This presentation touched on private school marketing 101 and performing a marketing audit on your school. Special emphasis was put on creating an Annual Report for your school. "10 Ways to make your annual report awesome" are a great reminders for veteran communicators and an absolute must for schools doing an annual report "refresh".

1. MARKETING AND ANNUAL REPORTS

2. AGENDA
• Who is Bullpen Marketing?
• Marketing 101
• What marketing says about your school
• We want a billboard
• Marketing Audit and planning
• Annual Report

3. • Established in 1997
• Houston, born and raised
• Academic Marketing experience
started at St. Thomas High School
• Currently have 80+ Private School
clients in Houston and beyond

5. • Marketing Audit
• Solidifying the Brand
• Websites & Social Media, SEO, Videos
• Advertising – online, print, radio
• Direct Mail
• Printed Materials

6. As a full-service
academic marketing
agency, Bullpen can help
schools set and achieve
realistic goals

7. MARKETING 101
Marketing is the set of activities used to:
• get your potential customers’ attention
• motivate them to buy
• get them to actually buy
• get them to buy again (and again…)

8. MARKETING 101 FOR SCHOOLS
Marketing is the set of activities used to:
• get your potential parents and students’
attention
• motivate them to attend your school
• get them to actually attend your school
• get them to reenroll again (and again…)

9. WHAT DOES YOUR MARKETING SAY ABOUT YOUR SCHOOL?
• Everything!
• Good marketing makes the school look smart.
Great marketing makes the parents feel smart.
• Great marketing helps to reduce attrition, bonds
alumni and past parents, keeps good teachers,
raises money, and builds your school’s image in
the wider community.

10. WE WANT A BILLBOARD!

11. PERFORM A MARKETING AUDIT
• Get an outside-in perspective of your school
• You’re to close to the situation – “can’t see the
forest for the trees”
• Helps reevaluate and relocate a school's efforts
and budget
• Assign a person or a team to perform the audit
• What are your goals?

12. PERFORM A MARKETING AUDIT
• Consider all of your prospective parent/student
touch points
• Spread out all marketing materials and external
communications on a table
• Brochure
• Advertisements
• Website and Social Media
• Email communications
• Open house information
• Registration process
• Uniforms and spirit items

13. PERFORM A MARKETING AUDIT
• Listen to what your constituents say about their
perception of your school and what they like and don’t
like – and what they would like to see
• Student leaders
• Parents
• Alumni
• Faculty and staff
• Prospective students
• Walk around your campus with a camera
• Look at what your competition is doing – they’re looking
at you

14. PERFORM A MARKETING AUDIT
• Evaluate results
• Look for marketing disconnects
• Determine what needs to be done
• Create priorities, timeline
• Marketing plan

15. WHAT IS AN ANNUAL REPORT?

16. WHAT IS AN ANNUAL REPORT?
An annual report is a comprehensive report on a school's activities
throughout the preceding year. Annual reports are intended to give the
school’s benefactors and other interested people information about the
school's activities and financial performance.

17. 1) EMPHASIZE YOUR VISION THROUGHOUT
Your annual report is a snapshot of what your school has accomplished
over the past year. Your vision is what drives your school and is what
inspires people to support you. Faculty and student stories and results
should demonstrate on different levels how you’re fulfilling that vision.
10 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR ANNUAL REPORT AWESOME

18. 2) FOCUS ON ACCOMPLISHMENTS, NOT ACTIVITIES
What did you accomplish last year as a school? What goals did you set
and were you able to meet them? Do you have data that can validate
the success of your efforts? Your report should be about the impact
and results of your school. Don’t talk about internal stuff… high speed
internet, new accounting software… Inspire donors with
accomplishments related to your mission and leave all the
administrative items for your report to your board

19. 3) SHARE STORIES
Share the stories of your school over the past year. Use the voices of
your faculty and students. Storytelling is an art and should be
interesting to the readers. Show how your school is different from
others in the stories that you tell.

20. 4) USE INFOGRAPHICS
Infographics are the perfect storytelling tool. They often are used to
demonstrate progress or point to future goals. What are the key
metrics that highlight your success? Identify those statistics and
develop infographics for them. Make sure they are clean and simple.

23. 5) MAKE IT VISUAL
Make your Annual Report pleasing to the eye. Most people are visual
learners. (think Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest) Your annual report
should not just be columns of data. It needs to be a clean balance
between text and visuals. (photos, infographics, quotes, stories) Edit
down your copy as much as possible and think about what you can say
with visuals, not just words.

