INDIANA DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION CHARTER SCHOOL MARKETING Recruitment: The School Tour March 12 th , 2019 1
ABOUT BRIGHT MINDS MARKETING AND NICK LEROY • Bright Minds Marketing o Boutique marketing firm specializing in helping schools improve their student enrollment. o Over 60 clients in 9 states • Nick LeRoy, founder and principal consultant o 2 years as ED of the Indiana Charter School Board o 15 years as a global marketing executive with Eli Lilly & Co. o MBA (with honors) from Emory University 2
OUR SERIES Date Topic 10/16/18 @ 12:00 Introduction: Understanding the foundations of enrollment marketing 11/13/18 @12:00 Operations: Utilizing Data to Shape and Inform your Enrollment Marketing 12/11/18 @ 12:00 Operations: Your environment and your customer 1/8/19 @ 12:00 Marketing: Inbound marketing and building your culture of marketing 2/12/19 @ 12:00 Marketing: Lead nurturing and social media 3/12/19 @ 12:00 Recruitment: The school tour 4/9/19 @ 12:00 Retention: From first to last day 5/14/19 @ 12:00 Retention: Surveys and communication at your school 3
YOUR RESOURCES https://www.doe.in.gov/grants/school-marketing-and-webinars 4
AGENDA • The school tour as part of your overall enrollment process • The financial and time implications of a strong school tour • What not to do - real examples of tour mistakes • How to optimize the different steps in the school tour process o Finding your school o Signing up for a tour o Pre-tour communication o First impression o The tour o The close o Post tour follow up 5
THE 4 COMPONENTS TO A STRONG ENROLLMENT SYSTEM Marketing Recruitment Retention 1. Positive 1. Listening to your 1. Attracting experience at constituents prospects every recruitment event 2. Measuring your 2. Identifying constituent’s 2. Closing the deal / those prospects satisfaction enroll 3. Nurturing those 3. Improving based 3. Create a positive prospects onboarding upon their experience feedback Come to a recruiting event Enrolling students Retaining students Operations: Know your self, your environment, your competition, and your customer. Create messages that resonate with her and have ways to deliver those messages 6
THE KEY METRIC IN MEASURING YOUR TOUR’S EFFECTIVENESS Conversion Rate (Yield Rate) Total number of enrolled 65 students enrolled students Total number of students who 100 students toured toured Conversion rate of 65% 7
IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD TOUR: 65% CONVERSION RATE Come to your website Conversion rate Total potential prospects / Interact with you 25,641 3% Identify the lead 769 20% Complete 154 a tour 65% Enrolled 100 8
IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD TOUR: 80% CONVERSION RATE Come to your website Conversion rate Total potential prospects / Interact with you 20,833 vs. 25,641 3% (4,808) Identify the lead 625 vs. 769 20% Complete (144) a tour 125 vs. 154 (29) 80% Enrolled 100 9
A GOOD YIELD RATE • Increases the amount of students at your school • Does not require a significant increase in money – just tweaking processes 10
REAL TOUR EXPERIENCES TO AVOID Over 50 school tours around the country • Person answering the phone saying they are full and hanging up • Not returning a voice mail for 7 days when a message is left asking for a tour • Could not leave a voice mail for the principal because the voice mail was full • Refusing to schedule a tour because the person who gives the tour is unavailable • Faculty interrupting the tour to ask the guide questions • Being rushed or ending the tour because the person giving the tour (teacher) had to get back to class • Denigrating other schools or spreading gossip 11
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT STEPS IN A TOUR? Finding your Ease of Pre-tour First The tour Post tour school’s The close signing up for communicati impression itself follow up website or a tour on tour info 12
HOW EASY IT TO FIND YOU WHEN THEY SEARCH? 1. Via a search engine 2. Via online school review sites 3. Via social media 4. Via Enroll Indy 13
THE IMPORTANCE OF SEO AND LOCAL REGISTRATION • Where do you show up on a basic google search on “Best Charter School in Indianapolis”? • www.google.com (Best Charter School in Indianapolis) 14
ONLINE REVIEWS: GREAT SCHOOLS 15
SOCIAL MEDIA BEST PRACTICE (CIRCLE CITY PREP) 16
ENROLL INDY EVENTS 17
