3B: The Brochure Breakdown Blog

Welcome to the 3B: The Brochure Breakdown Blog series. In this recurring blog series, we consider all 9 topics in the newly released Eastern Christian School Brochure. We consider how each topic helps us tell our story.

The cover of the EC Brochure. Download the digital copy or request a paper copy.

Cutting Through the Clutter

The Marketing and Enrollment Office at Eastern Christian does everything in our power to limit paperwork. Afterall, we may be New Jersey’s Greenest Christian School.

We received feedback from prospective families that the application packet and the school information that we typically sent out contained too much information. We were giving out lots of paperwork, lots of forms, and we were saying too much about too many things. Our prospective families appreciate the convenience of having many of their interactions in the digital realm. They also told us that our school information was too wordy. They told us that the packet itself felt a little intimidating.

We listened. And we simplified. The first thing we did was to separate the application from additional information about our school. By the time a family is ready to apply for admission to Eastern Christian School, they have already received all of the information that they need in order to make that decision.

As of this February, we went 100% digital with our application process. We’ve limited the amount of forms. And we’ve honed the process down to include only the essentials.

But we still have the need to physically hand families information about our school. When someone asks about Eastern Christian, we are excited to tell our story and we want to distribute a helpful visual aid to make it an easily understandable story. Either in person, at a school fair, or in the mail, there’s still something magical in the “receiving of the packet.” So with all of this in mind, we created the brand new Eastern Christian Brochure.

Telling Our Story

If our previous attempt at telling our story contained too much information, too many forms, too many words, and seemed too intimidating, the obvious route to take is to go the other direction. Rather than attempting to capture every program and option for families across our rich curriculum and all three of our campuses, we decided to focus on key themes that told our story. Rather than being too text heavy, we let pictures do a lot of the talking. After all – they’re allegedly worth 1,000 words, right? And whether you are a prospective family reading about Eastern Christian for the first time, or a 5th generation EC family, we hope that through this document, our story has never been more clear, simple, and approachable.

Shaping the Message

Through the Eastern Christian Brochure, you’ll see 9 unique distinctives – themes that we feel everyone needs to know if they want to truly understand who we are and what makes us unique. Those themes include:

• Our Mission and History
• Authentic Faith Integration
• Promoting Academic Excellence
• Richly Diverse Community
• 3 Campuses, One School
• Athletics: Soar EC!
• Wired for Creativity
• EC Alumni Success Stories
• Investment for Life

It’s our hope that each of these talking points will allow new families to more easily understand us and start to envision their role in this community as they prayerfully consider school options for their family.

In addition to allowing new families to access and understand our story, we want current EC families to fully grasp this simple message so that when the opportunity to tell our story arises, they’ll feel confidently equipped to jump into the conversation.

Hide it Under a Bushel? NO!

The best and most reliable storytellers in our community are our families, and an endorsement from an EC family means so much to prospective families as they consider our school.

We will be mailing copies of this Brochure to every EC family. We ask that you read it, learn and appreciate it, and then pass it on! As the old Sunday School song goes, “Hide it under a bushel? NO!” Let this story shine!

If you are interested in learning more about our marketing efforts or would like to play a more active role in telling our school’s story, we have a growing “Parent Admissions Network,” and we would love to have you join us! Please contact me to discuss.

We are so excited about this new Brochure and the opportunity to refocus the telling of our story. God has been so faithful to Eastern Christian for over 120 years! What a privilege to play a role in that story!

Up next in the 3B series: Our MIssion and History