Summer Project: Tools & Software for Admissions, Marketing & Development Teams to Explore
Apr 26, 2023Summer is a great time to explore potential tools that can save you and your school team time and money. Start by making a list of tasks that are repetitive or time-consuming.
- Where are you spending your energy and time?
- Is it on content creation or social media posting?
- Perhaps it’s on scheduling or project tracking?
Once you’ve identified your time-gobblers, the next step is to seek out tools and software that can help streamline your efforts.
Here are some ideas to get you started:
My recommendation as a resource for affordable software is Appsumo. I also suggest attending one of our free monthly Small School Leaders meetups and ask what other school leaders are using, get real-time feedback on what they have tried, and how it did, or did not, work for them.
Experiment with AI, like Chat GPT, these platforms are here to stay and are a good way to get the ball rolling when creating content. Now these should be used as idea generators and not copied and pasted as your original content...but starting to use it now will keep you ahead of the curve, and that's a good place to be.
Explore Project Management tools like Bloo, which is free and we have several clients using it happily, or perhaps one of these others.
Test out Email Marketing Software—if you’re not currently using a system like Convertkit or MailChimp, or if you are unsatisfied with the system you’re currently using, then this is the time to switch.
Calendar Schedulers are a game changer, so if you're not using one I would recommend starting here! Use for scheduling tours, open houses, meetings with the HOS, and more. Set them up this summer for easy use in the fall. I recommend these two, but there are many others out there.
Forms and Surveys. If you haven't tried using these to be better informed about what your community really wants (and not just what you think they want) then the summer is the perfect time to start. These are my top picks, and I have another recent blog post that goes into more detail.
Admissions Tracking software: Another game changer if you haven't already gone there. These companies will give free demos, so schedule a couple and see if there might be one in your price range that will really save you time and keep you on track through those busy admissions seasons. Here are a couple that I am familiar with, and your Student Information System might offer alternatives as well.
Apps to streamline communications: Parents are feeling more and more overwhelmed, and many parents today are comfortable with Apps and using their phones to do so many things, especially when they are on the go all the time. Here are a couple of suggestions, and as above, you can schedule a demo. Even if you don't go there now, it will be something to start wrapping your brain around for the future.
I encourage you to be curious and explore a bit. If you still aren't sure I invite you to join our free monthly Small School Leaders meetups. This is a place to ask questions and find out what other small school leaders are doing.
I hope you found this helpful! I welcome comments and questions, [email protected]
Looking forward to seeing you soon,
Aubrey
