SchoolAdvancement (TM) Helping Schools Advance Toward Their Vision

MARKETING

Click here for this week's free marketing tip, Marketing Matters ^(SM)!

ENROLLMENT

Click here to find out more about BASICS - a FREE TOOL to help bring more students into your school! Enrollment Estimators (TM) are now available for the 12-13 school year!!

DEVELOPMENT

Development Development

A monthly article to help you form a development mindset from a fundraising one. Click here for this month's artilcle!. If you're already developed in Development, and want to advance toward an Advancement mindset, check out Advancementality:. Every week, a new post is made to advance your ability to attain an attitude necessary for Advancement.

PRESENTATIONS

Access to presentations given throughout the year can be found here!

* "Miracle Marketing" - For those in the Diocese of Harrisburg, click here to view or download the presentation. For those in the Diocese of Buffalo, click here to view or download the presentation.

* "Retention: The First Step To Growing Your Enrollment"

For those in the Diocese of Harrisburg, click here to download handouts from the presentation.

For those that attendend the NYSCIRS Conference in Albany, click here to download handouts from the presentation.

For those that attended the Alliance of Catholic Schools of Lancaster County, click here to download handouts from the presentation.

For those that attended the West Virginia Christian Education Association Conference, click here to download handouts from the presentation.

Redundant...or Reinforcement

For some, another school year has already come and gone. For others, the school year is almost at a end. July starts the beginning of many fiscal years, and tuition collection for the coming school year starts, so this is a good time to take stock of where your enrollment stands for the coming year, and, perhaps, try a new tactic to bring new enrollments to your school. It might be too late for the coming year, but anytime is a good time to plant seeds.

First, take a look at the number of parents that have indicated their students are returning. I'm sure you have their mailing addresses. Then, log on to http://www.statcrunch.com/5.0/googlemap.php. Enter all the addresses in the space provided, one address per line. A plot map will be generated, allowing you to see where your enrollment comes from! Since neighbors talk to neighbors over the summer, the most populated areas of students from your school might be good places to do several things:

1) Plan a weekend campaign to hang door hangers on the doors of the neighbors. Your school name, your Web site, a phone number. Then something like, "Visit us to see where your child might like to be." Of course, your Web site better be inviting, the phone better be answered at your school, and it needs to open during the summer for tours (now you know why I said you may not be able to do this for the coming school year).

2) Then, if zoning laws permit, ask parents in these densely populated areas of your school's enrollment to place yard signs in their yard with the same information (colors and everything) that are on the door hangers. Redundant? Hardly. In marketing, there is no such thing as redundancy – it’s called “reinforcement." It's why advertisers repeat the phone number so many times at the end of a commercial. Think about it - we provide “reinforcement” for our students in the classroom, and then give them additional reinforcement exercises in the form of homework. Why should the parents be any different?

3) Lastly, those families that are in a high concentrated area could get together and have some type of gathering in the neighborhood. While it would be a gathering of families that attend your school, it might attract interest from families that are interested in your school. Think of it as an "off site" information day. The positive message about your school needs to be reinforced as much as it can be.