By Briana Podlovits, marketing coordinator, Office of Catholic Schools

Marketing initiatives have become more innovative and pervasive within the Catholic academies and schools of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

In the process, templates have been created, partnerships have been formed, ads are school specific, and campaigns to target the appropriate audiences have been designed and implemented.

Technology

In such a technologically advanced era, the coordinator of marketing in the Office of the Superintendent ~ Catholic School Support Services works collaboratively with DeSales Media and Change Strategies to provide the necessary tools to each academy and parish school individually.

Academy and parish schools employ appropriate use of technology on their school websites, and social media for marketing, recruitment and other communication efforts. Students use technology to effectively enhance their learning by using SMART Boards, Chromebooks, tablets, iPads, Macs and PCs.

Tools are provided as an assistance to develop, and execute an enrollment management and marketing plan. These plans include strategies for recruitment, retention, marketing and promotion as well.

Success Stories

Getting the word out about the successes happening at the academy or parish schools play a significant role in showing why Catholic education is so imperative. Important projects, community service and sharing the academic success of students should go beyond being posted in hallways. Principals and teachers are urged to forward the good news to the coordinator of marketing within the Office of the Superintendent~Catholic School Support Services with pictures and details of events so that they may be posted to the diocesan website.

Check out the many success stories of academies and schools in Brooklyn and Queens here.

Success stories not only advertise the academy or parish school, its students and the bond they have with their community, but also show existing families – as well as prospective families who may be looking at these schools – the reason that Catholic education is a great investment.

Marketing Toolbox

The Marketing Toolbox, found on the diocesan website, is maintained and constantly updated to serve as a general guide for the marketing team of each academy and parish school. In the toolbox, there are a series of webinars provided by DeSales Media Group that explain the significance of websites and tips on how to make them stand out.

This toolbox serves as a guide to the principals, boards and marketing committees. Brochures, press releases and the appropriate social media branding can all be found within the toolbox to help the academies and parish schools stand out individually. It can be found here: dioceseofbrooklyn.org/schools/marketingtoolbox/

Partnerships

The collaboration of the marketing coordinator, Change Strategies and DeSales Media Group provides principals, boards and the aligned pastors with the marketing materials necessary to recruit potential students offline and online.

Materials are tailored to languages other than English such as Spanish, Chinese and Polish.

Ads have been run advancing following topics:

• Recruiting grade-specifically

• Reregistration

• Holiday greetings

• Alignments

• Catholic Schools Week

• Scholarships

• Back-to-School

Find the academy or parish school closest to you at dioceseofbrooklyn.org/schools/find-a-school/