Grow Your Program

The pandemic created massive upheaval in the job market. In a short span of time, we saw a major shift to remote work, a surge in need for healthcare-related jobs, and jobs in some fields, like travel and entertainment, vanish almost overnight.  

As we reported earlier this year in our post, the 5 Types of Workforce Training Programs Trending for 2023, the Great Resignation could more accurately be called the Great Talent Reshuffle. While “reskilling” is a popular buzzword, Daphne Kis, CEO of WorldQuant University, pointed out in Forbes, “Reskilling used to go by another name—lifelong learning. The best employees were always reskilling.”

Read more

School’s out and summer camp season is in full swing. Is your program dealing with last-minute registrations, changes, or cancellations? Are you stuck managing a complicated camp registration system that overwhelms employees and frustrates parents? Is your team wasting a ton of time chasing down payments, consent forms, or other essential documents? Are you paying a monthly subscription fee for a program you only use six months out of the year? 

If you answered yes to any of those, you might dread camp registration season. But there are actions you can take to simplify and streamline your system and process for next time. It’s never too early to start. 

Make It Easy for Parents to Find Your Camp Programs

Before a parent can register their child for your summer camp, they need to know it exists. Word of mouth and repeat business may account for many of your registrations. Others come from social media or advertising. But your website plays a big role in whether those interested parents actually register their kids. 

Help parents find your programs by: 

Making your website and camp listings mobile friendly

Google is the most popular search engine in the world and they’ve switched to mobile-first indexing, which means the mobile friendliness of your site has a big impact on whether your website shows up in search.

Optimizing for “near-me” searches

Parents probably aren’t looking for a summer camp 400 miles away. They want a camp their kids can easily access. Optimizing your camp listings for near-me searches can help local parents find your program. 

Using searchable keywords

Your program pages should include the words and phrases parents are likely to use when searching for a camp like yours. Maybe they’re looking for a summer camp with swimming lessons or a performing arts summer camp. Tools like Google Trends can help you find the right words. They might even help you decide whether a new program or activity is in demand.

Making your site searchable

Parents aren’t just looking for any summer camp, they’re looking for one that will fit their child’s needs and interests. If you offer more than one program, make your site searchable by age and program type. That way parents can easily find what they’re looking for. 

Offering a simple, searchable, mobile-friendly online experience makes it easier for parents to find the information they need. 

Download our free summer camp registration system checklist to make it easy for parents to find your camp programs, simplify summer camp registration systems and processes, and offer the registration tools parents want.

Simplify Summer Camp Registration Systems and Processes

Even if a camp program is the perfect fit, you can miss out on registrations if your process is cumbersome or difficult to understand. Here’s how to simplify your camp registration system:

Offer online registration

Parents expect to complete the registration process completely online. If you’re asking them to print and mail forms or make phone calls, they’re likely to procrastinate. Busy parents don’t have time for those kinds of complications. Give them the tools to complete the entire registration process from their mobile phone, tablet or computer.

Ask for the right information

There’s some information you absolutely need and other info that would be nice to have. Then there are details you need from some campers but not from all of them. For example, you might need to know a little more about cabin preferences for overnight campers but that’s not relevant to the day campers. With the right software, you can customize registration forms for each program you offer.

Share policies and essential info

Remember that your registration form isn’t just a way to collect information. You can use it to share essential details with parents as well. Include a link to policies, health and safety information, or other important details. Customized registration forms come in handy here too, since they let you include only those details relevant to the program selected. 

Take online payments

Asking parents to pay by check creates a bottleneck that slows down your registration process. Offer secure online payment to streamline this step. 

These simple changes in your summer camp registration system can make a big difference for parents, which can result in more registrations for you. 

Offer the Registration Tools Parents Want

The right tools make a job easier. That’s true whether you’re making friendship bracelets in the craft tent or signing kids up for summer camp. Two registration tools can make the job of registering kids for classes a lot easier.

• Group registrations. What’s more fun than going to camp? Sharing the camp experience with your friends. Make it easy for parents to register siblings or friends by offering group registration. 

• Payment plans. Camp can be a major expense for families. You can make it more accessible by accepting payment plans. Of course, managing payment plans the old-fashioned way is a headache. It often involves spreadsheets and multiple phone calls to each registrant. Look for camp registration software that offers automatic payment plans. Everyone involved will thank you. 

The Summer Camp Registration System Your Campers Deserve

If you’re thinking, all of that sounds great but our system can’t do that, it might be time for an upgrade. Start with CourseStorm. Our registration software is perfect for summer camps. We offer online registration, secure payment, customizable registration forms, and more tools to make registration impossibly simple. And since there are no monthly subscription fees, you only pay for the registrations you actually get.

