Is Your Marketing and Admissions System Working?

Hello:

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

>> TWITTER ->> Receive our updates by signing in here.


P.S. Don’t forget to go to our secure Online Store for our Strategic Planning or School Start-Up Toolkits.

================================
IN THIS ISSUE
================================

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
==================================

(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.
  

OUR SOLUTION

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.

3). One-Day Focus Group Interviews & Research Analysis (Internal/External):

• 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.
  

4). Final Report: Develop a customized Summary Report outlining a set of multiple strategies to increase student enrolment (lead generation/conversion, retention, timelines, and staffing). This includes:

• 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.
  

To find out more about our firm’s marketing and admissions services, and learn more about how we can help provide you solutions, please email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com to discuss your needs in more detail.

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4. ONLINE STORE
=====================================

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.

=======================================================

To your success,

Douglas Halladay
President

Halladay Education Group Inc.

How To Improve Your Private School

Hello,

Most schools boards are driven by the calendar of events, their Head of School, crisis, or their own personal agenda. So few boards have taken the time to prioritize what their overall needs are and develop a plan of action to achieve it in a coordinated fashion. That means your board should determine your annual goals (or even better a 5-year strategic plan), set up your board committees to monitor their implementation, and delegate the goal’s achievement by operationalizing the goals via your Head of School and staff.

Many schools spend their time reacting to unexpected changes instead of anticipating and preparing for them. This is called crisis management. Schools caught off guard spend a great deal of time and resources "playing catch up." They use up energy and funds coping with immediate problems with little energy left to anticipate and prepare for the future. It does not have to be that way.

The alternative is HEG’s finely tuned school review and board governance workshop that provides a viable alternative to reactive management. Our systematic process provides definite objectives and a road map that can be implemented and evaluated immediately. This allows your school to:

• Gain credibility amongst current and prospective donors and identify critical projects for investment;
• Identify areas of operation needing attention and use it as a springboard to strengthen performance;
• Identify and reach consensus on critical issues (e.g., finance, enrollment, marketing, fundraising, HR, academic programs, student performance, facilities) before they become a crisis;
• Articulate a uniform, shared mission and vision, and provide a clearer focus for the school, producing efficiency and effectiveness, participation, and ownership by stakeholders;
• Allocate resources to opportunities and improve finances and projections;
• Build trust, respect, team-work, and communication amongst board members and Administration;
• Create a framework that guides decision making and ensures that members of the school are working towards the same goals, even if the environment around your school changes;
• Ensure that board members understand their roles, responsibilities, and board-wide priorities;
• Monitor performance and provide benchmarks from which progress can be measured.

We can provide your school with a combination of services. During the fall school year, our firm is being retained by many schools to evaluate their school and provide a one-day board workshop for new and existing board members. This allows your board to understand where your school is at now, what needs immediate focus, and how you can operate as a board to achieve these prioritized improvements. This keeps everyone on the same page and prioritizes your efforts for the remainder of the school year. There’s also a cost savings of 25% if you book both services as a combination, since there is an overlap of services. However, you will get the most value if you book the School Evaluation and Board Governance Workshop for October, November, or December. Here is an overview:

SCHOOL EVALUATION

A school review is critical to knowing if you’re headed 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.” We are confident that our unprecedented experience with quality school improvement will broaden the capacity of your school and its sustainable operation and enrollment. We are ideally placed to assess your school’s performance and develop comprehensive strategies and supporting action plans for your Board and Administration to lead your school. Our evaluation process identifies areas needing organizational improvement to assist with revitalizing your school. To establish a complete picture of your school’s performance against established benchmarks and to determine areas of priority that your school needs, we implement a three-pronged approach to assess your current situation and gather measurable data:

• On-site focus groups, interviews, and observations;
• Multiple surveys of your school’s community (e.g., parents, staff, board), and;
• One-on-one discussions with your School’s Executive Committee and Board members.

