School administrators and teachers spend a lot of time crafting fancy newsletters, with pretty colors and pictures. Some schools also print newsletters, costing them additional expenses in the form of paper and print costs.
We surveyed parents from Public, Private and Charter schools around the country to find what they thought of school newsletters. The response was not surprising. Over 70% of parents do not read school newsletters. The reasons quoted were all related to the newsletter content:
- Not relevant to the parent.
- Too much information.
- Does not provide specific actions for busy parents.
- Does not offer any specific value to keep the parents interested or engaged.
- Discounts the fact that parents are equally busy.
We asked parents what would make them read their school’s newsletters. The four most important factors that would make parents read their school or class newsletters were:
- Short newsletters (< 100 words)
- Specific content
- Directly relevant to their child and
- Delivered to their email inbox or mobile device
We will continue to discuss how newsletters can be made more valuable for both schools and parents.