keeping students/parents informed about school events

[WaterGal]

What do you think are the best ways to do this?

When we first opened, it was easy to just tell everybody what was going on at the school that month (which wasn't much anyway, usually just a belt test). Most of our early students were whole families, and of the ones that weren't, I was on a first-name basis with every parent, and if I didn't see them at the school I'd call them and let them know.

But now that we're getting bigger, we have more going on (seminars, parent's night out, demonstrations, etc), more people to let know about them, and more uninvolved families. Also, more families where the parents don't speak English very well. So getting the word out is getting to be more of a challenge. Even with Facebook and a notice board at the school, people are missing things just because they don't know about them.

What do you think? Send home flyers with the kids? Mail things home? Send out e-mails?

 

[Gnarlie]

Advertise your events via representative photographs, ideally from the previous time if the event is regular. Dates, prices and deadlines in large font on the photo.

Accompanying text in plain English, using the minimum number of words possible.

If you want a response send out pictorial invitations and pass round a signup list after every class including a deposit payment.

There are about 16 different languages spoken at the school where I teach and train, and this method works. We are lucky that our native language is a world language. We encourage students to share event information with each other.

Gnarlie

 

[drop bear]

Facebook.

Free easy and designed for just that.

Which you do.

Never mind.

We also get phone messages.

 

[Carol]

I think this is an area where surveying your target audience will give you the best feedback. Not everyone is comfortable with the concept of asking a customer what they want, but most customers appreciate the opportunity. Ask the families involved, or a representative sample of the families involved how they would like to be notified of events at the school. That will give you some hard data to build a marketing strategy.

 

[MartialMellow]

I like your idea of sending home flyers with the kids. That way, the kids and the parents will know.

 

[Crossracer]

I don't and won't face book. I however send out an email blast once a week that my students know comes on fri. It details everything that I'm doing the next week.
Simple, effective, and with a smart phone you can work on it thru the week and save it in a draft folder. That way you are making the best use of your time.

Bill


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[WaterGal]

I set up a newsletter using MailChimp this weekend, so I'm going to start using that every month. It's free if you send less than, I think, 1,000 e-mails a month? And after messing around a bunch with the template builder for a couple hours, it looks actually pretty nice and pro. Way better than what I could do in gmail, hah.

Advertise your events via representative photographs, ideally from the previous time if the event is regular. Dates, prices and deadlines in large font on the photo.

Accompanying text in plain English, using the minimum number of words possible.

That's a really good idea. I'll have to think about how to make some really simple and accessible flyers like that.

The town the school's in is undergoing a big demographic shift (from being very white and a little rural/rednecky to becoming a diverse suburban bedroom community), so I'm sure we'll be seeing more and more immigrant families speaking more languages coming in the door.

 

[jezr74]

Not sure if it applies to the martial arts school. But for soccer I've seen this used Manage Your Team Online with TeamSnap's Free Sports Team Websites (or similar), will appeal to the more technology accepting. But is an option if you want to keep communication high and more focused rather than something like a closed group in facebook.

EDIT: Sorry that is the wrong app, there is one for MA schools that is similar. I'll have to find it.