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…)
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…)
Your prospective parent is looking for evidence of your school’s greatness. Are you creating a pathway for them to discover your unique offerings?
You cannot assume every potential family is ready to enroll. Some are only becoming aware of your existence, while some are somewhere in between. Are you providing each family profile the right kind of steps to move them to the next level?
Read this guest article that Randy wrote “Providing Stepping Stones Not Stumbling Blocks“.
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?“
While I’ve written many times that “content is king”, I think the important distinction is that “shareable content is king.” In our cluttered world, there’s a lot of content out there in our news feed, in our news stream, on our pin boards, and in our email inboxes. But often it is nothing by noise, spam, or just irrelevant chatter in our digital mailboxes. The foundation of a solid social media system for your school is to connect relevant content with the right audience who will pass it on to others with a similar need.
First of all, where do you get this relevant content that is worth sharing? Recently, I wrote “3 Places to Get Ideas for Your School’s Blog Content.” I found another article listing “12 Characteristics of Highly Shared Content”. The key is to listen to your audience’s needs. Ask them for input. Write what they are asking about, not just what you want to say.
Once you have great quality blog content, it’s time to share it for optimal exposure and maximum impact:
- Tweet your blog article, not just once, but over a period of time (or at peak moments during your marketing season)
- Post this article on your school’s Facebook page
- Put a link to this article in your school’s email marketing newsletter (where you hopefully have numerous prospective families on the list)
- As a follow-up to a family who came for a tour, you can email them links to articles that speak specifically to each family’s concerns
- Pin your article to a parent-related board on Pinterest
Shareable content is highly-relevant information that your audience has asked you for or that you know they need to understand it. Shareable content cuts through the clutter in our world and resonates with the needs of your immediate audience, and then they share it with others who have a similar need.
FINAL TIP: Writing shareable content for your families may force you to think differently about your intended audience. While current families may be the first to read your article, your final destination is really the laptop of the prospective family who currently has a friend whose kids are enrolled at your school. Armed with the right kind of relevant content, your current families become ambassadors who can passively promote your school by passing a link to a friend via email, Twitter or Facebook. For example, highly shareable content may be “How the class size at my son’s school increased his grades from Cs to all As!” or “How a smaller classroom environment has turned my wallflower daughter into a social butterfly.” Current families read (and maybe write) this content and then stand positioned to post such insights all over Facebook, Twitter and on their Pinterest board about their kids’ school.
ACTION: If you need ideas on setting up your school’s social media system, contact us for your FREE 30-minute phone consultation. No obligation to sign up for anything – just an opportunity for us to listen to your needs, share ideas and help you lay out a plan that will work for you.
