom T-shirt is, one color and one side.
- Tip #5. Stick with sizes less than XL. Lastly, size plays a factor. You will find that custom tee shirts sizes above XL cost a bit more. Unfortunately the only thing one can do to change that is hit the gym!
Have a great day and remember when you make your own t shirt:
Price = Quantity + Product + Color + Design + Size.
[ABOUT ERIC UZELEC – TheShirtPrinter.com]
Eric Uzelac has printed thousands of T-shirts for schools and churches all over the U.S. While some party-poopers may discount the need for “yet another T-shirt”, Eric understands how each T-shirt provides your students and staff the opportunity to be a walking billboard and word of mouth marketing voice in the community. Eric can help you avoid the pitfalls most screen printers make and give you tips on designing a T-shirt that really creates buzz! One unique thing about Eric’s company is that they also provide FREE SHIPPING anywhere in the U.S. – so let Eric’s team design and print your next T-shirt! Launch your idea today in the world famous Design Lab at TheShirtPrinter.com!
[BONUS]
Watch this tutorial video from TheShirtPrinter.com about “How to Add Names and Numbers to Your T-Shirts”.
Like TheShirtPrinter on Facebook and see Eric’s ad on the side of the full version of our site.
After a summer hiatus, we are gearing up for the return of the School Marketing Podcast! Here’s some of the topics we will include in our episodes: (more…)
I am writing this post from the airplane.
Perhaps not significantly noteworthy since much of today’s content is created on the fly (on a mobile device or literally in the air). What makes this post unique is that I am writing as I return from a 11-day mission trip to Africa (yes, the picture above is from my window seat at some point in my international flight). You can learn a lot about yourself in 11 days.
Admittedly I do not like to be away from social media for that long. I miss posting useful school marketing tips on our website’s blog. I did not peek into Facebook for over a week (I do confess to have scheduled a number of school marketing updates via our Facebook page because I do not believe that just because I am away does not mean our followers are). And yes, I did make a conscious effort to advance schedule daily tweets so I could keep my Twitter audience fed with practical school marketing content even during my hiatus (I hope you found it helpful!) As many social junkies do, I confess that as soon as I had access to WiFi, I was “all-in”, opening multiple apps open on my iPhone in order to reconnect (email, texting, Facebook and Twitter at a minimum). I think my flurry of social frenzy is also evidence of a bigger problem and perhaps yours, too.
We all have too many apps open, more than enough irons in our social media fire, and way too many tabs open. I am not talking about how we behave on our mobile devices or 13″ desktop computers. I am convicted that this is just a pervasive problem in our lives in general. Metaphorically, our batteries are draining.
Perhaps I will write more another time about what I did on my mission trip to Benin, West Africa (it’s not my first trip there – my family actually worked as missionaries for almost 10 years in that country). I already recorded an audio memo on my phone in my Africa hotel room that I hope to soon share via our school marketing podcast. But similar to New Year’s resolutions, as many of you do, I look for vacations, sabbaticals and mission trips to refocus, renew and restart.
As the new school year launches, I join you in looking for ways to trim off the excess in our lives, eliminate the incessant “busy” excuse, and to pour more into the lives of others. Here are 3 ways I commit to doing this in my life: (more…)
In April 2013, I had the opportunity to attend the #EdSocialMedia Summit 2013 at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts in Natick, MA, just outside of Boston. In this episode, I will share highlights and takeways from the various speakers who offered practical tips on social media for K12 and HigherEd environments.
I linked to most of the speakers in the shownotes, along with some videos to watch.
– Randy Vaughn (follow me on Twitter: @schoolmktg
Time [14:29]
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SHOWNOTES: (more…)
