share the news, as you would with any program, to try to create some buzz. There are ways to broadcast this on Facebook that involve some out-of-pocket expense to reach your community and beyond more aggressively, but there are other actions to take before incurring costs. Add to e-Newsletter This is likely a place where you are used to disseminating information and also where you are habitually looking for something to headline your communication to reduce redundancy. Over time, this database increases, and as it does, this is a great free resource (if you do not overdo it). This database is an asset with great value as long as you work on delivering engaging content and don’t turn this into a place for carnival barking. Search Marketing Here you look to expand your community and reach Web searchers who are actively looking for services you offer. Unlike those in your community who may/may not have interest, these searchers, by virtue of keywords they use to search for your service, have demonstrated interest and are likely further along on the buying curve. They may not know you as well, but their behavior demonstrates interest. If they are searching for “birthday party,” they likely have a child with a birthday, whereas specific folks in your community may not even have children. Here you can reach new folks, and if they hold a birthday party at your day camp, twenty brand-new friends of camp age might walk in the door. (For more on search marketing, see my November/December 2012 Camping Magazine article, “Search Marketing on the Web — Drive New Camper Enrollment and Alternative Businesses.”) Analytics Looking at your analytics tells you where your Web site visitors came from. It also tells you if they have been to your site in the last thirty days, their location, what pages on your site they looked at, and everything else up to the privacy line. Without analytics, you are left to guess and simply ask folks who contact you how they found you as opposed to seeing hard data on most every visit to your Web site. If people are searching based on keywords relevant to your new initiative and entering your Web site, you can see activity, analyze it for the quality of engagement, and add this to actual calls, e-mails, leads, and purchases for the fullest picture. Making the go/no-go decision involves assessing: • Web site data broken down to discern interest in specific content. • Quantity and quality of calls, e-mails, leads (anecdotal). • Purchases. We need to zero in on where interest is coming from and what marketing levers seem to be succeeding and failing. Synthesizing all this allows you to make an informed go/no-go decision. A decision might be to continue to test by altering the approach and/or variables, or simply accumulating more data if your data set is inconclusive. All new programs could be subject to seasonality, so it may be that a spring campaign might succeed while a fall one fails. There are also other ways to promote that go beyond the more Web-based approaches here; they tend to be more offline. Offline, boots-on-the-ground types of endeavors, or even a good old-fashioned postcard mailing, can still work. But anything that bypasses your ability to track on the Web site via analytics could leave you searching for the breadcrumb trail — and that works against fast, easy, cheap, and continuous, which characterizes the model we are building. Reference Silverpop. (2013). 2013 email marketing benchmark study: An analysis of messages sent Q1–Q2 2012. Retrieved from www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20130508/EMAIL13/305089998/ email-open-rates-average-19-7-lastyear# sthash.M6sqb2qb.dpuf Eric Stein is the founder and president of Eswebmarketing, a provider of Internet marketing services focusing on paid search to small businesses. The company works with over ten day, sleep-away, and specialty camps nationwide, some of which do yearround retreats as well. Eric is also a regular speaker at ACA’s National and Tri-State Conferences. He grew up at a summer camp in the Adirondacks started by his grandparents and currently run by his family. He can be found at www.Eswebmarketing.com or reached at ericsteinwebads@gmail.com. You serve America’s youth. serves you. Youth Today is the only national print and digital publication for youth-service professionals. Online 24/7 and in print bimonthly, Youth Today reports on the issues, challenges and the state of youth in America. Our in-depth reports, research and commentary gives you the information you need to succeed. Reach out for Youth Today. We’re here to help. AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2013 WWW.YOUTHTODAY.ORG VOL. 22, NO. 5 Expanded Learning The New Key to Increase Student Achievement Experts say partnership, data-sharing and professional development poise providers to help students and schools increase achievement By Jamaal Abdul-Alim At PS 188, a middle school on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, teaching artists from a partner organization bring social studies to life through plays, puppet shows and painting. In Chicago, education and nonprofit leaders collaborated to find a legal way to access and share student data from the public schools that would have otherwise been confidential. They ultimately used the data to enhance and expand youth-development programs to reach thousands more young people throughout the city. At the Family Resource Center in Valley Palms Apartments, a low-income housing community in San Jose, Calif., a staffer uses lessons from a professional development training to create engaging theme-based activities for the center’s after-school and summer enrichment programs. In all three cases, specialists say, youthdevelopment LEARNING continued on Page 20 INSIDE Agencies share lessons in quest to build better programs, partnerships, data-sharing and professional development. Page 21 workers were employing On Tackling Sports Safety Head youth sports Amid concussion concerns, making changes to protect athletes programs are Photo caption xxxx xxx the kind of best practices that they should within the evolving field of expanded learning. Such practices will be key in assisting schools that are under perpetual pressure to raise student achievement and prepare young people for college and careers. By James Swift More than 3 million U.S. children and teens participate in organized 65ANNUAL programs — and another 3 million in youth football play, the nation’s largest youth sports organization.US Soccer 5 to 15 participated in Pop year alone, nearly 300,000 youths, ages Last youth football program. $Warner play, the nation’s largest with heightened concussion risks have Recent data linking football the overall safety of youth football, with generated much debate about mandated 40 states officially passing legislation outlining more than young players since 2009. concussion safety procedures for SUBSCRIPTION INCLUDES A FULL YEAR OF YOUTH PHOTO COURTESY OF EXPANDED SCHOOLS BY TASC BACK TO SCHOOL Child Abuse In the U.S., mandatory reporting laws, intending to prevent and limit child abuse, are set at the state level. A guide to what’s mandatory and best practices in reporting. Page 6 After-School Programs After-school programs require engaging, effective activities — but also sound policies and procedures to identify and limit risks and potential liabilities. Page 10 Increasing Access to Higher Education Tips, hands-onn help and essential resources and programs for youth-serving professionals. Page 22 © 2013 YOUTH TODAY • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED YOUTH TODAY SPECIAL REPORT SAFETY continued on Page 14 ILLUSTRATION BY RAINEY RAWLES Call (678) 797-2898 or visit youthtoday.org to subscribe TODAY IN PRINT, PUBLISHED BI-MONTHLY • 24/7 ACCESS TO YOUTHTODAY.ORG • WEEKLY GRANTS AVAILABLE E-NEWSLETTER • YOUTH TODAY MONTHLY NEWSLETTER • TWO FREE ONDEMAND WEBINARS AND ACCESS TO SPECIAL-RATE WEBINARS CAMPING magazine • November/December 2013 49
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