We’re having incredible fall weather here in Vancouver with the colours of the leaves changing and Canada Geese criss-crossing our skies as they head south. Of course this means our yard will soon be coated in a layer of leaves from our cherry, plum, apple, and willow trees, but they compensated us by the wonderful fruit they provided in the summer. I’m also glad the weather is great since my daughter is attending her school’s outdoor education program on Vancouver Island. Does your school have an outdoor education program? If not, you should consider it!
As I type this eNewsletter, I’m listening to the Vancouver Canucks Hockey team on the radio and it’s not too inspiring (they lost), so I’ll switch my focus to marketing and admissions for private schools. I’ve noticed numerous private schools with their open house ads in local and national papers promoting enrollment for next school (or even this year). Here’s a sample of one I cut out of the paper. Please click here to see it.
What do you think of it? I like the style and layout, and the single picture rather than the typical
collage that too many schools use to force in every market they represent (hint: don’t do this!). What do you think of the first major header? In today’s market, people are inundated with media and the first headline is critical to catching their attention. Do you think this is too cute and may not catch the reader’s attention (you only have 2 seconds to do it). There’s also no reference to the school’s web site (note: parents/students review a school’s website 5-7 times before they make the decision to contact the school). Also, there’s no call to action for the reader to contact the school and have their name entered into their database for follow up correspondence (this can easily be set up with web-based software on your website). It appears to be an ad that encourages parents to show up (note: no phone number or email is given for more information). It’s important for schools to track the value an ad and to calculate the response and cost of advertising, and to statistically determine the return on the value of the ad (level of inquiries, offers made, registration). Of course, this school has a wonderful reputation and a waiting list, so they may not have the same level of urgency as other schools.Today I’m going to share with more insight into marketing and admissions. Finding and retaining students is the lifeblood for any school and you need strategies to ensure that you’re recruiting the right type and number of students while you’re also validating to your current parents and students whey they should re-enrol at your school (remember it is more economical to keep your current parents/students than find new ones).
To your success,
Doug Halladay
President
Halladay Education Group Inc.
www.HalladayEducationGroup.com
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P.S. Don’t forget to go to our secure Online Store for our Strategic Planning or School Start-Up Toolkits.
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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. Focus On Our Key Services
2. Is Your Marketing and Admissions System Working?
3. Products At Our Online Store
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1. FOCUS ON OUR KEY SERVICES
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(A) STARTING A SCHOOL
Starting a school can be challenging and you never have a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression. That’s why you need a firm with experience starting schools in USA, Canada, and Internationally.
(B) STRATEGIC PLANNING
We can lead the development of your school’s Strategic Plan, which will build consensus, motivate donors, and define critical priorities for your Board and Administration for school improvement.
(C) BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOPS
Do you want your school to have the best board possible? Our full-day governance workshop (in combination with our informative online self-assessment survey) will fine-tune your board’s performance and focus priorities.
(D) SCHOOL EVALUATIONS
A school review is critical to knowing if you’re heading in the right direction. As a board member, are you sure your school is doing the best it can? Get the whole picture with our “In-Depth School Performance Review and Action Plan.”
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2. IS YOUR MARKETING & ADMISSIONS SYSTEM WORKING?
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You need to understand the critical elements affecting the marketing and admissions of your school and determine whether your current marketing plan, strategies, message, and media are working effectively, and what areas you need to make adjustments in. It's important to understand that current and prospective parents, students, and donors are influenced by your message and your media. They are making decisions about enrolling or re-enrolling at your school or even making a donation. It's critical that your school develops a marketing system that maximizes your message and reassures your community about what you represent and how they fit in, and the benefits to enrolling at your school. You need to:
- Identify your school's strengths and weaknesses from a marketing perspective
- Review current demographics of your school
- Assess the external pressures that affect you
- Assess the current processes that attract and bond students and families
- Market Analysis to determine "who" you are reaching out to and alternate markets to maximize
- Review strategies related to lead generation / conversion and student retention
- Determine critical message(s) that represent what your school is about
- Determine the most suitable media to reach your market (e.g., publications, advertising, outreach programs, social media, internal/external communication by your staff)
- Determine a systemized approach for your marketing metrics (e.g., Cost per inquiry, retention, drop rate, sales conversion for admissions staff, enrollment projections, response rate)
- Analyze your advertising, collateral material, websites, Internet ads, re-marketing ad copy and media choices
- Review communication stream and use of resources to increase lead flow and create a better quality lead generation for the admissions team
- Development of alternate marketing strategies and tactics to enhance the admissions performance and enrollment.
We can help your school improve the critical elements of effective marketing and admissions, by evaluating your current marketing plan, strategies, message, and media, and suggest adjustments. Our approach to reviewing your current marketing and admissions system is comprised of a four-part process, which begins with a one-day site visit to analyze your school’s current situation. Our approach is comprised of four phases:
1). Determine Scope of Review Process:Meeting with the Head of School to determine realistic enrolment goals, budget, staffing, timelines, and SWOT analysis
2). Review Current Marketing/Admissions Materials & Admissions Data:
- Prior to the onsite interview sessions, the school will send related marketing and admissions materials, related data that measures enrollment performance, current enrollment and local demographics, budget update, and annual marketing plan for review.
- After reviewing the documents from your school, we will come to your campus and spends one-day interviewing key constituents of your community to determine the strengths of your school’s admissions process (e.g., administration, parents, students, staff, former parents, competitors), barriers to increasing enrolment, and opportunities and trends to take advantage to improve enrolment.
- Review the school’s current process for marketing and admissions and collateral materials and staffing assignment.
- Hold a “mystery call” with the school to assess the script for new parents and how they’re handled by the reception desk and admissions staff.
- Issues that are holding your school back from reaching its enrollment goals;
- Market Analysis that identifies "who" you should market to maximize enrolment;
- Develop a set of strategies to enhance enrollment (e.g., publications, social media, advertising, outreach programs, internal/external communication by your staff), staffing, budget, work plan, and tracking metrics to measure your marketing success (e.g., enrolment, retention, response rate, fundraising performance);
- Develop new marketing strategies and tactics to enhance your marketing performance and enrolment.
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4. ONLINE STORE
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Here are 2 popular Toolkits to help you to either start your own school or develop your own strategic plan, step-by-step.
(1). STRATEGIC PLANNING TOOLKIT (#1 BEST SELLER)
Learn how to develop your own Strategic Plan with step-by-step instructions contained in our detailed Workbook and Manual, along with $500 worth of bonus CD’s. It’s all here to help you develop your own plan.
(2). START-A-SCHOOL TOOLKIT (#2 BEST SELLER)
Are you still struggling with starting your school? Four experienced school leaders share how they started their own school from the ground up. You’ll also receive our bonus CD on developing your strategic plan.
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To your success,
Douglas Halladay
President
Halladay Education Group Inc.
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