We evaluate your school applying our in-depth background of starting, leading, and managing private schools. After our online surveys and two day on-site sessions are completed we will follow up with a summary report that provides a range of recommendations and action plan strategies to improve your school. The Summary Report prioritizes critical issues that you need to improve upon, as well as the "indicators of success" you need to move towards the continued improvement of your school. Our methodology focuses on a “SWOT” analysis approach identifying your school’s:

• Strengths;
• Weaknesses;
• Opportunities, and;
• Threats / Trends.

Our methodology involves an analysis of your key performance benchmarks utilizing a four-step approach:

1. Review of school documentation (e.g., Marketing/enrollment materials, enrollment data, tuition overview, financial aid, student/parent enrollment contract, strategic plan, sample report cards, sample staff contracts/teacher grids/policy handbook, other handbooks, society/board bylaws and constitution, staff and board list, map of the school plant, history of school’s fundraising record, overview of school educational program(s), accreditation documentation, staff evaluation instrument and professional development plan).
2. Two Days of onsite interviews with key stakeholders (parents, students, staff, and/or board).
3. Confidential statistically-based online surveys with your community (staff, board, parents), and;
4. One-on-one discussions with your School’s Executive Committee, Board Members, and Administration.

We then develop the final report that summarizes areas that need to be addressed for short- and long-term success, as well as areas to celebrate. This includes an action plan to mobilize your board and administration. The final report focuses your path for organizational improvement. Click here for more info.

BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOP

In addition, we can provide a one-day follow-up board governance workshop with your school’s trustees. Our thoughtful workshop provides feedback to analyze and develop a clear set of strategies to guide your school’s leadership with the ongoing development of your school and governance.

The Board Governance Workshop and Survey refocuses Trustees on the Critical Elements of Effective Board Performance. This includes a comprehensive 360° online “Board Performance Self-Assessment Survey” based on years of research that assesses your board’s performance and a one day workshop to identify and resolve critical governance issues, review best practices, and focus areas for board development. This includes:

1. Presentation of governance best practices for school trustees.
2. Participation in hands-on case scenarios that highlight effective board practices.
3. Building a profile of your board’s performance gap based on confidential responses to the online survey and identifying areas that need immediate improvement (the survey is implemented as part of the school evaluation process).
4. Facilitation of a one-day workshop that assists the board in developing strategies and action plans to close your performance gap for the governance of leadership of the school.
5. As part of the process, the Board members candidly discuss and reach consensus on issues surrounding the performance of your board and lay the groundwork for long-term improvement.

You receive a follow-up “Summative Board Performance Report” providing a comprehensive overview of the board’s survey results, issues, and a plan of action for improvement. Click here for more info.

NEXT STEP

If you’d like to find out more about our firm’s school evaluation and board workshop services and learn more about how we can help provide you solutions, please email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com to discuss your needs in more detail or call us at +1-604-868-0002.

Book now before October and November are full so that your board is focused and effective for the balance of the school year.

To your success,

Doug Halladay

President

Halladay Education Group Inc.

>> TWITTER ->> Receive our updates by signing in here.

P.S. Don’t forget to go to our secure Online Store for our Strategic Planning or School Start-Up Toolkits.

Developing Your Strategic Plan

Hi,

We’re having an incredible fall here in Vancouver with blue skies and mild weather. I took my son up to Loon Lake for his Boy’s Club event and we took in the beauty of the lake with mist hovering over the water and hikes under the canopy of 10 story cedars and firs. Our fantastic day was topped off by the Vancouver Canucks hockey team winning their first game of the season over the ‘Habs…better plan our Stanley Cup parade now. ;^)

As the school year unfolds, many school leaders request additional information about our strategic planning services. I’ve completed numerous strategic plans for every kind of private school you can imagine (day, boarding, international, preparatory, special needs, K-12, ESL, elite sports, single gender, rural, urban, religious), school districts, and post secondary institutions. And of course, I would be pleased to develop a strategic plan for your school too. This is time of year to begin planning the process and retaining my services.

One of the key questions asked is what is the best process is to develop the most suitable strategic plan for your type school? How can you gather stakeholder input to design a plan that is developed efficiently but has the most buy-in and provides the most effective direction for your board and staff?

Today I’m going to share with you several tips on how to utilize a planning process that suits your school’s culture and needs.

