Written by Belinda Espinoza, enrollment and marketing coordinator, Diocese of Orange, bespinoza@rcbo.org; Dr. Denise Valadez, associate superintendent of curriculum, spirituality, and accreditation, Diocese of Orange, dvaladez@rcbo.org; Dr. Brad Snyder, associate superintendent of educational programs, Diocese of Orange, bsnyder@rcbo.org
Our marketing strategy over the past two years has included meaningful outreach to our communications department at the Diocese of Orange. Intentionally reaching out to this department has led to increased visibility in our schools, and this collaboration has helped us in our marketing efforts to increase enrollment and build our brand. Specifically, our communications office has worked closely with the staff at the Orange County Catholic newspaper (OC Catholic) to increase publicity for our schools.
In addition to coordinating publicity efforts with the newspaper editor, we have also placed strategic advertisements in the newspaper, including ads for enrollment. We have also reached out to the communications office for vendors that include photographers and videographers to showcase our schools in different ways, such as through social media and school websites. The communications office has also coordinated mainstream media features, including featuring our superintendent on a local television show, The Balancing Act, and our associate superintendent in a Catholic news outlet, OSV News. The communications office is also a valuable resource for addressing questions about social media and other communications-related matters. The editor of the OC Catholic has featured our schools frequently over the past school year, and some articles have been written by our staff, including principals, teachers, and marketing staff.
Recent Articles Featured in OC Catholic
A column for Catholic Schools Week 2025, written by three marketing staff from three different schools
Seven teachers write about why they teach at a Catholic school: Natalie Boyle, Carla Turney, Bri Brewer, Catherine Flores, Ivan Parga, Amy Wilkes, Tamara Hines Copeland
A principal writes about attending a community event
One resource we created that has been instrumental in working with our communications office is a shareable spreadsheet titled: Marketing Calendar for School Events. We created this spreadsheet to share with all our schools for them to submit events for publicity purposes. By sharing this Google sheet with schools annually, they can request publicity for school events that can be covered on social media, in the OC Catholic, or on our online blog on our website. We submit these events monthly to the newspaper editor, and she requests a photographer and writer for the events that she can cover in the newspaper. Those that do not make it into the newspaper can then be posted on our website or covered on our social media channels.
Working together with our communications office has created a sense of community in our school networks, where schools are excited to be featured in the newspaper, and parents want a copy of the issue that features their school to take home. Some principals who have had extensive coverage in the newspaper have framed the issues and put them in their front office. They are so proud of their school being featured, especially when their students are on the front page. It has been a wonderful partnership these past two years, and we hope to bring even more publicity to our schools this school year.
Join Belinda Espinoza, Dr. Denise Valadez, and Dr. Brad Snyder in Phoenix this fall for their Catholic Leadership Summit session titled “Leveraging Diocesan Communications Outlets to Market Catholic Schools”.
