Engaging prospective families effectively is essential for increased enrollment. In order to engage prospective families, you must understand the characteristics of your target market so that you can adjust your marketing efforts accordingly. Follow the tips below to learn about your prospective families and optimize your marketing efforts.
Understand why prospective families contact you.
Prospective families don't move their children from one school to another without a good reason, especially when the children in question are sixth grade or older. For example, the family may feel that the child isn't being challenged, that the child isn't thriving as much as he or she could or that the environment isn't as positive as it should be. Understanding these reasons will help you to highlight the proper features of your school when you are conducting tours or talking to a prospective family.
Learn everything you can about prospective families.
When a prospective family is interested in your school, learn everything you can about the family before the tour. Find out where the family comes from, what the child is interested in and whether the child has any school-age siblings. In addition, you should also ask about the reason for the interest in your school. To collect this information easily, consider asking prospective families to complete a short inquiry form before speaking with administration or scheduling a tour.
Use the information you learn to customize tours and other interactions.
Use the information you collect about prospective families during the inquiry process to customize your tour to the individual family. For example, if you learn that the family has made the inquiry for a fifth grader but also has a first grader, be sure to cover topics related to both first and fifth grade during the tour. Likewise, if you have learned that the child is interested in joining the swim team, add the school's pool to your tour.
Involve staff members.
If you know that your tour will include the classrooms or offices of specific staff members, make sure that these staff members know you are coming. If possible, take the time to talk to these individuals about the information you have about the family so that they can customize the experience accordingly. Even if you don't find out about the tour until the last minute, try to give staff members a "heads up" before you bring the family to the classroom.
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