To your success,

Doug Halladay

President
Halladay Education Group Inc.
www.HalladayEducationGroup.com

>> TWITTER ->> Receive our updates by signing on here.

P.S. Don’t forget to go to our secure Online Store for our Strategic Planning or School Start-Up Toolkits.

================================
IN THIS ISSUE
================================

1. In The News

2. Focus On Our Key Services

3. Developing Your Strategic Plan

4. Products At Our Online Store

==================================
1. IN THE NEWS
==================================

>> HIGH TURNOVER AMOUNT PRINCIPALS
Austin American-Statesman: University of Texas researchers have found that about 70 percent of new public high school principals in Texas leave their jobs within the first five years. Only about half of new principals stay on the job at least three years, College of Education researchers found. And principals in high-poverty schools are leaving the soonest.

>> SUCCESS ACADEMY A MODEL FOR NATIVE AMERICAN EDUCATION
Rapid City Journal: The program was developed to keep freshmen in school and improve academic achievement at the boarding school that served students from 30 different states.

==================================
2. FOCUS ON OUR KEY SERVICES
==================================

(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.” Click on the following link for more info: http://www.halladayeducationgroup.com/institution_assessments.php

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3. DEVELOPING YOUR STRATEGIC PLAN
================================================

YOUR PLAN SHOULD ANSWER 4 QUESTIONS

Strategic planning need not be frustrating, unproductive, or costly. Done right, it raises support in your community and have enormous value to your school’s growth. The ultimate product of your plan is your plan itself - the board’s determination of the strategies that will guide the decisions of your organization and your annual operational plan; your blueprint for your school’s future. The process of strategic planning is sequential and raises a progression of questions that HEG uses to examine assumptions, gather and incorporate information about the present, and anticipate the world in which your school will be working in the future. Your plan asks:

- Where is your school now?
- Where do you want your school to be?
- How does your school get there?
- How does your school measure your progress and know you’ve gotten there?

DON’T BE REACTIVE

Many schools spend their time reacting to unexpected changes instead of anticipating and preparing for them. This is called crisis management. Schools caught off guard spend a great deal of time and resources "playing catch up." They use up energy and funds coping with immediate problems with little energy left to anticipate and prepare for the future. This unproductive cycle locks schools into a reactive posture. It does not have to be that way. The alternative is our well tested planning process that provides a viable alternative to knee-jerk management. Our step-by-step planning process provides definite objectives and end products that can be implemented and measured. Very simply, it’s a process by which your school can look into the future, identify a picture of that future based on current data, and control forces that affect you. This allows your school to:

- Identify areas of operation needing attention and use it as a springboard to strengthen performance;
- Identify and reach consensus on critical issues (e.g., finance, enrollment, marketing, fundraising, HR, academic programs, student performance, facilities) before they become a crisis;
- Articulate a uniform, shared mission and vision, and provide a clearer focus for the school, producing efficiency and effectiveness, participation, and ownership by stakeholders;
- Allocate resources to opportunities and improve finances and projections;
- Build trust, respect, team-work, and communication amongst board members and Administration;
- Create a framework that guides decision making and ensures that members of the school are working towards the same goals, even if the environment around your school changes;
- Gain credibility amongst current and prospective donors and identify critical projects for investment;
- Ensure that board members understand their roles, responsibilities, and board-wide priorities;
Monitor performance and provide benchmarks from which progress can be measured.

PLANNING PROCESS

The following provides a framework for the process that we utilize in the development of your school’s Strategic Plan. It can of course be modified to suit your needs.

- Determine the scope of your Strategic Planning process, and subsequent steps and timelines;
- Orient the board, administration, faculty, and parents with the planning process;
- Obtain community views on the school’s performance via focus group interviews and surveys;
- Assemble internal and external background data to determine where your school is now (e.g., enrollment, finance, student retention, staff retention, human resources, demographics);
- Re/define your vision, mission, core values, educational philosophy, and critical success factors;
- Assess your current situation and your school’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT’s);
- Identify, prioritize, and frame the critical issues holding your school back and priorities for change;
- Develop strategic goals, aims, and objectives for success;
- Develop your action plans for improvement based on your goals and objectives;
- Prepare your internal and public Strategic Planning document(s) for board approval;
- Implement the plan with your board and administration

To find out more about our firm’s strategic planning process and recent testimonials, and learn more about how we can help provide you solutions, please email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com to discuss your needs in more detail.

