In marketing your school, the Head of School is typically the first face that a prospective parent associates with the school. Therefore it is imperative to showcase your school’s leadership.
The two most important reasons to do this is worth noting:
- REMIND – It is always helpful (and even necessary) to remind your current families of who the administration is at your school. Depending on the size of your school, this is more important. If you are 200 students, perhaps you have more interaction with the Headmaster in the hallways than if your school has 1500 students. For the larger schools, parents typically interact more with teachers, coaches and the principals. If you have administrators over development, enrollment management and curriculum, these are key executives that often go unseen by your current families. Especially important for the Head of School is to be visible on social media, via a blog, Twitter, Instagram or even using Facebook Live to communicate to families.
- INFORM – While you may be very familiar with the face and voice of your school’s president, remember that your prospective families are not. Keep a list of important facts about the HOS’s experience, educational background, expertise, successes, and some of his/her personal traits and share them often. Have a social media calendar that puts a spot each month to feature some aspect of your school’s administration. They are the front-line voice and face for new families.
Now let’s explore some brainstorm ideas on how to showcase your administration (especially the key visible players such as Headmaster, Principals and Coaches).
- VIDEO – Whether you are using Facebook Live, Periscope, YouTube or Instagram video, put your administration out there for people to see! If your administrator is “good on camera” (comfortable and a great communicator), do creative and funny things as well as informative sessions (although keep them brief). If they are not necessarily the best in front of a camera (and some of us are not), use video editing to play a lot of b-roll video so the audience is hearing the administrator but looking at other pictures of your school. Recording presentations or webinars is one way to achieve this if going LIVE terrifies you!
- BLOG – I am still a proponent of a Head of School having a written blog. This is not a place to write 2000 word essays on her educational philosophy. It is a place to share brief stories of student success, institutional success, inspirational stories or personal illustrations that remind/inform families of his/her background. You can write philosophical posts, but keep them brief and break them up into a series of shorter posts with a lot of bullet points and pictures to improve the likelihood of someone reading them.
- AUDIO – President FDR is famous for his “Fireside Chats”. These audio messages provided the President an opportunity to speak directly into the homes of families. Using audio recording and publishing tools like Soundcloud or Podbean (I use both for some random audio messages and for our monthly school marketing podcast), you can publish a 5-, 10-, 20-, or even 30-minute audio message that consistently puts your voice into the minds of your new and current families. Again, use these to do parent/student/alumni interviews or speak to student and institutional successes.
This communication strategy is critical when I help schools install a customized marketing system for their school. If you would like to learn more about my “9 Steps to Marketing Your School” program, signup for this FREE on-demand presentation.
It’s the start of a brand new year. Here are 7 suggestions on content you should consider addressing in this first month of the new year:
- BE RESOLUTE: everyone’s talking about their New Year’s resolutions, so why not chime in with this obviously trending topic? Take a quick poll of your staff and ask them what their resolutions are (get permission first before publishing their names and resolutions). Or offer your own administration’s resolutions for a better school (this is a chance to revisit your vision for the school). Not only do current families need to hear this, but with open enrollment season approaching, prospective families would love to know where you believe the school is headed.
- EPIPHANY: January 6th is a day many Christians celebrate as “Three Kings Day”, recognizing the mission of Christ to reach the Gentile world as seen in the visit of the Magi.
- LAW ENFORCEMENT APPRECIATION DAY: soon after the new year, on January 9th, it’s Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. Go on a field trip to the police station, or have delivered some special thank you cards. This is a great opportunity to develop some community relations. You might consider partnering with some of your feeder system schools to do something special.
- MLK: further down the calendar, do not forget about Martin Luther King day (recognized on the third Monday of January, often recognized as a school holiday). Videos of your students (especially the younger ones) sharing their “dreams” for their world would make cute (dare I say “viral”) content for your social feeds.
- POOH: yes, there’s a National Winnie the Pooh Day (it’s actually in honor of Pooh’s creator A.A Milne’s birthday, January 18th). If the goal is social engagement, Winnie the Pooh can offer a much-needed boost in the doldrums of an often dull January (and speaking of dull, your local media might jump at the chance to cover your school having fun with this holiday on Monday the 18th). With so many great Pooh quotes, you can have some fun on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (here’s a list of some great Pooh quotables in case you need a reminder). With Pooh quotes like, “A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside,” you could do short videos from your students about “what makes a good friend” (again, elementary students are prime candidates for cute videos). Or because Pooh could not get enough of his sweet nectar, how about polling your staff about their favorite way to eat honey (current and prospective families love the personal side of staff members). Who wouldn’t love hearing that the head football coach has a special recipe for honey and peanut butter protein bars or that your upper school principal has a secret addiction to Honey Nut Cheerios for breakfast and a late night snack! You might even have someone willing to share their home remedies made from honey.
- BACKWARD DAY: with “Drawkcab Yad” (uh, that would be “Backward Day“) always on January 31st, you can expect some funny memes on Facebook.
