Developing Your School’s Re-Recruitment Strategy

Retention and re-enrollment is on the mind of most school leaders. You can no longer assume that just because a family is enrolled this year they will return for another year. Because of this, we must focus our enrollment and marketing effort on re-recruiting current students and families back for another year.

Re-recruitment is the strategy and process of recruiting your current families to continue enrollment at your school for next year. It is the activity that leads to retention.

During the past year, I have written several blog posts on this topic. I thought it might be helpful to repost the titles and links to these posts in a summary format as you develop and implement your  school’s re-recruitment strategy (my next step is to put this together in an e-book format):

The Mark of a Great School – One of the marks of a great school is an overall retention rate of 90% or higher.

Five Re-Recruitment Strategies for your Transition Grades – Most schools typically lose students during the transition grades. This post suggests five strategies that can help you focus on these critical grades.

Seven Strategies for Re-Enrollment – With re-enrollment set to launch in just a few short weeks from now, this post suggests seven strategies to help improve this effort.

Give Your Parents a Grade – As a way to be proactive in your re-enrollment effort, you should give your parents a grade on the likelihood of their continued enrollment. This will help you focus on the parents who are still “on the fence” in their decision.

The “One Family at a Time” Retention Strategy – One of the best ways to re-recruit your families is to focus on them one family at a time. This post outlines this important strategy.

Real Stats, Real Stories – Internal marketing is more important than external marketing and it will have a profound impact on your re-recruitment effort. You parents need to hear real stats and real stories. 

Nine Ways Faculty and Staff Can Market Your School – Faculty and staff can be actively involved in the re-recruitment effort at your school. This post outlines nine ways that they can market your school.

The Personal Note Multiplied – This is a simple strategy of writing personal notes and it can have an exponential impact on your re-recruitment effort.

Roll Out the Red Carpet – The way you treat your customers and “wow” them should be a significant strategy in your re-recruiting strategy.

Standing Out in a Crowded School Market – Exceptional customer service can help your school stand out in a crowded marketplace.

In addition, I recently presented a webinar to nearly 100 school leaders on this very topic. You can click here to download this presentation. This presentation outlines everything you need to implement in your re-recruitment strategy.

As you consider your re-recruitment strategy, what are some topics you would like me to write about in future blog posts? Or, perhaps, you have a strategy you want to share?