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4. ONLINE STORE
=====================================

[!FIRST], 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.

=======================================================

To your success,

Douglas Halladay
President
Halladay Education Group Inc.

3 Steps To Successful Website Marketing

Hello,

In Vancouver we’re settling into another season of Canuck hockey. As many of you know, I’m a fair-weather hockey fan. I’m a great supporter when they’re winning; and right now they are at 6 and 0 (though it’s only preseason). It’s a nice mix as we head into wonderful fall weather here of clear blue skies and +75 F weather.

The splendid fall season has translated into a plethora of new clients for HEG in Central America, Mongolia, Vancouver, and China. We thank you for your support and your confidence in our services. Many times, people ask what HEG can do for their school. In a nutshell, our team of experienced school leaders specialize in developing new private schools or helping school leaders of established private school improve their school’s operation and leadership through strategic planning, board governance workshops, school evaluations, and more.

Today I’m going to talk about how your school can use your current web site to market your school better. I’m going to share with you a newsletter article I received from a master marketer, Charlie Cook, who shares 3 steps to successful website marketing.

To your success,

Doug Halladay

President

Halladay Education Group Inc.

>> TWITTER: Receive our updates by clicking here.

P.S. Don’t forget to check out our secure Online Store for our Strategic Planning or School Start-Up Toolkits.

================================

IN THIS ISSUE

================================

1. In The News

2. Useful Services

3. 3 Steps To Successful Website Marketing

4. Products At Our Online Store

==================================

1. IN THE NEWS

==================================

>> FAME SCHOOLS STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE RECESSION

ABC News: arts schools and endowments have lost value, said Roger Shoemaker, associate head for the arts at the boarding school Walnut Hill in Natick, Mass...

>> NEW DAY DAWNS IN PORT TOWNSEND WITH PRIVATE SCHOOL

Peninsula Daily: By Jennifer Jackson PORT TOWNSEND -- When Maxine Peirson, Gabriele Babik and Sheri Moore decided to start a new Christian private school, they looked for…

>> AT TONY BENNETT’S $78M SCHOOL, ARTS EDUCATION TRUMPS FAME

USA Today: At 83, Bennett has become an unlikely but eloquent advocate for public schools in general and arts education specifically. And he has put his money...

>> VANCOUVER SCHOOLS HIRE PRIVATE EYE TO CHECK PARENTS FOR GANG TIES

Canada.com: By Sam Cooper, Canwest News Service September 9, 2009 VANCOUVER - Several Vancouver private schools are screening applicants to determine if their families…Click on the following link for the full story:

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2. USEFUL SERVICES

==================================

(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. Click on the following link for more info:

(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 EVALUATION

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.”

================================================

3. 3 STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL WEBSITE MARKETING

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For many schools, they don’t have a focus for their school’s web site. They want it to provide information for their current parents, engage new parents and students, and connect their current staff and/or parents with back-end information ports. And most of the time, they do all of it poorly. Today I want to provide you with some pointers from a master marketer, Charlie Cook, who shares with you the 3 steps to successful website marketing for new parents and students.

He has identified 3 steps to improve your web site:

1. Get More People to Your Site

Your first objective is to get the greatest number of people to visit your site. If you use pay-per-click ads such as Google Ads, take a look at your click through rate. Are you getting at least 1.5 to 2% of the people who see these ads to click through to your site? The purpose of any and all of your web advertising is to get people who might be interested in your services to click on the link to your web site. If your ads don't prompt at least 1.5% of viewers to respond, test alternative headlines and subheads. You'll have the most success with headlines and subheads that focus on your prospects' problems and concerns. Changes in the wording of headlines and subheads make a huge difference in response rates. You can double the number of people who click on your ads -and double the number of potential clients visiting your web site - by changing a few words in your ads.