Don’t spend another summer managing registrations with spreadsheets and tools that don’t quite work for you. Get your CourseStorm demo today.

The pandemic triggered a boom in online classes. More programs added online learning, and for many, virtual classes are here to stay. This offers convenience and accessibility for learners, but some—including seniors—may feel left behind by newer technology. Figuring out how to teach technology to seniors now seems more important than ever.

Programs don’t want seniors to miss out on learning opportunities, but sometimes computer-based learning really is the best choice. To help find a solution, we turned to former CourseStormer Chris Suggs. Chris taught basic computing to older adults as an AmeriCorps volunteer. He shared six thoughtful tips on how to teach technology to seniors.

Read more

Creating effective marketing materials for your courses can feel like a never-ending task, especially if you have a small team. Marketing your classes with fresh and relevant content takes all of your resources. Yet there’s one valuable resource you might be overlooking—your instructors. They may not be marketing experts, but they have a perspective worth exploring.

We’ve talked before about how instructors can help attract students by sending emails, making announcements, sharing on social media, and leveraging community connections. Instructors can also help you create marketing content that feels personal and relevant. Let’s look at how you can work with instructors to make marketing materials for your classes.

Read more

Geico promises you will quickly save 15% or more on car insurance. Walmart assures you that their low prices help you live better. Canva claims their online graphic design platform makes it easy to create professional designs. These companies have built reputations around their brand promise—their commitment to their customers.  

Your organization should have a brand promise too. Being able to articulate what makes you stand out from your competitors and what students can expect from your program is critical to building a successful brand and establishing long-term student loyalty. We’ll share the steps for finding your brand promise and offer some examples to help get you started. 

Read more

Increasing class enrollment can be a challenge for any course provider. It might be particularly complicated for theaters with arts education programs. The marketing plans and workflows you have in place for performances don’t necessarily translate into functional course enrollment tools. If your goal is to enroll more students in your performing arts classes in 2023 and beyond, this post is for you. 

Many theaters are just returning to normal programming after a tough few years. Maybe you’ve returned to entirely in-person events, or maybe you’ve found that online learning and events still add value for your audience. Our State of Informal Learning Report found that nearly a quarter of students still prefer online classes in 2022, even after the dramatic spike during the pandemic has started to recede. Either way, if you’re still working toward your enrollment goals, these strategies can help you register more students.

Read more

Have you ever noticed how a new movie comes out and it seems like suddenly everyone is talking about it? Social media and online news certainly play a role in this phenomenon, but there’s something more basic happening here. People like to be in the know and feel like they belong. 

This human tendency to create and follow cultural trends can work to your advantage when planning and marketing classes. If you know what’s trending, you have a better idea of what’s likely to interest or excite your students. Just learning to spot these trends is half the battle. We’ll show you where to look for current cultural trends and how to use these events to build irresistible classes.

Read more

The nosy neighbor. The cantankerous co-worker. The level-headed lifeguard. We tend to create character sketches of people in our lives to help us learn to interact with them. This tendency to try to understand people can help you create a valuable marketing tool: student personas.

Student personas are representations of your ideal students based on what you know and understand about people in your target audience. You can think of them like composite sketches of your ideal students. Using student personas will help you better understand the needs, motivations, and behaviors of your students. This information can help shape your program’s marketing and sales strategies so you can ultimately get more registrations for your classes.

Read more

Marketing kids’ art classes—or any classes targeted to children—is a delicate balance. Although you’re offering art classes for kids, or summer camps, or theater workshops, or any other youth classes, it’s usually the parents who are researching options and making the decision to register. As a result, your organization needs to advertise, promote, and share classes in a way that appeals to parents while making it clear that the class will be enjoyable for kids. 

Getting this right means answering all the questions a parent may have about the class while keeping a sense of playfulness and fun. We’ll show you how to strike this balance, plus give you some insight into what exactly parents are looking for when choosing art classes for kids.

Read more

What do the Nike Swoosh logo, a Tiffany Blue Box® wrapped in white ribbon, and the Intel audio chime all have in common? They’re all examples of branding. Each one serves as a unique identifier that customers can recognize and identify with. Even without the marketing budget of these globally recognizable brands, your education program can still implement brand basics. 

Branding is important because it distinguishes your organization or education program as unique, special, and worthy of attention. Consistently repeating brand elements creates a lasting impression in the minds of your students and helps to build trust and loyalty. We’ll introduce you to some branding basics so you can start to develop a branding strategy that capitalizes on your program’s uniqueness.

Read more