Post Pandemic Planning Guide Volume 7

Welcome back to your Post-Pandemic Planning Guide! It’s hard to believe, but summer is right around the corner!

In this article we continue our focus on recruiting. We know that recruiting is a year-long activity and the end of spring is a great time to make a strong recruiting push to finish out the school year.

Effective communication with prospective students’ parents is an integral part of the recruiting process. A simple misunderstanding, such as "you can't do music and (insert activity)" could prevent a child from enrolling in music. Additionally, parents may not be aware of the numerous cognitive and SEL benefits of playing an instrument. Here are 5 easy ways to include parents in the recruiting process.

Influencer marketing has proven extraordinarily effective in the online world, and major brands are constantly looking for new influencers to endorse and promote their products to their trusted circles. This strategy can also be effective in recruiting music students, mainly because most of what current students have completed this year was done online, so it is easily shareable:

• Have students record short testimonial videos and use these to promote your music program
• Have students select their favorite assignments from this year and share them with their friends
• Make an assignment for current students to create a recruiting presentation, such as a slide deck, video, or Google Site, and have them present it to their friends
• Create an incentive program for students who can recruit a friend to join the music class

In many ways, your students are the best recruiters you have because their peers value their opinion and experiences. Always be willing to take some pages out of the social media marketing playbook and use these same tactics to recruit in your school!

Recruitment of new students and the retention of active students is very much the same in designs — think of it as "re-recruitment!" Both require communicating what your program offers and why students should stay involved to be successful. Here are 6 ways to re-recruit students to your music program for the upcoming year.

Hopefully, you and your building principal or administrator have established a rhythm to your communications. There are still many things going on at the admin level that could impact your program, including scheduling shifts, additional funding opportunities through ESSER, and coordinating a successful recruiting drive.

If it’s been a few weeks, touch base with your administrator and ensure things are still on track. Inquire about any changes to the schedule that may impact your program and offer an update on recruiting. The goal is to uncover any new information that could affect your program and maintain the previously established momentum.

• If you are looking for more recruiting and retention ideas, the Music Achievement Council’s Practical Guide to Recruitment and Retention is a great resource
• If you are looking for the latest ESSER information, be sure to check out the Yamaha page on CARES Act Funding

Step-by-step, we are going to get back to making music, together! Check out Volume 8: Staying Positive for some ideas on about keeping an upbeat perspective.