2. Convert More Web Site Visitors to Leads

Let's say a hundred people a day visit your website. How many leads do you generate? With the right copy (headlines and text), sales offer, and page layout, you could motivate 15 to 25% of the people who visit your web site to contact you. Instead of a handful of inquiries from site visitors each week, you could have dozens. At the beginning of this article, I asked you what the main function of his web site is. This is it. The primary purpose of your web site is to get the greatest number of visitors to email you or call you with their contact information. Your site may be the best looking site in the world, but if it doesn't motivate your prospects to contact you, you've lost them and won't get their business. Few people enrol their child the first time they visit a web site. Most look at dozens of options. Before another prospect leaves your site and forgets your business, start using a free offer and your site layout to prompt at least 10-20% of all site visitors to contact you.

3. Convert More Qualified Leads to Clients (Enrolled Students)

If you've taken the first two steps above, you'd have more people responding to your ads and more people contacting you. You've probably guessed; the next step is to follow up and convert the greatest number of prospects to clients – students enrolled at your school. Depending on the type of school you have, your follow up process may include a phone call, a mailing, a series of emails, or some combination of these. Whichever system you use (you have a system don’t you?), you want to increase the percentage of people who enrol at your school. It sounds obvious to both you and me, but this is where 80% of new students are lost.

Ready to stop wasting time and money on your website and start attracting more prospects and clients? Take action now. Is your web marketing system leaking more than New York City's water system?

Take this Quick Quiz

1. Is the click through rate for your pay-per-click ads 1.5% or better?

Yes – No

2. Do 15 to 20% of all unique visitors to your site contact you?

Yes – No

3. Do you have an automated system for following up with leads generated from your web site that generates enrollment from 4% or more of your prospects?

Yes – No

If you answered "No" to one or more of these questions, you're in the same boat as most other schools using the web. Your web marketing is full of leaks and with a few changes you could be collecting a lot more leads and converting more of them to students. Discover how to get a better response to your ads and get more people to contact you. Your sales could skyrocket within weeks.

To find out more about our firm’s school services and how we can help provide you solutions, please email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com to discuss your needs in more detail.

=====================================

4. PRODUCTS AT OUR ONLINE STORE

=====================================

Here are 2 popular Toolkits that’ll help you to start your own school or develop your own strategic plan, step-by-step.

(A). 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.

(B). 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.

=======================================================

To your success,

Douglas Halladay

President and CEO

Halladay Education Group Inc.

Does Your School Have A Crisis Plan

Hi,

I hope that you and your family have had a great summer. Right now we’re winding up 2 weeks at our family cottage in Point Roberts, Washington. I’ve been cheating a bit coming back to my office to work; but our cabin is only 20 minute drive away (though it seems like another time and place…American wine does that!). I find it a great place to unwind; no TV, Internet, computers, or phone. It can be a bit a technology decompression, but I spend more time connecting with my family and friends (and swimming in the freezing ocean!!!). It’s also nice to relax from all the travel I’ve had to do this summer with trips to Korea; New Hampshire; Boston; Washington, DC; and now Panama.

As I read the latest news on H1N1 flu and its impact on schools, it reminds me of when I was Head of an International Girl’s Boarding School in Canada and had to deal with SARS. I was in Hong Kong recruiting students and fundraising at the time it broke out there, but no one knew it at the time. Two months later while I’m on holidays in California at Spring Break, SARS is beginning to spread around the globe and alarm bells are ringing. Over the next few months, the illness spread to more than two dozen countries in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. However, since this was a new disease there was very little information available on how to deal with it at our school (with about two dozen students returning from Asia). I’m sipping wine in Napa and 800 miles away, and our school is preparing to receive our boarding students in the next 5 days. Yikes!!!

At this point we needed to switch in to our crisis plan. Fortunately, we’d prepared a flow chart for school response to any crisis (e.g., personnel, environmental, attack, illness), so we had a plan in place to deal with the situation. Does your school have a crisis plan ready for situations like the H1N1 flu outbreak?

Today I’m going to talk about how your school can develop your own crisis plan and how to proactively deal with emergency situations as they arise.

To your success,

Doug Halladay

President
Halladay Education Group Inc.

