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.

The Power of "Only"

How do you talk about your school? Pick "A" or "B"

A) "We only have 150 students this year, and next year, it looks like we're only going to have 125."

B) "We only have room for 300 students, and time is running out! Call today to make sure your children have secured their place for next year's exciting educational experience!"

Today's parents, especially those with young children, are not deadline-oriented. With the immediacy of the Internet, many feel they have the ability to make whatever arrangements are necessary in a limited amount of time. Further, since parents are members of the "Me" Generation, they believe that exceptions will be made for them, even if they miss the deadline.

Need proof? If you're not using a third-party tuition management service, and tell families that their tuition payment is due by the 10th of the month, do most parents:

A) Pay their tuition before the 10th?
B) Make sure that the payment arrives at the school on the 10th?
C) Pay their tuition a couple of days later, or write the check on the 10th then mail it to the school?
D) Pay their tuition sometime before the end of the month, because, after all, the school has to understand that I have other bills to pay, or
E) Don't pay their tuition by the end of the month and carry a balance to the next month?

In the schools that I've spoken with, most parents fall into the C, D, or E categories.

This "only" technique is also being employed by discount travel Web sites like Travelocity and Expedia. If you're planning a trip, and want to fly from your closest city to your desitination, many times you'll see "Only 3 more seats left at this price!" to help motivate you to commit to purchasing a ticket. Notice, however, that it says nothing about what happens next. In other words, it's understood or assumed that after those three seats are sold, the remaining seats will be more expensive.

If you don't want to do it with the whole school, try it with your most full classroom, as in "Only 4 desks remain for the 11-12 school year in Grade 5!"

If you want to try this to see what happens, you'd better hurry, because for many schools, There are only 3 months left before next year's exciting educational experience begins!

Back to Marketing Matters Index