The fall admissions season is in full swing. Your enrollment management office is planning open houses, shadow days, and tours. You’re fielding calls and inquiries and training student and parent volunteers. It’s a lot to juggle and everything’s important.
During my eight years as Assistant Director of Admission at The Bryn Mawr School, an all-girls’, Pre-K-12 day school in Baltimore, I learned a lot about the details of what goes into a successful fall admissions season. (Spoiler alert: it’s almost all details.)
Make sure your campus is visitor-ready for enrollment season.
Many people will be coming to your campus for the first time. What will they see?
First impressions matter. Take an hour and walk the campus to see what it looks like from an outsider’s perspective (maybe even bring someone with you who is not on campus all the time). Some things to look for:
- Are there buildings that need repair? Ceiling tiles that need replacement? Railings that need to be painted?
- How is your signage? Do you have clear signs indicating where your guests should enter campus, park and get to your event?
- What does someone see from the parking lot to the admissions office or building where open house will start?
Do you have buy-in from faculty, administrators and operations crew for your open house?
Open houses usually require more than just the admissions/enrollment offices. These events work best when it’s “all hands on deck.” Find ways to ensure your community members are part of the event, understand and know their purpose, and feel good about being there. Consider:
- A thank you to faculty and staff, such as a future dress-down day or snacks/lunch provided for them at the event
- An “all hands on deck” directive from the top
Be sure your value messaging is clear and consistent in all enrollment materials and events.
Tuition is increasing every year. What makes your school worth it? What is the value?
- Review your messaging – print, digital, social and admission tour guide language – to ensure your value proposition is front and center. Think beyond academic programs and outcomes, too. If you offer free afterschool programming, tutoring, or before-school child care, mention it. Parents want and need to see the full value of their investment.
- Often, alumni are most surprised by tuition costs today and may be the most invested in considering your school for their child. Consider an application fee waiver as a gesture of goodwill for alumni and current families, as well as for those for whom the fee may be a hardship.
Get out of the office and into the classroom.
Admissions does not thrive in a vacuum. Enrollment directors should spend time in the classroom, on the field and in the dining hall to get to know the students and see what they are doing so they can understand and convey that to prospective families.
- Schedule time now to visit an art class, sit in on a history discussion, attend a tennis team practice, or volunteer to chaperone a field trip.
- Don’t eat at your desk – go to where the students eat!
- Check out afterschool activities beyond sports.
- If various divisions have Morning Meetings, attend once a week.
Map out your marketing strategy.
We mean this literally. Is there a county or district from where you are trying to attract students? Consider hosting an event in that area for prospective families, perhaps at the home of a current family who lives in this desired area.
While the goal is to get prospective families to come to campus, having an additional event in their area gives them another opportunity to learn about your school.
- Bring key faculty members, coaches or administrators who do well in a crowd.
- If you have a video, show it at the event.
- In addition to your admissions materials, have extra copies of your latest school magazine, playbills from student productions, etc.
- Consider having a staff member with a laptop to register people that night for fall events.
Train your Admissions Ambassadors beyond the school script.
Your student, parent and alumni Admissions Ambassadors should be well-versed in your school’s mission, values and core curriculum. However, the most important thing they can do for you is to convey your school community’s warmth and culture.
In addition to arming them with a stat sheet and answers to common questions, let them know that they don’t need to have an answer to every question. Tell them to point the prospective student or family back to the admissions office. This is a great reason to reach out to the prospect and keep the conversation going.
Explain to your Ambassadors that sharing stories that convey your school’s warmth and community culture is what’s most important. Ask them to think of an authentic anecdote about how a teacher supported their child or how students support each other.
Visiting a classroom and seeing a group of children learning about circuits and electricity is one thing. It’s another level when your tour guide tells you how that teacher brought the grade to the upper school innovation lab last year to work with seniors who showed them how those same concepts are used in their robotics class.
Make the ending count.
Take a look at your office’s email signature. Are you linking to your school’s admissions events for the fall, a great video that showcases your community, or your head of school’s blog? What about your social media accounts?
Create an engaging signature with calls to action, allowing people to use your email to dive deeper into your school’s distinctions. Better yet, encourage the school’s senior leadership to use your newly crafted signature links.
Your school has unique programs and attributes that will attract prospective families. Take time as school starts to ensure you find ways to highlight them and showcase your school community’s vibe and personality.
For more tips, consider some of the EMA’s podcasts or NAIS’s resource guides.
How may Kalix Marketing help your school hit its enrollment goals with more strategic marketing plans? Let’s talk.
