It’s not easy to stay in contact with teens. From my experience they rarely look at the seasonal activity guides, rarely search out recreation programs through the parks and recreation department (YMCAs on the other hand do a pretty good job), and rarely, if ever, visit the city website.

So what’s an organization to do?

Email a monthly newsletter, that’s what.

The first thing you need to do is gather email addresses. Here are 4 ways to get ‘em:

1. Take them from your existing registered customers. If you have an online registration system like ActiveNet or Class you should be able to quickly gather an email list of parents with teens.
2. Ask the local middle schools or look in their directories. You may just get physical addresses. If that’s the case send postcards to those families asking them to opt-in to the newsletter on your website.
3. Place an opt-in on your website. When parents go to your site you want them to be able to request your teen newsletter. If you have an opt-in parents can leave their name and email address and click “submit” to be automatically added to your list. All you need is an email management system like Constant Contact or Aweber.
4. Collect email addresses at special events. Provide a sign up sheet on a clipboard for people to add their email addresses to.

Now that you are building an email list it’s time to create your newsletter. Where do you start? If you use Constant Contact or Aweber they have a number of templates that you can use to build your newsletter. I highly suggest you take advantage of them.

I have see recreation departments use Word or Publisher to create their own newsletter. Not one of them looked professional. If you’ve taken the time to gather email addresses then take the time to create a nice and professional looking newsletter to send out.

Here are things I put in my monthly teen newsletters…

1. A note from the teen coordinator.
2. Upcoming events and classes.
3. Wrap-ups of past events and classes along with a few pictures.
4. Reviews of websites, books and movies that teens may be interested in.
5. A story of one of the local teens (sports accomplishment, community service work, school accomplishment, etc.)
6. Advice or suggestions (study tips, sports tips, health and fitness tips, biking tips, stc.)
7. A link to a funny video.
8. A joke.

I add a lot of color and pictures as well. I want the newsletter to be informative but also fun to read.

A word on email management systems. Do not use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of all your emails. Why? When you send out emails from your work system there is a good chance that a lot of the emails will get caught in other people’s spam filters. If you decide to send only 10 emails at a time to try and avoid this you’ll be wasting a lot of time. Also, your readers should have a way to opt-out of yoru newsletter if they want to.

Make things easier with Constant Contact or Aweber. There are other email management systems out there but these two have been around a long time and are highly respected and used by many companies. I have used both of them and, while I use Constant Contact, they both have their pros and cons.

1. Both have really good templates. Awebers templates are a bit better and a bit more flexible.
2. Your emails will get through spam filters with each of them.
3. I can add emails from other sources (like a clipboard at an event) and Constant Contact won’t ask customers to click on any links for permission. They already gave you permission by writing it on your list. Aweber won’t do that. Aweber insists on getting permission again.
4. Both of them make it really easy to add an opt-in to your website. Aweber has some really neat opt-in designs.
5. Constant Contact’s site is easier to navigate. However, Aweber has a number of videos to help you set-up your email campaign and more.
6. They both have great customer service.
7. Constant Contact gives you a free 60 day trial. Aweber gives you your first month for $1.

No matter which one you use, get a teen newsletter together to help pump up your programs. It will be well worth it. The above links are both affiliate links, since they are both companies I believe in and feel comfortable recommending.

It’s no secret that the economy is still in bad shape. Parents still want to send their kids to camp though.

Not long ago I spoke with a neighboring recreation department and they told me that last year they offered payment plans for camp. It was sort of like a lay-away plan. The recreation office would take a deposit and then bill their credit or debit card monthly until the balance was paid off. The monthly payments were based on how far out summer was.

Because of the extra administration time it took to set up and track the payment plan, there was a nominal service charge added. The normal cancellation policies and fees still applied.

I was told that a handful of parents took advantage of the payment plans for their summer camps, and were very grateful for the service.

I think it’s a great idea. It’s definitely something parents would talk about to others. In fact, why not offer payment plans for after school programs as well?

For the last year I have been chomping at the bit to design our brochure. I knew that the woman who was doing it at the time was getting tired of putting it together and working with the tight deadlines. I am creative in nature, whether it’s camp programs, special events or after school flyers. It’s the details that I’m not very good at. So it was important that we had some good proof readers once I took over the brochure, which I did in January of this year, 2009.

I’m not going to cover the inside pages since many of the times that is a flow issue. If the flow is not good in an activity guide it can mess up everything, but that is beyond the scope of this post. I want to discuss the cover.

When I took over the design of the brochure/activity guide I wanted the cover to grab the attention of prospective readers. So I wanted it to look like a magazine. The job of a magazine graphic designer is to get people to pick up the magazine, so they know how to grab the customer’s attention. I also wanted people to know about our new programs and events and where exactly to find them in the guide. With that, I went to the bookstore.

I picked up 6 magazines that I really liked and felt popped out at me. Once I got back to the office I chose one layout that appealed to me the most. That was the HDProVideo magazine you see here. I really liked the size of the title as well as the pictures on the right of the cover that teases the reader about whats inside of the magazine.

The next thing I needed to do was choose a picture. Since I wanted to promote our new classes I decided that I would use a picture of a dog in order to promote our new dog training program. Since the pictures we had were not quite the quality I was looking for I went to my favorite stockphoto site Dreamstime. The great thing about Dreamstime is that the photos are so inexpensive – and most of them are great quality. After browsing for 15 minutes I found the picture I wanted to use.

Now it was time to make the cover. This took some playing around with different fonts and placement until I liked what I saw. Using colors was important as well. The picture I was going to use had some blue, brown/yellowish, black and white. The smaller pictures I wanted to use had more colors but I didn’t necessarily want to use those colors unless the text was near it.

