Needed: Marketing pizzazz for Jewish Teens
This post is more about marketing than it is about Jewish education.
It’s a subject I have learned to get close to, being a member of a very small niche group (Jews in America) with a specialized skill set (Jewish Educator) for an even smaller, underserved and often forgotten very specific age group: Jewish Teens.
(The lyrics from “New York, New York” come to mind: “If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere”)
So, it’s understandable that I’d be focusing on ways to get the word out about teens and how we can best meet their needs before they go off to college and saunter into the sunset.
A quote, from the Harvard Business Review Blog prompted me to write this post:
“For your prospects, this means they need to see a clear distinction between what they’re already doing and what you’re proposing.”
Makes perfect sense.
The hard part is translating this concept to a service, that for many reasons, is a ‘hard sell’.
The article recommended using pictures to convey these ideas. Wow, that’s a tough one in our business.
Pictures of happy teens only goes so far.
In a previous post I asked if were are communicating with the tools we do have (words) to our potential students about what we offer.
Now I’m asking how we might headline the news of our great programs that would encourage students to sign up? What message could grab a parent’s attention?
Here are some possibilities based on meeting an underlying need. We might actually use a few.
Fear:
Going to college? Then You Must Be Ready to Respond to Israel bias. If not, sign up now to be prepared!
Ethics:
Going to college without a strong ethical foundation is like going sky diving without a parachute. Don’t risk it. Sign up now.
Academics:
Everyone in your class is already taking AP classes, advanced calc, and is on some type of team. How many are taking an extra academic course load and college credit classes? Sign up now and get a college advantage!
Social Stuff:
Build a great social network of Jewish Teen Leaders like yourself. Sign up now!
Change:
Tired of being frustrated in Hebrew school? Change things up and sign up now!
Which one would get the attention of Jewish Teens? Their parents?
Please share yours here, and maybe we can all benefit from our collective creativity.
Photo credit: flickr
Reclaiming Judaism 
August 6th, 2012 at 8:32 PM
Hi Ruth
I read this post with great interest. As a Jewish mother to 3 children, two of them in their teens I ask myself every day what I should do to enhance their ties to their Jewish heritage. One thing I would tell you is that the marketing and sales pitch should be directed first and foremost at the teens vs the parents because at this age it is very hard to make them participate in an activity that is of little interst to them. One other thing is that they tend to want to go places and do things withe their friends and the argument about networking with other teens doesn’t really work.
Talila
August 12th, 2012 at 3:57 PM
Talila, Thank you for your personal and considered response. I appreciate the challenge you mention, of directly reaching out to teens. What, in your opinion and knowing what your own kids’ interests are, would that look like? Your response would be of interest to so many of us involved in Jewish education.