4-Week Super Summer Bootcamp… 5 Ways to Communicate to Engage and Enroll In Your Summer Camps

If you've been listening to the podcast, then you know that in the last few episodes, I've been discussing how you can plan your summer camps.

I've talked about how to plan your weekly themes and your camp's structure, and today, I will discuss how to communicate the right way.

Good communication leads to engagement and more enrollment, so it's crucial to focus on it when working on your summer camp plans.

Summer is an enrollment season that will look different from the regular school year. And how you communicate during it is an essential ingredient to your success.

Communicating with parents, your team, and campers before and during summer camp is important for a program that enrolls.

So, how can you make sure you're doing it the right way?

Tune in now to find out!

Are You Communicating the Right Way?

Summer is an enrollment season that will look different from your regular school year. However, how you communicate is still an essential ingredient, especially when success includes increasing your camp enrollment. 

Communicating with parents, your team, and campers before and during summer camp is important for a successful program. 

This is why working now on identifying how you plan to communicate will save you time and effort during the summer. 

Working on your communication plan doesn't have to be time consuming. You will find that a majority of information that you share with your team can be shared with the parents as well. That information will also be relevant to your campers, so you’ll simply need to adjust the messaging for the audience you're speaking to. 

5 Ways to Communicate Effectively

In this week’s blog, I’m going to discuss five ways you can communicate with your families to ensure they are engaged and enrolling during your summer camp season. 

Tip #1: Use Email to Your Advantage

Email is one of the simplest ways to communicate with parents. It’s easy to use, and when done right, it’s a very effective way to keep parents in the loop.

When it comes to summer camps, you’ll want to be mindful as soon as March starts. It sounds so simple, right? But you would not believe how many of the schools and centers I work with get caught up in the chaos of spring breaks and forget to start working on their summer camp plans. 

A strong, successful, highly-enrolled summer camp program begins way before summer even starts. This is why you have to get everyone pumped up for camp by sending emails with relevant and exciting information starting March.  

Include photos, past experiences and personal anecdotes. Let everyone see, and more importantly, feel the camp experience. Let them in on parts of your summer camp planning so they can see how much effort you're putting into it. Busy families will appreciate being kept in the loop. 

Tip #2: Provide a Monthly Newsletter

The second way to communicate is to provide a monthly newsletter during the summer. This is not the same monthly newsletter that you might send during the school year. 

Your summer camp monthly newsletter is the perfect way to keep families engaged and excited for what's coming up. 

It's also a great way to share how they can engage in camp: Is there any special theme or dress up days planned? Are you looking for any special guests or parent volunteers during a certain week? Would you like any donated materials or items for a camp? 

A monthly newsletter allows you to prepare the families for what is to come and also include them in the camp experience. 

You can also use your monthly newsletter to share any updates or changing policies with the parents.

Tip #3: Don’t Forget Weekly Postcards

This is one of the things that we have done for years and it’s always a huge hit. We create weekly postcards that go home to the families. We do this with very little prep and planning on the camp leaders’ part during the actual camp week, but it pays off in spades. 

In the spring, when we're planning our summer camps and have identified our themes, we create a generic postcard that’s very easy to fill in. 

We print a bulk amount of postcards, and at the beginning of summer camp, the camp leaders can just grab a number of them for each week and fill them in.

Once you do the same, it’s up to you whether you want to mail the postcards or just send them home with your campers. We find that the parents and campers love getting mail, but sometimes, it's just easier to send them home at the end of the week.

Tip #4: Parent Bulletin Boards Are a Must

Probably one of the easiest ways to communicate with families are your parent bulletin boards. Parent bulletin boards are very helpful for parent communication. 

Decorate your bulletin board using the children's artwork, pictures, and fun creations based on the weekly theme, and visually display information on that board. 

You can also include pictures from past camps and examples of things that parents can look forward to before camp and during summer camp. 

Tip #5: Don’t Neglect Your Social Media Presence

The final piece of communication you can use to engage and enroll families is your social media. 

I know, I know, not everybody uses social media. However, maintaining an active social media presence is essential if you want to share a glimpse of the fun the children are having during your summer camp. 

Social media pages are also a great way to keep parents up to date with the regular day to day life of their little campers, and what is happening during the camp week. It can be especially helpful if something fun and spontaneous comes up and you want to involve the families immediately.

I discuss all of this in more depth in the episode above, so make sure to give it a listen!

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