Facing Marketing and Enrollment Struggles? Enrollment Catalyst Introduces a New Program to Jumpstart Your Greatest Year of Growth

My passion is to help school leaders develop and implement an enrollment and marketing plan to achieve their goals. Through my Enrollment Catalyst Program, I travel to many schools throughout the year conducting research on site and assessing the current enrollment and marketing effort in order to move the team forward. Typically, this is a six-month program that includes weekly coaching meetings.

In my experience over the last 15 years of consulting and coaching, I have seen many schools fail in their enrollment and marketing plans. While these reasons are many, these are the top three:

1. Leadership – Often, plans fail when the school’s leadership is not invested in the effort. Whether the head of school takes a hands-off approach or doesn’t understand how to move the team toward implementation, this is one of the most common issues that I have seen. Whenever I take on a new school client in my Enrollment Catalyst Program, I always reinforce that the head of school should be involved in this effort; he or she plays a key role in driving this initiative.
2. Staffing – You may have heard Jim Collins use the illustration of the bus in his book, Good to Great. It is critical to get the right people in the right seats on your bus, or to get them off your bus. The same is true in your school. In order to achieve your enrollment and marketing goals, you must have the right staff in your school’s admissions and marketing departments. The staff must be dedicated and focused on implementing the plan with passion, drive, and excellence. It must be an intentional effort. The best plan will fail at implementation if you don’t have the right people in these key seats.
3. Lack of Resources – A plan will require resources and investment. I often refer to this as the “risk-reward” situation that most schools face. Often, the risk is that the resources aren’t available. However, if the right risk is taken, then the reward often follows. Sometimes school leaders aren’t willing to take the risk and invest. I always focus on steering the team to invest in the right strategies that will make a difference in their enrollment and marketing effort.

My goal is to help a school team avoid these failures and experience success through the Enrollment Catalyst program and coaching model. In the past, the only option has been a program where I conduct a site visit that includes on-campus meetings and research. In recent months, I have been exploring a “cohort format,” in which a select number of schools begin this program with a kickoff intensive workshop in sunny Florida. This workshop will be unlike any other conference you have attended since I will guide through the development of an enrollment and marketing plan ready to implement at your school.

Here’s how this Enrollment Catalyst Cohort Program would work: A limited number of school leaders would begin this year-long program in a three-day workshop at a beach resort in Florida, just minutes from where I live. The program would include the following phases personally led by me:

• Phase 1: Enrollment and Marketing Assessment –1 month before the conference
  • Completion of comprehensive assessment
  • Pre-workshop assessment virtual meeting
  • New parent survey
  • Net promoter score survey

• Phase 2: Enrollment Catalyst Program – During the 3-day conference in Clearwater, FL
  • Shared learning with other schools addressing similar issues
  • Best practices in enrollment and marketing strategies
  • Conference workshop sessions led by Rick Newberry
  • Enrollment and marketing planning
  • Leave the conference with an actionable plan to begin implementing to achieve your goals

• Phase 3: Implementation and Monthly Coaching – through 12 months from the initial engagement
  • Personal and individualized coaching meetings every other week
  • Parent satisfaction survey
  • Exit survey for non-returning parents
  • Facebook group for continued discussion and interaction with other participants

This one-year program is less than the cost of an on-site program and includes four surveys that I will conduct for your school throughout the year. One of the main differences is that school leaders will come to me in Florida rather than me conducting a site visit (this option will still be available). Furthermore, the cost is equivalent to one or two full tuitions at your school (depending on your rates), which means the investment will pay for itself with additional students.

As I move forward, I value your feedback. Can you complete the following survey for me as I plan this program? This survey will help me understand how to optimize the new cohort model and gauge interest moving forward. I sincerely appreciate your feedback.

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