Best Practices

What achievements can you point to in marketing Catholic education? Whether you are new to marketing or a marketing veteran, we all need goals and we could all use ideas from others who are in the same position around the country.

Do you have a great ad campaign? marketing survey? unique recruitment program? successful direct mail program? strong retention program? tour guide training program? Whether it is at the diocesan level or the local level, let's hear from you what marketing strategies you've found to be effective.

Unhappy parents are loud!

A principal of a local parish elementary school asked me the other day what she could do to counter the parking lot-complaining going on in her school. She said "it's like their words are gospel. How can I compete with that? What can I do to correct this situation?" It's a great topic. What parking lot complaint stories can you share with us? And what advice might you offer her?

NCEA/Baltimore: Our agenda

We'll gather in Baltimore at the NCEA on Thursday, April 12th at 4:30 p.m. in Room 325 of the Convention Center. Our purpose is to discuss the critical issues - as we see them - in marketing Catholic education and how we might begin to affect change going forward. The meeting is open to all, an email reply/confirmation would be appreciated to ensure a seat for all. Minutes of our discussions will be shared with all.

Query: What should our priorities be in marketing Catholic education?

The Hoover Institution at Stanford University in California recently published an article "With Fewer Nuns and More Competition, Catholic Schools Find New Ways to Fight Declining Enrollments." (www.hoover.org). Peter Meyer also published a great article "Can Catholic Schools Be Saved?" on the same site. Our environment is changing in Catholic schools. Specifically in terms of marketing, what do you believe our priorities should be? Can we identify different priorities at the diocesan level? What about the l ocal level? national level?

Query: Marketing to Religious Ed students

The question asked - and I didn't see replies - so I thought worth repeating. Is anyone marketing their schools to Religious Ed students? How are they doing it? What's working? If not, any ideas on what would work?