Category Archives: Marketing

September 7, 2016

Marketing Jewish Education for Now and Later

By Ruth Schapira

downloading-future

 

Sales. Marketing. Branding. Social Media Presence. Analytics. SEO. ROI.

Just a few short years ago, terms like these were absent from board room discussions in the Jewish community, let alone among practitioners in the realm of  Jewish education.

As the world has gotten more sophisticated, nonprofits in general and Jewish organizations specifically, had to respond. Those that deeply understand how social media and marketing influence their constituencies are better positioned to deal with the ebb and flow resulting from this change.

The ‘prosumer’ mentality, just a short time ago labeled selfish and self-centered, has permeated our culture and affects all sorts of decisions. People make choices on multiple factors, but the one that organizational leaders didn’t anticipate was when Jewish involvement became an optional expense.

Paying for Jewish education experiences is not any different for most people than deciding to pay for any other service (pun intended). This makes Jewish education providers work just a bit harder to provide relevant content in formats and venues that people want.

But as long as people base their judgment on the economics of choice, many will jettison long-term goals in favor of the immediate. So, “free” became the new standard as part of the value proposition.

Free trips. Free membership. Free pre-school.

“Free” is a great short-term sales pitch, but tends to devalue what you’re trying to ultimately sell.

Seth Godin, a well-known marketing guru, makes this point:

“If you are selling tomorrow, be very careful not to pitch people who are only interested in buying things that are about today.”

Mostly, Jewish education is not about now.  Character development, Jewish identity-building, leadership training, and critical thinking…are all about how it will impact you later.

Not only are we trying to sell tomorrow, we’ve increased the challenge by selling intangibles. Things you can’t brag about or take a selfie in front of. Nothing real that anyone can update in a post on Facebook.

How are we to market to this new reality?

Well, according to Godin: “Before a marketer or organization can sell something that works in the future, she must sell the market on the very notion that the future matters (bold typeface mine).  The cultural schism is deep, and it’s not clear that simple marketing techniques are going to do much to change it.”

Clearly, the burden is on us. But you already knew that.

The marketplace is the decider, and we have to weigh in with a compelling model of value.

And even more than that, we have to stop fighting each other for a piece of a disappearing pie. What we offer matters, but it has to be about now–and later. 

In the simplest of terms, offering experiences provides the now, and when infused with educational content, it provides the later.  People will come back for more if they experience real-time growth and change.  

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Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , | posted in Jewish, Jewish Community, Jewish Education, Jewish Educators, Judaism, Marketing, Outreach, Religion

May 17, 2016

The Funniest Tweet I’ve Seen

By Ruth Schapira

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Leave a comment   |  tags: , | posted in Jewish, Jewish Community, Judaism, Leadership, Marketing, Outreach

October 29, 2015

3 Ways Nonprofits Can Increase Engagement

By Ruth Schapira
Do you care about organizational integrity?

Who cares about your organizational integrity?

We are witnessing the highly valued currency of connection in many organizations, especially non-profits. This is so because non-profit organizations have the most to gain from a consistent and loyal donor/customer (hereafter named d/c) base. When resources are thin, the value of customer retention is at a premium. Yet, despite the rash of open positions titled “Engagement Coordinator”, “Director of Donor Outreach”, or “Membership Concierge” there is more to reaching out to current and potential donors/customers than a newly crafted position.

Beyond having hundreds, if not thousands of d/c “like’ you, “follow” you, “pin” you or develop an association with you is the hope that they will, over time, build a relationship with you. In time, that connection will hopefully culminate into the continual donation/purchase of goods and services, ensuring a secure future for your organization. For non-profits, that culture of connection translates to donations made freely and frequently.

So what’s wrong with creating new positions in order to focus on connections? Simply developing a new area of focus in d/c engagement doesn’t assure success. As compelling as the organizational mission might be, to be really successful at the above endeavors requires internal change as well.

For instance, organizational staff will need to comprehend a change in focus. What plan is in place to bring them on board? How will this new spirit of engagement translate to the folks in the Marketing, IT departments or even those at the front desk? In what ways will their work change? What specific strategies will support the new emphasis on d/c relationships?

Why should you expend the effort? For the sake of organizational integrity which long-term, translates to sustainable success.  Think of the most effective organizations you know.  They seem to have a top-down, bottom-up consistency to messaging.  A solid measure of how effective an organization is, is how well their message to the outside world mirrors the one to its own employees and staff. It’s the sweet spot where the external mission and the internal operation coalesce into a unified whole.

Why is this important? Because today, success is not just about sales/donations. It’s about being upstanding and upright. So, no matter how many positions are created with this new engagement focus, if they are not reflective of a cultural shift in the organization confusion will follow. Being an organization without integrity is like being a parent who says one thing but does another.  It won’t take long for a bright consumer to figure things out, and then there could be very serious consequences and perhaps even irreparable damage, with heavy work to be done in order to restore confidence.

So, what are three quick questions to ask to know if your non-profit has organizational integrity?

  1. Compare the way your organization treats its best donors with the way it regards the most valued employees. Are there disparities? Repair them. Perhaps your organization is filled with itself on the inside but unable to articulate that same message to potential or current donors/buyers? If either case is so, you’ll need to fix it.
  2. Compare the frequency and tone of external newsletters with communication with internal staff. Does the message match? Is there equal attention to the content for both? Make sure your message works for you, in all ways possible. If not, work on creating better tools.
  3. What is the follow-up system for problems that occur? How are issues handled for d/c or for internal staff? If issues fester and go unresolved, that can poison any outreach/inreach efforts you might want to undertake.