25. 6) WRITE CAPTIONS THAT TELL YOUR STORY
Now that you have great photos in your report, tell a story with your
captions. Don’t just state what’s in the picture, tie the photo to an
accomplishment.
If people read nothing but the captions in your annual report, they
should still get a sense for the good work you did last year.

27. 7) IF YOU NEED MORE SPACE FOR VISUALS, TRIM THE DONOR LISTS
Schools need to strike a balance between using the space in their
annual report to discuss their accomplishments and using it to
recognize donors.
If as much as half of your annual report is donor lists, you should scale
the lists back to make more room for visuals. Smaller donors can be
recognized in other ways such as lists in newsletters.

29. 8) CHECK YOUR DONOR LISTS CAREFULLY
There’s no better way to sabotage a future donation than to spell the
donor’s name wrong in your annual report. If you are uncertain about a
name, check with the donor.
Also, carefully check the names of foundations that gave you grants.
The names people call these organizations in conversation are often
short-hand for the full names that belong in your annual report.

30. 9) THANK EVERYONE
Recognize the people, inside and outside of your organization, who’ve
contributed to your school’s success. Your annual report should
encourage and inspire your audience to help move your school forward
to new heights.

31. 10) HAVE CLEAR CALLS TO ACTION
Never leave a potential supporter hanging, wondering how they can
help you. Once you have inspired your readers with the great things
your school has accomplished, conclude by telling them how they can
help you do more.
How can they support you with their money or time? Ask them to
volunteer. Remind them of planned giving options. Tell them about gifts
of stock. Steer them to ways to use their credit card to donate. Be clear
about the best ways to help.

32. • Schools struggle with what to
include and what to leave out
• Annual Reports have changed over
time – written for insiders
• Come in all shapes and sizes –
printed/mailed, websites, video,
PPT
• Annual Reports may not even be
called Annual Reports – “report to
our community” “call to action”
WAIT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

33. • The key to a successful Annual
Report today may be simply using
your imagination, hunting out
many examples from schools
similar to yours, and figuring out
what your audience enjoys.
• A younger audience will love
something digital while an
older audience might prefer a
more traditional approach.
WAIT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

34. LAST BUT NOT LEAST – THE CHECKLIST!

36. Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston
Catholic Charities
Steps for Students (Committee)
____________________________
Assumption Catholic School
Christ the Redeemer Catholic School
Corpus Christi Catholic School
Holy Family Catholic School
Holy Ghost Catholic School
Holy Rosary Catholic School
Incarnate Word Academy
Incarnate Word High School
O’Connell College Preparatory
Our Lady of Fatima School
Our Lady of Guadalupe School
Our Lady of Lourdes School
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel School
Our Lady Queen of Peace
Queen of Peace Catholic School
Resurrection Catholic School
St. Agnes Academy
St. Aloysius Catholic School
St. Ambrose Catholic School
St. Anne Catholic School
St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School
St. Augustine Catholic School
St. Cecilia Catholic School
St. Christopher Catholic School
St. Edward Catholic School
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School
St. Francis de Sales School
St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School
St. Helen Catholic School
St. Jerome Catholic School
St. John Paull II Catholic School
St. John XXIII College Prep
St. Joseph Catholic School
St. Laurence Catholic School
St. Louis Catholic School
St. Martha Catholic School
St. Mary Catholic School
St. Michael Catholic School
St. Norbert School
St. Peter the Apostle
St. Pius V Catholic School
St. Pius X High School
St. Rose of Lima Catholic School
St. Theresa Catholic School
St. Thomas High School
St. Vincent de Paul Catholic School

37. • Logo and Mascot
Design
• Web Design
• Photography
• Videography
• Print Design
• Advertising
• Direct Mail
• Annual Fund
• Annual Reports
• Spirit Items
• Booster Clubs
• Apparel
• Branding
• Consultation

38. • Schools struggle with what to
include and what to leave out
• Annual Reports have changed over
time (notes.. Once ponderous lang
• Come in all shapes and sizes
(notes.. Many posted on websites..
• Annual Reports may not even be
called Annual Reports (notes…
ANNUAL REPORTS: WHAT’S IN AND WHAT’S OUT
https://www.thebalance.com/write-nonprofit-
annual-report-2502336