The communications and marketing team is responsible for the school’s voice, branding, and marketing materials, including but not limited to the school’s website, social media presence, digital and print advertising, direct email, and public relations efforts, as well as the school’s major publications, such as the EMS Newsletter and Apple Tree Magazine. In addition, the team manages community-wide EMS outreach, partners with EMS offices on message clarity and delivery, and collaborates across departments to streamline and simplify systems to improve the experience of enrolled and enrolling families.
While the communications and marketing team has completed a number of projects during the past 12 months, those below may be of greatest interest to the broader EMS community.
Apple Tree Magazine, Summer 2023
Released in August
By offering content that is of interest to multiple constituents, the EMS Apple Tree Magazine, along with our newsletter, is both a retention and recruitment tool.
Featured:
A Powerful Tool: How the Hochman Method is improving our students’ writing and critical thinking skills
Changemakers of Tomorrow: Focus on innovation and design leads our students to think creatively when solving problems
Going the Distance: Meet the marathon runners of EMS
Always a Part of EMS: Our recent graduates share why our school is so special to them
Plus, recent social events, news from our alumni, and more.
2023–2024 Printed Directory
Communications has taken over this project, starting with a thorough review of the process. The newest issue, which you should have received recently, is now consistent with EMS style guidelines and includes the preferred names of students and parents/guardians, plus a new Advancement page, extended Calendar Highlights (with a link to our website calendar for the most up-to-date information), and notes section.
New Families website
Communications worked with Admissions to create content for a New Families website shared with families entering our EMS community. It includes videos showcasing our community, a welcome note from our president of the Board of Trustees, what parents can expect before the start of the school year, events geared specifically for new EMS families, and a resources page with detailed information regarding our school policies and more.
Social Media
The Elisabeth Morrow School primarily uses Instagram and Facebook for social media marketing. Over the last year, our pages have seen a 113% increase in engagement and impressions. In 2022, from January–October, our impressions were 557,042, which is a good number, but our content wasn’t reaching a broader audience and people weren’t engaging as much with our content. In one year, we have grown our pages and doubled the amount of engagement and impressions. This data reveals that more people see and interact with our posts. The larger our audience reach is, the more we can find prospective families who will want to learn more about the school.
EMS in the Press
Some highlights of EMS news coverage from the past year include a News 12 New Jersey clip of Tito Munoz teaching students during our Summer String Festival (Sept. 24, 2023); BroadwayWorld sharing our press release about Tito Munoz conducting violin students at SSF (July 19, 2023) and our students performing at bergenPAC with Itzhak Perlman (Oct. 26, 2023); Bergen Health & Life Magazine and (201) Magazine running a summary and photos from our 2023 Spring Benefit (July/August 2023); The Jewish Standard running our press release and a photo from our Snack Pack event as an article (March 2023), and BroadwayWorld.com and NewJerseyStage.com both running our press release about our first-ever Cultural Fair (March 2023).
Spring 2023 and Fall 2023 Newsletter
The EMS Newsletter, launched in late fall of 2022, highlights the latest news and achievements of The Elisabeth Morrow School and its students, alumni, faculty, and staff. The digital newsletter links to in-depth articles on the website. Recent newsletter stories included: showcasing El Estudio, our new foreign language specials class in Chilton House; exploring aerospace and civil engineering in Little School; our impressive 2023 secondary school acceptances list; our environmental education expansion project; Morrow House’s Leadership Lab, and more.
NJAIS materials
Communications worked with the leadership team to compile a curriculum at-a-glance guide that was submitted as part of our NJAIS accreditation process. The 20-page digital document includes our mission; school background, including our 4 C’s and Vision of an EMS graduate; fast facts about our curriculum, the three divisions, field trips, and performance groups; detailed divisionial summaries, and information about our secondary school placement process.
Ad campaigns
Our recent ad campaigns with Bergen Mama have promoted the science of reading, the EMS difference, and our Admissions open houses tied to community events, such as our Fall Festival and Book Fair & Storytelling Festival.
New EMS-branded materials
This year, we have worked with vendors to create the following EMS-branded materials: a 6-inch green EMS seal car magnet, soft-touch white Stylus pen with EMS logo, foldaway EMS green tote bags with white seal, and 3-inch by 3-inch vinyl EMS seal stickers.
Did You Know?
Our back-to-school packet on myEMS, highlighting the most important things parents/guardians need to know about the start of school and links to various resources to answer questions pertaining to the 2023–2024 academic year, was released on July 1, 2023.
Nearly all families, faculty, staff, and trustees read the Wednesday Envelope to stay abreast of the latest news and announcements at EMS. Typical open rates are 90% of all recipients.
Our 2022–2023 end-of-the-year EMS family partnership survey showed improved family satisfaction in every category measured, including the equity and inclusivity of our community, the alignment of our strong curriculum across divisions, and, importantly, how likely our families are to recommend EMS to others — up to 97% last year!
Learn more about our vision and goals for the future of EMS
Important 2023–2024 State of the School topics include updates from Chilton House, Little School, and Morrow House, as well as Advancement, Auxiliary Programs, Enrollment, Facilities and Operations, Finances, and Community Life, Equity, and Belonging.