- FOOTBALL: while the Super Bowl is not until early February, the month of January will be full of NFL playoff games. Look for local tie-ins (by chance are any of your graduates actually playing in the games?), NFL role models for your students, fun predictions, etc. Also, coming up quick in the new year is the College Football Playoff National Championship game on Monday, January 8th (Georgia vs Alabama) . Like the NFL games, this game will trend on Twitter and Facebook and will no doubt occupy the conversations in your school’s hallways. A couple of years ago, when Heisman trophy winner Marcos Mariota and the Oregon Ducks were in the final game, Columbus Christian Academy in Jackson, MS, did a cool video the week before the national championship of their student athletes commenting on how the Christian faith of Mariota and other top athletes like Tim Tebow inspired them. Watch the video here.
If you need more ideas on having your own content calendar, download our FREE spreadsheet calendar and a complimentary content guide.
And don’t forget to sign up for our Premium “RETENTION” Course. We are in the season of retaining families so this course could be coming at a great time for your school’s marketing efforts.
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The vast majority of my consulting work is with PK12 Christian schools. While there are things that any private school can garner from this post, I do admit the target audience for this article is a Christian school.
Whether you are reading this during “Pastor Appreciation Month” (traditionally in October in the U.S.) or any time dduring the year, I share these ideas so that your school can improve its relationships with local pastors and ministers.
REALITY (as I have heard it expressed to me repeatedly by Christian schools around the country for the past 5 years): while Christian schools were once the education “darling” of the church, in recent years, independent Christian schools (ones that are separate from any church or denomination) have seen less support coming from pastors, minister, and youth staff. Even some have said to me that the relationships have gone “cold” or “antagonistic”.
Why?
From what I can tell, this stems from the classic categorization of the Christian school as a “bubble” – isolated from the rest of the community. For evangelical churches, isolationism is the enemy of evangelism and I believe too many Christian schools have not done enough to recharacterize their school image so that pastors see them as reinforcement institutions rather than as institutions that perpetuate a disconnect between the Christian community and the people they want to reach.
I do not have time in this article to prescribe exact solutions to specific situations that some of you are facing. However, it would serve you well to reinforce your relations with the pastoral community. I once worked with a Christian school who had not had a sit-down conversation with any local pastor in over 5 years. I am not advocating some sort of manipulation game or relationship schmoozing. Schools that are intentional at cultivating strong relationships with the pastoral community seek to do so to improve church relations, establish camaraderie between the pastoral staff and the members of said church who send their kids to your school, and see themselves within a fellowship of impact players in the community.
- USE OUR SPACE – other than liability constraints that might exist, consider opening your campus facilities to the various churches in your community. They may not have a gymasium where they can play their organized basketball league (they might even have the opportunity to create one if they had the space). Invite churches to use your performance hall for interdenominational youth gatherings. Even better, have your school host a monthly or quarterly gathering of area pastors for a time of prayer for ALL area schools and a meal. Consider inviting an inspirational speaker that will feed the minds of these ministers who need a neutral place to receive encouraged.
- SOLICIT THEIR ADVICE – I never have met a pastor or youth minister who wasn’t looking for additional audiences with which to share their wisdom and biblical counsel (I know from experience that preaching and teaching lessons leave a lot of material on the cutting room floor simply because the clock says there’s no time to share it all). Invite pastors to speak to your student assemblies or chapel programs. Bring them in to inspire your staff (when your own words seem to fall on deaf ears). Utilize youth pastors as character coaches on your football teams. Host events for parents who need wisdom on “empathaizing with teens” (believe me, this is not natural as a parent – youth staff have a special place in heaven because they know how to do this). Extend an invitation to a local minister to write on such topics on your school blog or rotate interviews with area youth pastors who could deliver some relevant content to parents via a Head of School podcast (here’s why your Head of School should have podcast in Part 1 and Part 2 of the School Marketing Podcast).
- TREAT THEM SPECIAL – especially during the month of October (again, “Pastor Appreciation Month” in the U.S.), consider hosting a luncheon for area pastors and youth ministers. If some of their congregation’s youth attend your school, invite the students to attend the luncheon and speak on “Why My Minister Is Amazing” (cheesy title, but you get the point). Take pictures with the students and their pastor(s) at the luncheon and post them on Facebook and Instagram (if your school prides itself on being multidenominational, this is a great way to demonstrate that evidence). Send customized appreciation notes from your Head of School to every pastor and/or youth minister of every church represented at your school. Have your Student Council visit area restaurants or coffee shops and ask them to donate a free meal or latte (especially the local, non-franchise spots will be eager to do this to advertise their business to new customers). Customize a T-shirt for the youth pastors that say “_________ Christian School Students Like the Free Food I Bring Them When I Speak At Their Chapel” (or something witty that compels the youth pastor to where it for fun).
Especially for Christian schools, pastors and youth ministers need to be a part of your word-of-mouth marketing network. Perhaps they are, but are they saying good things about you?
If you need help figuring out how to improve your community relationships and implement a customized enrollment marketing system, click here and I want to give you a free 45-minute phone consultation to give you some ideas.
NOTE: Here’s a tongue-in-cheek article written by a pastor himself on “What NOT to Get Your Pastor for Pastor Appreciation Month“. (smile)
Randy