>> TWITTER: Get my updates by signing in @ www.twitter.com/halladay

P.S. Don’t forget to check out our secure Online Store for ways to invest in improving or starting your own school.

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IN THIS ISSUE
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1. In The News

2. Useful Services

3. Do You Have A Crisis Plan?

4. Products At Our Online Store

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1. IN THE NEWS
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>> ENROLLMENT UP
The Newark Advocate; By SETH ROY • Advocate Reporter • August 27, 2009 NEWARK — Licking County private schools have seen their enrollments both rise and fall this year..


>> GREENWICH PUBLIC SCHOOLS BRACE FOR H1N1
Greenwich Time - Like private schools, the public schools are taking most cues from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that call for schools to stay open...


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2. USEFUL SERVICES
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(A) STARTING A SCHOOL

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(B) STRATEGIC PLANNING

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(C) BOARD GOVERNANCE WORKSHOPS

Do you want your school to have the best board possible? Our full-day governance workshop (in combination with our interactive online survey) will fine-tune your board’s performance and focus priorities.

(D) SCHOOL EVALUATION

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3. DO YOU HAVE A CRISIS PLAN?
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Our local newspaper was filled with stories about H1N1. I know that newspapers need to write about bad news stories to sell papers, and the likelihood of getting the flu is 1 in a million, but do you have a plan if your school is the one?

Schools are encouraged to prepare a Crisis Management Plan with basic information about those situations that face schools. Most of these events are rare, but preplanning offers a thoughtful response during periods of stress. Annually updating your school’s Crisis Management Plan encourages discussion during non-pressured times and creates an even more useful resource. If kept in a notebook, new policies can be easily added yearly to make this a useful resource.

Your crisis plan should cover situations like:

• Abduction/Missing Person
• Assault/Battery
• Bomb Threat/Threatening Call
• Bus Accident
• Chemical/Hazardous Material
• Classroom accident
• Community Crisis
• Dangerous animal on campus
• Evacuation
• Field trip/student travel trip incident
• Fights
• Fire/Explosion
• Food Poisoning
• Gang Fight
• Grief/death
• Hostage Situation
• Kidnapping of child from campus
• Lockdown
• Natural Disaster/Weather Emergency
• National catastrophe
• Rape on Campus
• School Family Tragedy – death of child, parent, teacher
• Suicide
• Teacher Down or Incapacitated
• Toxic Waste/fumes
• Trespasser/Intruder
• Threats
• Utility/Energy Problem
• Vandalism
• Weapon on campus
  

When developing your plan you need to consider the following. Do you have the following in place:

• Crisis Response Coordinator?
• Crisis Response Team?
• Crisis Response Procedure Checklist?
• Directory of Contact Numbers?
• Backup Referrals and Resources?
• Color Code System?
• CODE RED STOP! Stay In Room/Shelter in Place
• CODE YELLOW CAUTION! Stay in School/Shelter in Place
• CODE GREEN GO! Evacuate school
• CODE BLUE LISTEN! Serious Situation
  
• General Administrative duties and Teacher duties?
• Grief/ Death Resources for the Classroom?
• Shelter-In-Place?
• Emergency Supplies?
• School Grounds and Buildings Diagram?
• Security plans?
• Post Communication after crisis
• Post Evaluation Form
• School Accident Report
  

Don’t wait for a crisis to happen to force you into developing a crisis plan; do it now at the beginning of the year with your staff and be prepared.

To find out more about our firm’s school services, please email HEG at info@halladayeducationgroup.com to discuss your needs.

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4. PRODUCTS AT OUR ONLINE STORE
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Here are 2 popular Toolkits that will help you to start and/or lead your school more effectively.

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(B). START-A-SCHOOL TOOLKIT (#2 BEST SELLER)

Are you still struggling with starting your school? Four experienced school leaders share with you how to start a school from the ground up. You’ll also receive our bonus CD on developing your own strategic plan.
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To your success,

Douglas Halladay
President and Founder

Halladay Education Group Inc.

P: 604.868.0002 / F: 868.472.8737 / Email: info@halladayeducationgroup.com

P.S. Do not forget to check out our secure Online Store for ways to invest in improving or starting your own school or non-profit.