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Promoting Christian Schools

By February 6, 2015December 14th, 2020Faith & Learning

How do we promote Calvin Christian School?

Heather Souders (Director of Enrollment and Marketing) and I get asked this regularly. It is a good question and an important one as we compete with an increasing number of public and private school options.

Heather and I both subscribe to a variety of education promotion and marketing  blogs.  One of the most read in the private school world is from  best Rick Newberry, who has a strong background in Christian education.  He also did our marketing study a number of years ago and we continue to be in communication with him on how best to promote Calvin.

In a recent blog, Rick outlined some core concepts regarding enrollment and marketing strategy’s for private schools.  I wanted to share some of the key concepts for two reasons.  One is to inform you of why we do what we do in regards to promoting Calvin Christian. The other is to let you know how important current Calvin families are in this process.

Here are a few of the highlights:

  1. The number one way Christian schools grow is by word of mouth from current and former families.  This occurs when you share your encouraging Calvin story at work, your children’s sporting events, and in other settings where you find yourself in contact with your community. Sharing what Calvin has done for your family is an important part of promoting the school.
  2. When a person hears, through word of mouth, about a business or school, for example, they are much more likely to check out the website.  The website is the second most important piece in promotion.  Currently we are close to rolling out a major revision of the website, which Heather has been heading up.
  3. The traditional ways of marketing and promotions are changing.  Marketing experts say that the old way of advertising via print media (newspapers, billboards, magazines, etc.) is not a good use of limited marketing dollars.   Word of mouth, and any means to help facilitate positive word of mouth, are the most effective ways to promote a school. For example, you can help with world of mouth by following us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and share our posts in your social media circles.  Just recently a family came to the Kindergarten Information Meeting because of a post that a current parent had shared on Facebook.
  4. Effective communication with teachers is the #1 reason parents and children stay at a school.  This is why you have seen new efforts in this area (Friday Email Update, Monday Bulletin Email, phone calls, etc).  If you aren’t hearing enough , please let us know how we can do better in this area. 
  5. The number one time people will take a look at a school, its website, etc. is when they are thinking about school.  That usually means between now and the end of the school year and again in August. 

Now is the time to encourage someone to take a look at Calvin! 

cj@reverent.tv'

Author CJ Halloran

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