The Ins and Outs of Enrollment Management

with Chris Pryor

President and Founder of Gowan Group

COPYRIGHT © 2014

Five Part Series with AISAP

1. Ins and Outs of Enrollment Management

1. You Have the Strategic Plan – Now What?

1. Partnering with Your Board

2. Being More Data Driven

3. Top 5 Reasons Value Proposition is King

Mission

The mission of the Association of

Independent School Admission

Professionals (AISAP) is to support

and advance those involved in

admission and enrollment

management in their responsibilities

for advancing institutional mission

and financial sustainability.

COPYRIGHT © 2014

COPYRIGHT © 2014

What is Enrollment Management and

what does it mean for your school?

Management is about Goals and taking

Action:

1. Immediate … NOW

2. Short Term … 6 – 12 mos

3. Long Term … 1-3 years

Immediate … NOW

1. Enrollment Analysis and Tracking

2. Staffing

3. How Are We Doing?

Short Term … 6 – 12 mos

1. Know Who You Are

2. Know What Your Message Is

3. Know How to Communicate Your Message

4. Retention

Long Term … 1-3 years

1. Strategic Enrollment Management

2. Jim Collins – Good to Great

What Does the SEM Process Entail?

• The core sections of a report will include:

– Goals and projected outcomes

– Data analysis

– Current Market Position and Value Proposition

– Recommended strategy

That process might involve the following services: • Demographic Studies • Marketing Audits • Communication Audits • Image/Positioning Reports • Admissions Guidance • Research and Strategy • Enrollment Management Coaching • Messaging and branding • Marketing Material (print and digital ) • Website Design

TIPS You Can Use Today

• Involve your school’s program directors. Everyone has a stake in the yield success for acceptances. Whether it’s the Academic Dean or the Music Director, the Debate Coach or the Soccer Coach—all program directors can help the yield cause at large and impact their programs. Plan an early February meeting of all program directors—before end of term madness takes hold and March break arrives-- to discuss strategies for getting them in touch with accepted students (and/or parents) who have expressed a strong interest in specific programs.

• Plan or refine your accepted student special events now. Whether it is a full-day visitation program for accepted students or an evening reception for the students and their parents, you don’t want to wait until late February to create or refine these plans. Successful schools enlist an all-star cast of teachers and administrators, and current students and parents to assist in these critically important events. They need to plan. So do applicants and their parents. Are they aware of dates and specifics so that they can plan should they be accepted? Send out an e-blast and get the info on your website well before admission notifications are sent.

• Use your admission software to indicate likelihood of yield for an acceptance. Sure, in many cases you just won’t have a strong sense of whether a candidate will enroll after an acceptance, but your best guess is better than no guess as you enter admission committee meetings. And you will find that tracking the real data after acceptances and comparing it to your intuition will help inform your yield efforts in the future.

• Consider adding to your acceptance letters alerts for upcoming events or other school news, and include a link for these to your website. You may have your winter musical right at acceptance time, an end of season playoff game, an art exhibition, or a special speaker at your school. Perhaps, you are at the point where you can announce an exciting program that will launch in the coming year. These are all terrific opportunities to get accepted candidates and families back to campus or at least to keep them thinking about you without any “sales” pressure.

Ideas around Website Messages:

• Start with the premise that prospective families and students are less interested in what you say you do and more interested in what benefits they can enjoy from attending your school.

• Most independent schools are hyper focused on highlighting what they have and what they do: situated on "68 scenic acres" have "a 60,000 sq. foot gymnasium, a pool, 8 playing fields, a library with 60,000 volumes, and a new science center....18 AP courses.. Superb Arts and Athletics. That is Great News! But these kinds of messages dominate, and there is often very little about what all this MEANS for my child.

• Find some fresh descriptors: It seems that every school has a "robust" curriculum. What does that mean to a prospective parent or student? How is it different from the local public, private, or charter school? ...."Creating life-long learners...21st Century approach...preparing students for success in college and beyond.." FINE. These are true. But they are overused. Instead, focus on what it means for you and your families.

• Re-read your own website and try to navigate it. Does your messaging strongly state what makes you distinctive?

• Are you quickly able to find the info that would be most important to prospective families?

• Suggestion: Have a focus group comprised of an admin team member, teacher, student, parent, and prospective student/parent report on their "experience" finding what they need and/or are interested in on your website. Have the focus group report on their experience and messaging perspectives on the websites of two or three competitor schools. How did it compare?

• Create more compelling, exciting, fun video content. Students, especially are not going to read a lot of copy, but they will click on a video.

• Suggestion: Give the students the video equipment and let them capture "day in the life" footage. Have a school-wide contest for the best one-minute video that captures the spirit of your school.

• Link your school with education experts and research that affirms your educational philosophy and approach. Make your school website the "go-to" resource for important educational issues facing parents and kids today.

Solidify the Community

• The way I see it, this is a philosophy. Either you want the community involved or you don’t. I think it makes great sense to have the community involved as much as the school desires. This type of plan, at its core, is about the advancement of the mission, the evolution of the school and for the betterment of the student body. For all those reasons, the community deserves to be involved. Here are ways in which schools can involve the community during the scope of the plan:

• Initially, communicate with the community about the pending plan. Do this at least a month in advance if possible, if it is only two weeks – its manageable, but not as good. The point is to include them from the beginning, make them aware of the process and the reasons for it, and to “put them on notice” so when we ask for their cooperation the chances are high that they will play an active role. It will work in your favor when you send out surveys or call on volunteers for focus groups.

• A week before the process begins, communicate to them that the firm providing services will be on campus.

• Host focus groups and hold several of them at different times so working or busy parents can attend, if wanted. Host a faculty focus group, alumni focus group and a student. For smaller schools, these can be combined, of course. This gives everyone the opportunity to be heard.

• Send surveys: satisfaction, communication, or a specific topical survey. This is an opportunity for the anonymous vote and it is widely appreciated. Returns are usually not great, but the chances improve when schools include constituents from the beginning.

• Consider hosting a community meeting or a town hall meeting. This is for the firm to present the findings in a general sense and to field a small number of questions. It is important that the firm does this carefully and only shares information that is pertinent at this time. It’s really more for outlining direction of the plan, not for sharing all of the data.

• Share any results of the marketing plan with the community. You can do this through a letter, a school gathering, back to school night…however you feel the most members will be involved. Results may be: a common message to share, a new communication plan, new website, new instagram or google plus account. This is to encourage the community to be involved and share. Remember the two most effective ways in which to share great news is word of mouth and inbound marketing. If you are unsure about inbound marketing, that is another topic and another webinar all together.

• The message we send to the community is critical. It has to be an inclusive one or you will get pushback and criticism. And let’s face it, if you are trying use your internal forces to help attract great prospective families that buy into the value proposition, you want the community involved.

• Consider having a parent voice on any committee work you have done and ask that committee member to be a communications conduit between the school and community.

Gowan Group www.thegowangroup.com

cpryor@thegowangroup.com

917.284.1676