As March Madness begins, this is a great time for your Christian school to talk up COLLEGE

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 topic on social media for the next several weeks:

  1. POST-GAME: Do some creative conversations with your juniors and seniors about post-high-school. Tie in some college admission trips/fairs to the buzz around March madness.  While most seniors have begun or even decided on college, do some senior-to-junior mentoring about college admissions, how to choose a college, when/how to apply for financial aid, etc. Have your seniors write a brief blog post but not about 5 things they love about your school (this is what every school does). As an obvious differentiator rather, have them articulate how your school has prepared them for college. As parents of students in other schools read this posts on Twitter and Facbeook, heads will turn. This is powerful word-of-mouth with evidence that you are doing something right.
  2. FILL THE BLEACHERS: Your school’s audience may not sit on hard wood bleachers painted in school colors, but growing your fan base is critical. Do some creative posting on Facebook that invites fans to share their brackets or even host a contest for the best bracket. This grows your Facebook database. (Similar contests could run on Twitter, too.) As well, launch a quick “5 Ways to Navigate the Madness of Choosing the Best College” e-book and invite people to receive it via email for FREE. This quality content is valuable for families currently outside of your school and can be an excellent way to grow your email list.
  3. BRAG A BIT: It’s OK to boast about your school’s amazingly high matriculation rates to the most prestigious colleges and universities. As well, tout the variety/significance of colleges your graduates attend.  Parents of high schoolers (and younger if they are seriously engaged) want to know that your school readies their child for college (or even specific universities). Stating factual statistics offers clear evidence that you produce a good product. Reach out to your alumni (especially if any of them are attending colleges who made the NCAA Tournament Bracket) and have them do some Skype/Hangout video testimonies. Evidence is not bragging. It’s reinforcing your value.

Many in the U.S. are talking about various COLLEGES right now (albeit as winners/losers in brackets), shouldn’t you?

-Randy

[by the way, if you are curious, click to see my NCAA Tournament Bracket

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