Achieving organizational integrity is a process I can help you with. I am interested in your responses and hope you might connect to discuss your experience with me, here or at Ruth Schapira Consulting.  

Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Ethics, Jewish Community, Marketing, Non-Profit, Outreach

June 26, 2013

How We Are Shortchanging Jewish Teens

By Ruth Schapira
Teens need to be with other teens. Lots of them.

Teens need to be with other teens. Lots of them.

Some time ago, I wrote a post called What I learned about marketing from working at a Jewish Community High School. The “Aha, yes, you got it right” e-mails never came,  but I wrote that post mostly for myself anyway. It was a way to help me clarify some of the challenges inherent in my part of the Jewish world, because getting buy-in from Jewish teens was just too impossible of a job and I needed to explore why that was so.

Well, things have gotten much, much harder.  Then, I carefully outlined the primary reasons for the recruitment struggle, giving much detail of the built-in synagogue realities that make it even harder than anyone would think it would be.

Taking stock is a helpful exercise, but expecting change is another matter entirely. In fact, looking back, I was naive because I thought the challenges I referred to were the major obstacles to scores of teens signing up for enhanced Jewish education programs.

Boy, did I underestimate things.

What I didn’t experience so much then was turf, mostly because things just a short time ago, weren’t that bad. I’ve encountered it so much that I feel shell-shocked from the experience.

Let’s say that in a sea of drowning people, no one is going to throw you a lifesaver.

Specifically, no one is going to ‘share’ precious resources i.e. members. The Jewish community is in a period of deep change (though some have said chaos), and I can almost see the curtains being drawn and shutters being shackled as many organizations and synagogues are just trying to weather the storm and hold their own.

This behavior has not necessarily held true for the number of partnerships that are beginning to sprout up everywhere, albeit out of necessity. The economics of sustaining organizations has driven collaboration and that is a good thing to come of all this.

The issue I’m focusing on is limiting choices for others when the desire to hold on to them becomes paramount.

I respect and value the desire of synagogues to create ways of keeping their teens involved–especially as it pertains to keeping Post Bar/Bat Mitzvah teens on site—-we know how powerful Jewish role models can be, and that goes both ways. Jewish teens are role models for the younger students, and the professional leadership are mentors for the teens. That works.

Except when the teens themselves are being short-changed out of their own educational opportunities.

Holding onto your Jewish teens is wonderful, as long as you’re providing them with substantial, content-laden experiences. It’s just not okay if you simply want them on your real estate.

I’ve heard comments like “We just like to have them in our building” to “Our teens are needed here because they sell snack at break”

Sorry, but the way to have teens on hand, is not simply to have them give a hand. They need more.

Having classroom aides is not a bad idea in and of itself,  when done correctly. As an experience that stands alone, I don’t think it gives teens a fair deal. Please read here for some of the reasons why I believe that to be true.

In order to ‘weather this storm’, there needs to be some long-term planning on creating better business models, one that allows teens some choices as to how they want to play out their Jewish journey.

The reality, is that building those skills now, of helping teens actively choose their Jewish involvement, is what may make a difference for Jewish continuity when they get to college.

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3 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Adolescence, Jewish, Jewish Community, Jewish Education, Jewish Teens, Judaism, Marketing, Parenting

January 21, 2013

Uphill Marketing to Jewish Teens

By Ruth Schapira
Maybe a megaphone would work?

Maybe a megaphone would work?

I am an advocate for Jewish teens, and believe that all teens benefit from a Jewish education past the usual drop-off age of Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

By Jewish education, I don’t mean madrichim programs (where teens aide in classrooms). I mean teens participating in educational programs that build curiosity and challenges their intellect.

Full disclosure: see the About page. I’m biased.

And, playing nice is what I do.

What does that mean?

Well, I can’t really repeat the things I hear from our students about their prior Hebrew School experience in marketing materials or promotional pieces.  That would not be nice.  Plus, what students have said about their specific experience may not hold true for everyone. So, What do they say?

Here’s a sampling:

“Hebrew school was a waste of time”

“No one knew anything in my Hebrew school”

“I learned the same thing year after year at Hebrew School!”

“No one took Hebrew school seriously, no one wanted to learn!”

So, can I use these often-heard comments in marketing our program?

Well, that wouldn’t be nice, so no.

Things also get complicated when the very teens you’re trying to reach are already in Hebrew school, wanting to be done. 

That is precisely why marketing is an uphill struggle, and a challenge that I’ve written about before, just to be able to vent about it.

You might ask, what is the reason for being nice? Well, do you want to be that candidate running a negative campaign?  It’s a cheap shot, and one not worth taking. Community building is what we should all be doing, however tempting it might be to carve out an easy win.  

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Leave a comment | posted in Jewish, Jewish Community, Jewish Education, Jewish Teens, Judaism, Marketing, Non-Profit

August 1, 2012

How Would You Market to Jewish Teens?

By Ruth Schapira

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

2 Comments | posted in College, Jewish Education, Jewish Teens, Judaism, Marketing, Parenting