What 800 enrollments per year will teach you
The basics of site-level marketing, presentation, and events.
Audio version:
Video version:
Our guest today is Steve Dekany. He is an education marketing expert for close to 15 years, both as a 7-12th-grade administrator and primarily the Chief Marketing Officer for one of the largest site-based charter school operations in California. He is in charge with enrolling over 800 new students each year. Also, his skills represent close to 30 years in marketing execution for international and domestic companies--from school boards to parents. Steve has a unique 360 degree tactical perspective on school growth and long-term stability.
In this episode, Steve and Al (Enrollhand’s Enrollment Growth Manager) deep dive into the basics of site-level marketing, presentation, and events and analyze how those activities can help your prospective parents and their children perceive your school as their best choice and enroll in your school.
Listen and take note of the insightful and actionable information you need to jumpstart marketing at your school.
Timestamps
01:11 – Steve Dekany’s real passion for enrollment marketing
01:39 – Steve shared the 360-degree site-level marketing strategy
03:14 – Why consistency between the marketing message and the site-level presentation is important for parents and students from the initial response to an inquiry up to an actual school visit
04:28 – Steve’s insight on how often a school organization must hold an Open House and interest meetings for the parents and the students
05:51 – ‘The Out of Mind, Out of Sight Philosophy’- Why Steve does 50 weeks of open houses and enrollment meetings
07:11 – What the ‘Home Run’ strategy is all about and what your meeting facilitator’s role is in achieving that
08:32 – Steve shares the best strategies to captivate your audience during open house and enrollment meeting events
08:46 – How to bring a complete 360-marketing experience to your school's marketing event and how to take care of what the attendees see, hear, feel, and smell, since these things impact their enrollment decision
11:01 – Why you need to pick the best-qualified person to do your presentation and why you need to ensure that they can address the questions from interested parents
15:32 – How parents’ nostalgic memories about the school can help in their enrollment decision
17:53 – How to make the magic happen when parents walk into your school. What are the cues that the parents want to see when the school doors open
18:42 – Steve discussed the steps involved in the overall enrollment process that establish an enrollment culture
20:47 – The importance that all school staff know the basics of customer service and why must they be aware of the enrollment process in case parents ask them
22:34 – How do you ensure that every point of contact in your enrollment process is a home run
26:16 – Steve discussed how to reaffirm your school’s value proposition, and how to ensure that your school stands out from the rest
Quotes:
“When the parents or the students get to the school, is it consistent with those initial messages that they receive from the outward marketing that was going on? You have to look at all the messaging and all the things that were said and make sure that it's consistent when the parents arrive with their students, what is being said and portrayed is consistent with that initial response that they received when they are viewing and ingesting all the marketing materials.”
“I had meetings at my school year around 50 weeks out of the year. So that gave me the opportunity to touch base with as many people as possible as often as possible, in those initial meetings. While the interest is high. And while you know, for example, your marketing campaign is at full swing, that's when you could actually measure how things are working with your marketing strategies.”
Connect with Steve
Where to learn more about Enrollhand:
Website: www.enrollhand.com
Our webinar: https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.com
Our free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/
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