15. 1. Leadership matters
2. Focus on parent satisfaction and a quality experience
3. Develop and communicate your brand
4. Set goals and analyze enrollment results
5. Devote resources to staff and the team
6. Launch a parent ambassadors program
7. Consistently follow-up with inquiries
8. Re-recruit your current families
9. Implement a word of mouth campaign
10. Focus your resources on your website
11. Generate leads through online marketing strategies
12. Tell your school’s story through social media
13. Aggressive use of financial aid
16.
17. Bennis and Nanus believe that
“leadership is the pivotal force behind
successful organizations.”
– Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge
20. } The practice of leadership—it’s what a leader
does.
} Five leadership practices of exemplary leaders:
1. Model the Way
2. Inspire a Shared Vision
3. Challenge the Process
4. Enable Others to Act
5. Encourage the Heart
– Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge
25. } If you want to grow your school, you have to
focus on the quality of the educational
experience first.
26. } Focus Groups and surveys can help you
measure your parent satisfaction.
27. } Survey your parents annually by conducting
an overall parent satisfaction and perception
survey.
◦ Look for areas of dissatisfaction to improve the
quality of the school.
◦ Report findings from the survey back to parents.
◦ Best time to survey parents is October/November
and January/February/March.
45. } Direct administrative responsibilities for
admissions
◦ Director of Admissions/Enrollment
◦ Head of School/Principal
} Additional involvement in admissions
◦ Secretary/Receptionist
◦ Administration
◦ Faculty and Staff
◦ Parents
◦ Students
46. } Develop, implement and manage the
recruitment plan
} Strive to reach and exceed all of the goals
} Provide an outstanding campus visit experience
and follow-up for all inquiries and applicants
} Increase awareness of the school through feeder
schools, churches and other groups
} Encourage and facilitate the involvement of
parents in the recruitment strategy
} Report weekly on the progress toward
recruitment goals
47. } Quality/excellence in their job
} Tell your school’s story
} Turn negative moments into positive
moments
} Channel concerns to the administration
} Communication with parents
} Relationships with parents
} Create memorable moments
} Positive ambassadors for the school
54. } Feeder Schools – Act as a liaison and feeder
school ambassador to profile your school to
the director/principal and prospective
parents. Seek ways to share your school with
the school leadership and parents.
Feeder Schools
55. } Feeder Churches/Synagogues – Act as a
liaison and ambassador to profile your school
to the Pastor/Priest/Rabbi and prospective
parents. Seek ways to share your school with
the synagogue leadership and membership.
Feeder Churches/Synagogues
56. } Neighborhood Meetings – Host and/or recruit
parents to hold prospective parent meetings
in homes.
Neighborhood Meetings
57. } Businesses, Realtors and Other Groups – Seek
ways to profile and share your school at area
businesses, realtors and other groups.
Other Groups/Networks
58. } Community Events – Seek ways to profile your
school in local community events.
Community Events
59. } Online – Engage actively online in Facebook
posts and write reviews for your school on
key school directory sites including
GreatSchools.org, Google+ and other sites.
Online
60. } Internal Marketing – Provide positive word of
mouth internally with current parents to
encourage continuous enrollment at your
school.
Internal Marketing
61. } Admissions Packets
} Website
} Cards for Open Houses
} Facebook
} Video
} Your own experiences
Tools
62.
63. } Some schools take the “Wait and See”
approach when an inquiring parent calls.
Rather than following up with key information
on the school, the admissions staff member
waits to see if they will contact the office.
65. } Step 1 – Make initial contact with inquiry
} Step 2 – Send information packet on school
with personal letter (within 24 hours of
inquiry).
◦ Make sure the letter is personalized and well-
written to sell your school.
66. } Step 3 – Call one week later to discuss your
school and encourage the parent to take the
next step (seven days after inquiry date).
◦ Phone call should focus on the following:
– Make sure information was received in the mail.
– Encourage the family to visit.
– Use the time to better understand the parent’s needs
and sell the parent on your school.
– Send hand-written note immediately after call is made.
67. } Step 4 – Send postcard/infographic/brochure to
remind the parent of your school (15 days after
inquiry date).
} Step 5 – Personal contact from a current parent
(25 days after inquiry).
◦ Use a parent ambassador from a similar grade level to
contact the inquiry.
} Step 6 – Send mailing to focus on affording and
applying to your school (30 days after inquiry).
◦ This is the final letter in the regular inquiry sequence.
This letter should create some urgency to enrolling at
your school.
71. } Parent Satisfaction
} Vision and leadership
} Retention statistics and reports
} Responsibility of re-recruitment
} Connections to community
} Customer service
} Identify at-risk students and families
} The re-enrollment process
} Focus on the transition grades
} Parent communication
} Internal marketing
} Parent feedback
101. 1. Opportunity to share dynamic content on
your website.
2. Increase traffic to your website.
3. Provide significant search engine
optimization (SEO) value for your website.
4. Provide a platform to share content.
5. It’s fun!
113. } Design your website with your audience in
mind—your prospective parents.
} Publish engaging and instructional content on
your site.
} Speak human—Use rich and relevant
keywords in a natural way.
} Make sure your school shows up in the local
search results on major search engines.
} Optimize your web pages with relevant,
keyword-focused page titles, meta
descriptions, H1 headlines and content.
114.
115.
116. } School administrators most often focus on
website design when launching a new site but
fail to focus on the most important elements
– SEO and content development.
} It is critical to focus on developing content
that is:
◦ Relevant
◦ Keyword-rich
◦ Dynamic
◦ Compelling
146. } With empty seats, the schools took an
aggressive approach to discounting tuition to
maximize enrollment.
147.
148. 1. Leadership matters
2. Focus on parent satisfaction and a quality
experience
3. Develop and communicate your brand
4. Set goals and analyze enrollment results
5. Devote resources to staff and the team
6. Launch a parent ambassadors program
7. Consistently follow-up with inquiries
8. Re-recruit your current families
9. Implement a word of mouth campaign
10. Focus your resources on your website
11. Generate leads through online marketing strategies
12. Tell your school’s story through social media
13. Aggressive use of financial aid