Look, I’m not a graphic designer. I’ve never taken design classes (though I had thought about going in that direction) and I taught myself how to use Adobe InDesign by watching the video tutorials on a killer website called Lynda.com. I pretty much went with my gut and knew that I had a decent eye for design. From there I found what I liked in another magazine and voila.

One woman came into our office after she had seen the guide and told the director how she never opens the recreation guide, she just throws it away. Because this one looked like a magazine she opened it, not really knowing what it was, and saw all the great adult classes we offered. She had no idea that these classes were available through us. She enrolled in a couple of them. That was the biggest compliment I could have gotten. So here was the end result.

To see the cover I did, with the help of Everyday with Rachel Ray magazine take a look at my summer camp site SummerCampProgramDirector.com.

Here are 4 ways to get the feedback you need:

Call The Parents

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! I am not a telemarketer. Besides, I don’t want to bother people at home.” I hear what you’re saying but in this world of technology we have lost a lot of the personal touch that used to be so important in business. Gather 20-30 phone numbers and write yourself out a script as a guideline. Remember, you’re not selling anything, you just want to find out if they like your program and if there is anything you can do to make it better for them. Make sure you don’t call around dinner time and I’ll bet most, if not all, of the parents you call will appreciate you taking an interest in their opinions, so much so that you actually call them personally.
Ring…Ring…Ring
“Hello?”
“Hi, is Jennifer Olson there?”
“UM, who’s this?”
“This is Curt from the recreation department. Is this Jennifer?”
“Yes”
“Hi Jennifer, I just wanted to call and see if Jack enjoyed the Space is the Place after-school program he attended.”
“Oh, he loved it. He couldn’t stop talking about the rocket ship they built.”
“Yeah, I saw a picture of that. Jaime, the instructor, said that was one of the favorite activities.”
“Oh, Jamie has been great.”
“That’s great to hear. Thank you for telling me that. It sounds like Jack really liked the class and you were pleased with our staff. Is there anything you think we could improve on?”
“Well, there seems to be a lot of sugar in the snacks you provide. I would like to see healthier snacks.”
“That’s a great idea. Thank you. Is there anything you would like to see us offer.”
“You mean as a program?”
“As a program or special event or project…anything.”
“I think it would be great if the recreation department offered a drawing class. Jack loves to draw.”
“Excellent, I’ll definately look into that, see if we can find a good instructor for a drawing program. Well, Jennifer, I really appreciate you speaking with me and I’m glad Jack had a good time. I hope you’ll continue to participate in our programs.”

Not all calls may go so smoothly, but it’s a great personal touch that surveys just don’t offer. However, if you really like surveys may I suggest you offer your customers an online survey. I have seen much better results with online surveys than with paper surveys that parents have to return.

E-Mail Surveys

Surveys are not only a great tool for feedback to improve your programs, they can also be wonderful marketing tools. When I send out a survey I mention upcoming programs as well. Here is a sample survey that I would email to parents of campers right after the week has ended:

• Did your child enjoy their week of camp? If not, why?
• Did the camp meet your expectations as a parent? If not, why?
• Have any of your children attended camp with us before?
• On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) how was the registration process?
• What suggestions would you make to improve our programs?
• Next week is Hollywood week and we will be introducing a new activity: movie making. Is this an activity that your child would be interested in for future camp sessions?
• The third, fourth and fifth weeks of camp still have spots available. Is your child planning to attend one of those weeks?
• What family events are you planning to attend this fall? Please check all that apply.
  Halloween Event
  Thanksgiving Fun Run
  Breakfast with Santa

You get the idea. As you can see not only will you get important feedback, but it also gives you a chance to tell parents that there is still room in your camps and that you have a new activity that their child may be interested in.

If you would like to keep the marketing out of the survey let them know about your new programs via the email you send out asking the parents to take the survey. Here is an example:

Dear Parents,

We had a great time at camp last week. If you would be kind enough to take a short 10 question survey we should really appreciate it. It should only take you a few minutes to complete. Please go to
to complete the short survey.

We would also like you to know that we still have a few spots available for our third, fourth and fifth weeks of camp. We are also introducing a new activity: movie making. We are really excited about that.

Thank you for your time.

So how do you put together a survey? Go to Surveymonkey.com to get started. The free account allows you to create surveys with up to 10 questions. I have been using them for a couple of years and am very happy with what they offer. I have never tried their paid services, but the free account is great.

Hold a “Lunch with the Director”

Send out invitations to the parents that you would like to see attend. Pick up food from a local restaurant. You could tell them that you will pass out their menus and info if they give you a discount.
During the luncheon the director will inform the parents of upcoming programs and lead them all into a discussion of what the parents would like to see from the recreation department.

Parents Night Out

Bribe parents to attend a one hour feedback session with the director or youth supervisor. If the parents stay for the complete hour, the recreation staff will watch their children for an additional 2-3 hours while the parents go out for the evening – at no cost. During that time you can do crafts, play games, etc. This is a great way to get parents to come to a “focus group”.

Advice on Using Your Camp Video to Market Online

Jennifer Selke (TheCampDirector.com) has a smart post up at the moment about How to Get the Most Views on YouTube with Your Summer Camp Video. In it she talks about using common search terms in the Title. She goes on to write about what you should put in the description, what tags you should use and choosing a YouTube user name that helps with the branding of your organization. She also mentions how to get your video out on multiple sites. If you have a marketing video for your camp then I highly suggest you check out this excellent article.