For many K-12 districts, improving school communications is their top priority. How can the school administration engage with their students, teachers, parents, and communities? How do schools promote positive relationships with their students and increase their participation in the activities? Thus, many school districts face the challenge of figuring out which school communications must they use.
According to studies, parents agree that text messaging is the most effective digital communication method. Parents are busy nowadays. They work outside the home and are burdened with their schedules. However, 9 out of 10 parents have cellphones within reach most out the time.
Although many parents have access to the internet, some low-income families remain under-connected. As such, text messages are considered as one of the effective tools of school communication. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider investing in SMS marketing for your school now.
Emergency and Severe Weather Alerts
Investing in SMS marketing for schools will enable you to let everyone in the school know when it needs to be closed during a harsh weather condition. This can be a hurricane or snowstorm. With this, you can alert the parents of a possible locked-down to keep the students and staff safe.
Time Sensitive Reminders
One of the most important uses of text messaging is to keep updated of school schedules. This includes deadlines on when to fill out the registration forms, important meetings, and even event cancellations. With this, the parents are guided accordingly, and they are able to adjust to their work schedule.
Fundraising Activities
Some schools depend on fundraising activities to continue school programs. Examples of this are field trips, room renovations, and training. Send out SMS to your school community with a link to your latest donation page or fundraising campaign. You can add a call-to-action on the text asking for the parents and even alumni to help with the campaign. You can also create a text program that allows the bidders to join your next school auction.
Create Surveys
Do you want to know what are the top issues of the students and parents? You can create SMS surveys now. Send them a text with keywords they can type to receive an autoreply. Include a link to a short survey of your school.
List of School Supplies Needed in the Class
Parents who are shopping for school supplies may easily forget to bring the supply list with them due to busy schedules. As such, you can make it easy for them by sending the list through SMS. This is indeed one good advantage of SMS marketing for schools that you must try now.
Lunch Menus
What’s the menu for lunch? Students, parents, and staffs can easily check the menu at the cafeteria every day by texting a keyword to a shortcode.
Student and Staff Updates
High school students may be unable to check their emails every morning. However, they will not ignore the ping from a text message. Thus, you can send class information, sports/club reminders, and any updates via SMS.
The same is true with the staffs. Remind them of the important updates and due dates via a text message.