How to find new students: be visible, and stay competitive.
Your families are your clients. Just like any other business, you have to market to them.
hey will likely start their school choice journey like any other new decision or product purchase: by researching online.
- Beef up your website with relevant content, current links, and up-to-date news from your district.
- Further your online presence by using social media.
- Assign someone within your organization to post on your social channels frequently and monitor page engagements.
- Market your schools by highlighting their differentiating factors.
- Give families the answers they’re searching for with current, reliable information for all stages of the student journey.
Making district information easily accessible to your potential and current families is vital and could lead to increased enrollment, as alluded to by Abby McCartney in this article:
“Anytime you have a family that needs to make an active choice, as opposed to going to the school they’re automatically zoned to, you’re looking at a family that needs information.” — Abby McCartney, Camden Enrollment’s Executive Director
Engage Families and Create Equity
Now that you’ve got their attention, you need to keep it.
- Educate families about their neighborhood school while also informing them about other school options and programs they may be interested in.
- Be competitive by showcasing your schools’ special programs, core curriculum, sports, and other extracurricular activities and services, such as after-school care.
- Guide families to the schools that best fit their needs and interests. When doing so, you must also make school choice equitable for all.
Remove barriers by ensuring that your schools’ offerings are accessible on any device and in any language, similar to what Oakland USD did in this article.
“To promote equity and provide better access to high-quality school information for our community, we sought the help of technology. With new systems/processes, we believed we could bring the services to the families that need them most, on their own schedule.” — Dr. Charles Wilson, Executive Director for Enrollment and Portfolio Management at OUSD
Increase Student Enrollment and Receive the Funding
You’ve got the families’ attention through marketing in your community, detailed your offerings, and created equitable recruitment practices, so the only thing left to do now is acquire new students, which leads to increased financial support.
You must learn how families search for schools and use that information to recruit and retain students.
- Become proactive instead of reactive in your recruitment to better plan for the future of your district.
- Maintain comprehensive school profiles and help families see their school choices.
- Drive interest, increase satisfaction, and boost enrollment, which increases school or district funding.
Use SchoolFinder by SchoolMint
Want to know how to accomplish all of the above items with ease? SchoolFinder is the ultimate school showcase for family search. For the student to be successful at your school and in turn your school to be successful with its students, families must choose the school that best fits that child’s needs.
Promote your schools, and shine a light on all the information families need when researching and discovering all school options.
SchoolFinder by SchoolMint is the first step to attracting, enrolling, and retaining a steady stream of students for years to come.
Click the banner to get in touch!
