Faith-Based School Marketing to Build Connections and Inspire Community
Used to be, faith-based school marketing consisted of putting up a sign in front of the school, buying some print ads, and maybe printing some fliers. These days, with the advent of email marketing, social media, and even AI, it’s all gotten a lot more complex.
And compounding that challenge, the relentless advancement of technology means the best practices of yesterday are merely suggestions today.
Just as we typically no longer change the oil in our vehicles ourselves, many Christian schools have now made the strategic decision to collaborate with an outside creative agency for their marketing and messaging needs. This shift brings them several key advantages…
ADVANTAGE #1: TIME
If there could only be a capital campaign to raise more time! Instead, we strategically use financial resources to buy back time. By entrusting faith-based school marketing to a proven creative agency, school leaders no longer carry the burden of creating branding, marketing campaign, and video ideas from scratch. Instead, they provide said creative agency with a view into guidelines, goals, limitations, and resources, then simply provide approval or notes on suggested strategies.
But the time benefits don’t stop there.
While there’s a certain investment of time and cost on the front-end as the creative agency learns the school’s unique brand and values, that investment is amortized across the following months and years as the go-to agency begins to learn – and even anticipate – those faith-based school marketing needs.
ADVANTAGE #2: HUMAN RESOURCES
Gone are the days when a growing Christian school could pull together the messaging and marketing resources in-house. Is Ashley the drama teacher creative and brilliant? Of course! But she’s already busy with classes and the upcoming production.
Does Marcus have a background in advertising? Yes, he does. But he’s already coming in early and staying late to handle planning for the new semester.
The alternative is to create a dedicated in-house team. Effective certainly, but also often hard to justify budget-wise.
But, by entrusting their faith-based school marketing needs to a proven creative agency, a Christian school can trade that investment for better messaging and the freedom to allow employees to do what they were actually hired to do.
ADVANTAGE #3: EFFECTIVENESS
Creative, engaging, and consistently on-brand messaging across a spectrum of platforms is good, but it’s only the buy-in. To truly close the loop, there must be an element of measurement and analysis. The good news is, a digital approach to faith-based school marketing allows for just that. With regular meetings to discover what is and isn’t working, a trusted creative agency can adjust and optimize in order to provide the most effective messaging possible.
WHAT’S NEXT?
“Okay,” you’re thinking. “I’m sold. Now what? What are next steps?”
Well, if you’re considering partnering with CHAPTER + VERSE for your faith-based school marketing, it all starts with a 30-minute conversation, either in-person or remotely.
Among the topics we’ll cover:
– What is your school’s mission?
– Why do parents choose your school over other options?
– What are your short-term and long-term goals?
– What has worked for you as far as messaging?
– What are your current challenges and constraints?
– What does success look like for you?
By the end of that conversation, if it suits you, we’ll land on an upcoming messaging need that we’ll then develop a plan and budget for.
Upon approval, we’ll get to work to deliver results that don’t just surprise and delight, but move the needle in a measurable and meaningful way.
Sound good? Let’s get that meeting scheduled!