"I'm In! Are You?"

     Although I did state that today I'd start a series of Marketing Matters dedicated to building a step-by-step marketing plan, I'm going to start that in a couple of weeks since there has been so much concern over "What's going to happen next year" - Will more students enroll over the summer?  Will we only have one more year?  What can we do to save this school?  In light of those concerns, this week brings a retention idea, and next week an enrollment idea that you can use over the summer.  Memorial Day will have the first entry in building a marketing plan so that it can be done over the summer and implemented during the coming school year.

     This idea comes from Wheeling Catholic Elementary School in Wheeling, West Virginia.  Make poster boards for each grade level from K through the next to the highest grade level in your school.  Then, draw a line down the center.  On the left side, title it "Kindergarten," and on the right side, title it "First Grade."  Then, have small photos of each child in the class on the left side of the board in their current grade.  When the child is registered for next year, move the picture to the right side of the poster board.  Put these poster boards in an obvious place so that parents can see them when they come to your school for all those May and June events.  Remember to keep them current!

     Although this sounds like incredible peer pressure, the more students in the school, the less per pupil cost there is...and there's nothing wrong with reducing tuition after the school year starts when there's a significant increase in enrollment.  In fact, that's newsworthy - and downright remarkable!

© Michael V. Ziemski, SchoolAdvancement, 2009 (Original Publication Date: 20090511)

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