HOW DO THEY KNOW ABOUT THE TOUR / SIGN UP TO ENGAGE? • Make your enrollment information the center point of your website • Be as flexible as possible for them to engage with you o Standard tour times o Online registration • Capture their contact information • Capture how they heard about you o Virtual school tour 18
BEST PRACTICE: PROMINENCE OF ENROLLMENT (RIVERSIDE HIGH SCHOOL) 19
BEST PRACTICE: STANDARD TOUR DATES (PURDUE HIGH SCHOOL) 20
BEST PRACTICE: ONLINE REGISTRATION (KIPP INDY) • http://kippindy.org/openhouse/ 21
INFORMATION TO GATHER IN TOUR / SHADOW REGISTRATION • Contact name • Email address • How they heard about you • Interests of the student • If they were referred by a current family – that family’s name • Optional – current school 22
BEST PRACTICES: VIRTUAL SCHOOL TOUR (ORCHARD PRIVATE SCHOOL) • https://www.orchard.org/ 23
THE FIRST IMPRESSION 24
THINK ABOUT THE TOTALITY OF THE EXPERIENCE • Do you send a confirmation email and a reminder one day prior? o Do you include directions to your campus and any other relevant answers? • How is the phone answered? o Confusing phone tree or simple to get a real person? o If you have a phone tree – is there an option for prospective families? o Does your receptionist understand his/her role in recruitment? • Where do they park? o Do you have a designated “future family” parking space? • Are they greeted with a personalized sign? o Personalized welcome? 25
SIGNING IN • Have an iPad or something else for them to sign in if you didn’t collect it already • Gather full contact information for future nurturing • Make sure you ask how they heard about your school 26
DEVELOPING YOUR SCHOOL TOUR STRATEGY 1. Understand what your school offers o What are you great at and what sets you apart 2. Understand what your parents are looking for in a school o Develop your parent personas o Identify your parent’s chief needs 3. Answers to all of the questions a parent might have about your school 4. Develop a script or at least key talking points 27
THE TOUR EXPERIENCE Shift your paradigm The tour is not about your school! The tour is helping the parent envision and want their student to enroll at your school 28
BEFORE YOU START THE TOUR • Understand the child • Understand what are the parents needs and desires • Customize your tour against the parent’s needs 29
THE TOUR EXPERIENCE • Who should give the tour? • How long should the tour take? • What should the tour cover? 30
CRITICAL COMPONENTS THAT SHOULD BE DESCRIBED DURING A TOUR 1. Explain what a charter school is 2. Your academics (state letter grade, style of teaching, breadth of classes, etc.) 3. Unique aspects of your school that sets up apart 4. Your successes – where do your students go after your school? 5. Your approach to technology 6. Special education 7. Diversity 8. Extracurricular opportunities 9. Meal service 10. Logistics – after school opportunities, transportation, etc. 11. Do you have a wow moment? 31
CRITICAL EXPERIENCES THAT SHOULD HAPPEN DURING A TOUR Example of a teacher in action Meet the principal 32
THE CLOSE • Don’t ever let them walk out the door and say “I hope you call us” • Go for a soft close; “Did I answer all of your questions?”, “Are there other things about our school that I can answer” • Move them to the next stage o Upcoming event at your school o How to use Enroll Indy o “Would you like an application?” • Don’t let them leave empty handed o Give them swag o Give them good collateral information 33
THE FOLLOW UP One of the most critical components of the experience Recommended follow up activities: 1. Standard thank you email template ready to go o A thank you for visiting our campus and let us know if you have any additional questions o Providing a listing of any upcoming events that you are hosting or would give them an insight into your school (sporting events, activities, etc.) o Link to register for a shadow day 2. Personal (handwritten) note from the principal 3. Drop them into follow up cadence 34
TOUR / SHADOW NURTURING: BASIC Tour / Follow Follow Follow Shadow up 1 up 2 up 3 • Within 1 week, • Next week, • Next week, follow up call follow up call follow up call from teacher of from a parent from an the future administrator / grade principal Results: Yield rate increase from 76% to 92% (Net increase of 4 students) 35
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