Elevate Marketing Strategy

09/24/2025

Marketing your camp doesn’t have to feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall. When you use data, like social engagement, website analytics, and parent feedback, you can focus your efforts, personalize your message, and keep families connected year-round.

Let's get started by...

✅ Planning ahead (now's the time!)
✅ Collecting data to serve as your guide
✅ Sharing your camp's unique story

Turn interest into enrollment, and families into lifelong community.

https://www.elevatemarketingstrategy.com/blog/crackingthecode

08/11/2025

As summer's end creeps up ( 😱 ) and your fall outreach plans come together, take some time to compile or refine your social media strategy. Or at least a roadmap. Social media without strategic thought is like shouting into the void. A clear direction ensures that your content not only resonates with your audience, but is also a good use of your time.

Read on for a pre-fall refresher: https://www.elevatemarketingstrategy.com/blog/forgettablesocialmedia

01/21/2025

With the announcements of 2025-2026 academic year tuition rates imminent, day camp registration opening, and overnight camps filling their remaining spots, the way in which you position a family’s investment on your website can make a difference between losing a visitor and gaining a brand loyalist.

Families ask two big questions (among others) when they engage in a branded tuition page search or hover over your affordability pages: “How much does it cost?” and “Is this school or camp worth my investment?”

A value statement on these pages address sticker shock, help differentiate your brand, and give your visitors a reason to stay on the site.

Read on for actionable steps and examples to help you level up your customer-centric copy: https://www.elevatemarketingstrategy.com/blog/addvaluetotuitionpages

05/16/2024

Everyone deserves a personal brand. It's how you are identified and remembered. You are not your career. 😉 Building a personal brand for two executives was fun, challenging, and fulfilling--and in many ways, different than organization branding.

https://www.elevatemarketingstrategy.com/blog/personalbrand

01/30/2024

Yesterday was a great day, which ordinarily is a reach (and aggressive) for a Monday.

But within 2 hours, I received two invitations to speak, one at American Camp Association's Business of Camp Conference in February and one for AISAP's Annual Institute in June. 😊

If you have been following me for a while, you know that I used to be TERRIFIED of public speaking. Now I thrive in it, and love equipping others with practical tools to work smarter, not harder.

🥳Next week, my power partner, Miriam and I are talking about Building a Culture of Retention in schools at Easy School Marketing's Small School Leaders Conference, and also on my own during the conference’s Bonus Day.

🥳Business of Camp is at the end of Feb. where I’ll dive into the differences of marketing and communications. They are two different functions and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

🥳In March, I’m heading to ACA's Tri-State Conference where ‘Cracking the Code: Using Data to Help Unlock Your Marketing Strategy’ will help camp professionals get more kids on their way to the best summer ever.

🥳In April, Miriam and I will tackle ‘Mastering the Art of School Storytelling’ at Niche's K12 Virtual Enrollment Summit.

🥳As we kick off summer, I head to SLC to AISAP where I will present on ‘Data for Dummies’ (because no one has time to steep in data for hours), and also Miriam and I will workshop storytelling with school admission and marketing professionals.

Which of these topics resonate with you? What else do you want to learn about that I should consider presenting on in the future?

01/16/2024

Whether you are on a January-December or July-June fiscal year (or maybe Sept-Aug), auditing your marketing efforts is important not only so YOU have a sense of how your content and engagement is performing, but also to proactively keep executive teams and Boards in the know.

In an ideal world, we are looking at monthly metrics and taking a deeper dive on a quarterly basis, but let’s be realistic, shall we?

https://www.elevatemarketingstrategy.com/blog/marketingaudit

02/27/2023

Your brand is much more than just a logo.

🔑What experience do you want to create for your target audience(s)?

🔑How do you want them to feel when interacting with you and your products/services?

🔑What associations do you want to emulate with your color palette?

🔑What is your end goal and the values that you are going to imbue on that journey?

The answers to these questions and more contribute to the building and refining of your brand.

Steve Forbes said that “your brand is the single most important investment that you can make in your business.” While your logo is part of that brand, it is not the end all, be all. Branding is the process of creating an identity for a business that is different and distinct from others in its s...

12/12/2022

In preparing a bid for a rebranding project, I reflected on three similar projects that I led in the past year--two of them involving brand name determination. I LOVE this process. It's challenging, yet fun, and pushes your creativity to its limits. Naming/renaming will also not happen overnight. Check out my lens on preparing for this exciting step, and how to approach and frame it.

Naming a brand or sub-brand might sound easy…you have a brilliant concept and P**F. The name just appears. While that unicorn might have appeared once or twice, it is an exception and not the norm, so don’t get frustrated if you have been trying to name a business, nonprofit, sub-division, event...

11/08/2022

As the 2023 budgeting process continues in your organization, you might be considering outsourcing one-off marketing projects, ongoing work, strategy or d--all of the above. Consult this guide as you are preparing for conversations with your CFO. Need to bounce some ideas off an objective party that meeting takes place? Let's chat.

Have additional ideas to add to this list? I'm into crowdsourcing. 👇

Considering budgeting for marketing support in 2023, but not sure where to start? If you are on a calendar fiscal year, it's highly likely that your budget season is in full swing, and perhaps even finishing up the process. From strategy to planning to social media management, there are many ways

09/15/2022

A self-proclaimed data nerd, I love the discovery and auditing process of a marketing project. The information that this phase yields is critical to building an informed strategy that will resonate with your audience(s).

Check out my latest blog post!

This work sets the foundation for the strategy and planning phases of work and will prompt questions including: What are your audience personas? What are your organization’s key messages? Via which channels will you reach your audience(s)? How often will you communicate with your audience(s)? What

08/05/2022

Have you solicited your audience/customers/clients/constituents for feedback recently?

Some element of audience research is almost always a component of my strategy engagements. Why, you ask? It's a critical piece of providing a customer-centric experience, regardless of your business, industry, commercial status, etc.

✔Qualitative data - testimonials, real-time feedback that you can take action upon.

✔Quantitative data - numbers, trends, analytics, statistics that you can use to set benchmarks, goals, and inform Board members/other governing bodies

✔Customer/client service - by asking your customers and clients for feedback, it shows you care about their experiences

✔Internal buy-in - gaining support for marketing initiatives and resources for marketing is not always easy; showing research can provide justification for your asks

✔CYA Data-driven decision making - making a decision in a vacuum and/or based on what you think may be successful if you are lucky; if you have data to back up your decisions, you are making them for good reasons

✔Facts - when you know where your audience is, how they engage, and what their behaviors are, you can better reach them with your messaging

Audience research does not have to be a multi-month, multi-pronged process. Depending on the size of your upcoming projects (and budget), you can customize a research process that is right-sized for your needs.

Ready for some conversation around research?

07/29/2022

Your organization's website can quickly become an attic, full of irrelevant, outdated "things." Take the month of August to inventory and audit your site, clean it up, and get it in a good place for the hustle and bustle of fall!

Unless your website is simply an information repository, its purpose is to encourage your readers to do something. Register/enroll, make a gift, contact you, download/consume content, and other calls to action.