Summer MarketingMay 16, 2019

Webinar discussion includes:

• Year-end Planning

• Customer Service

• School Marketing

• Parish Outreach

• Parent Outreach

• Community Outreach

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Summer Marketing

Continue Your Spring Marketing Plan• If you haven’t already, please check out our webinar on

Developing Your Marketing Plan

• Summer is a great time to go through the OCS Portal

Before the End of the Year

Marketing Plan Template: http://bit.ly/2lOkJGv

Marketing Plan Template with Goals: http://bit.ly/2lOsEU8

Religious Education Outreach

• Talk to the DRE, find out what opportunities are still available

• Offer an Incentive

• “St. Anonymous has created a special incentive exclusively for families in our

Religious Education program. RE students who enroll in St. Anonymous School

for the 2018-19 school year will receive a one-time $500 tuition credit!”

• Remind them that tuition is more affordable than they may think

• “St. Anonymous school is committed to making Catholic education affordable

for all families. Please contact the school office for information about our

generous financial aid program.”

• Host an RE Open House or Shadow Day on a non-CPS day

• Host a phone bank to reach out to all RE families

• Lining up these students now may assist in fundraising for TCS

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Before the End of the Year

Retention

• Lock in as many returning families as possible

• Think of parents as differentiated learners: What are the

different ways we can reach them?

• Use your all-call system, mass email service, and good old

fashioned personal outreach to ensure families are registered

• If you offer a referral incentive, remind

families of this as often as possible

• Provide families the materials they need

to make referrals

• Remind current families of the TCS expectations which may lead to

an increase in new student registration and as a result waiting list. It

better for them to register now to avoid being added to the waiting

list

Before the End of the Year

Don’t forget the Dads!

• Thank the Dad via email, website, Facebook, bulletin Father’s Day weekend

• If time allows how the students make something similar to Mother’s Day

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Before the End of the Year

Before the End of the Year

Graduation

• Celebrate Alumni

• Invite graduating seniors back to school in the Spring

• Send a card to your newly graduates at the beginning of the school

wishing them luck in high school

• Stream your graduation ceremony live via Facebook and/or on your

website. Post video online.

• Have an 8th grade graduation parade send-off in the school prior to the

ceremony so that the other students can applaud the 8th grade on their

achievement. Post video online.

Engage your Parent Ambassadors

• Make sure your parents are ready to assist the school throughout the summer

• Establish a calendar of when your key parents will be out of town

• Encourage parents to complete service hours

during the summer before school begins

(send out a calendar before the last day)

• Compile a list of summer activities for

parent ambassadors to sign up for

BEFORE the school year is finished

• Encourage parents to add testimonials to

the school social media pages and other

online sites such as yelp, google,

greatschools.com that offer comment

sections for schools.

Before the End of the Year

Create end of the year content to for posting throughout the summer. It’s hard to find content to share during the summer as school is not in session. To help with this you can plan for this before the end of the year.

• Make end of the year videos

• Audio Slide Video Websites

• Sharalike

• Animoto

• Typito

• Shadow Puppet Edu

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Before the End of the Year

Additional content for the summer:

• Upload all photos from the year

• Have students craft memorable about the school year that can be added to the website and social media.

• If your teachers have blogs, tell them to post a recap of the academic success in the classroom for the year and to also add photos and video

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Before the End of the Year

Additional content for the summer:

• Create additional positioning statements to post throughout the summer to remind the audience of your value proposition. To help ask the questions:

• How do you want to be seen?

• When someone thinks of your school, what attributes would you hope comes to mind? Leader, community-oriented, welcoming, academic excellence, character development, etc.

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Before the End of the Year

All of this content should be shared via your regular communication channels throughout the summer:

• E-Newsletters – current families and prospects

• School Website

• Social media platforms

• Principal/Teacher Blogs

• Email updates – current families and prospects

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Before the End of the Year

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Summertime Customer Service

The school should be open as often as possible

• A staff member should be on site to welcome prospective families and give tours

• When possible, stagger staff vacation time

• Many schools keep limited summer hours such as Monday through Thursday, 9am to 3pm

• Update voicemail and door signage to reflect these hours and how you can be reached during off hours

• Check and respond to voicemail and interest form submissions daily

• Update the church bulletin and website as needed

• The OCS expects that schools will not close for extended periods during the summer

• The OCS expects Marketing Directors will work throughout the summer to achieve budgeted enrollment goals

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Summertime Customer Service

Early Summer

• Call all current families that have not re-registered for FY18

• Call prospective families that have not registered for FY18

• Offer Financial awards (via unfunded aid) to TCS families not awarded with a

Tax Credit Scholarship

• Continue to engage the Church RE Program Participants

• Host summer programs/camps

• Plan an event for new families (ice cream social,

family game night, family field day, etc.)

• Post regularly on social media (intro new teachers,

highlight families/alumni, interview pastor, etc.)

in English AND Spanish if applicable

• Consider online advertising

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Summer Marketing Tasks

School Tours

• Overall look of school should be clean and lively

• Have one hallway bulletin board dedicated to general school marketing

• Consider keeping one classroom set up

• Enlist parents who can assist with tours

• Work on curb appeal

• Plant flowers, add a new coat of paint,trim bushes, etc.

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Summer Marketing Tasks

Mass Presence

• The bulletin should have information about the school and admissions

weekly

• Announcements should be made at mass weekly

• Encourage your Pastor to speak about the school regularly –

provide those talking points!

• Alumni, Parent, Student speak at Masses 2 times a month

• Booth at the back of church with school

information 1 time a month

Outreach to other Parishes

• Are there any Churches nearby

without a school?

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Parish Outreach

Baptism Outreach

• Send card and school information to the children who have been baptized the last five years

• Continue to send cards three to four times throughout the school year

Religious Education Outreach

• Establish a relationship with the DRE

• Schedule events with the school children & RE children throughout the year

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Parish Outreach

• Parent referrals

• Assemble more ambassador families

• Assist with making phone calls to perspective and outstanding current

families

• Share Facebook posts

• Write reviews:

✓ Greatschools.org

✓ Yelp.com

✓ PrivateSchools.org

✓ Facebook

✓ Google

✓ Bing

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Working with Current Parents

• Have parents research and create a list of activities around the community

• Train parents to give tours and serve at information tables at summer events

• Enlist parents to canvass the community

• Work with them towelcome incoming families

• New family event

• Classroom buddies

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Working with Current Parents

Opportunities for Exposure

• Canvass neighborhood

• Establish Relationships with Daycares

• Farmer’s Market

• Movies in the Park

• Street Festivals

• Parades

• Alderman events

• Chamber of Commerce Events

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Community Outreach

Community Events

• Be visible

• Be memorable

• Be sincere

• Be active

• Draw families to you:

• Face paint

• Balloon animals

• Games

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Community Outreach

Preparing for Next Year

• Create your marketing plan and calendar for FY19

• Update all marketing materials

• Website – is financial aid visible?

• Social media

• Print materials and translations

• Banners and posters

Please visit the OCS Portal and contactyour Marketing Enrollment Manager forsupport, ideas, and resources throughoutthe summer

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Summer Marketing Tasks

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Presentation Available at

http://bit.ly/2BwnrLF

• Financial Aid Committee

• Financial Aid Assessor

• Fill the Right Seats

• Variable Tuition Floor

• Making the Offer

Five Fundamentals of Financial Aid

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Memo: https://bit.ly/2KqoXAn

Presentation: https://bit.ly/2KqoXAn

The OCS Resource Portal: bit.ly/OCSResourcePortal

Thank you!