4 Strategies to boost School Admissions Inquiries when numbers are low

Welcome to?School'OClock?- Your weekly dose of practical strategies and tips for School Marketing & Admission efforts!

There are many reasons why your school's inquiries might be down. It could be that families are not aware of your school, or that they simply don't think your school is a good fit for their child.

If your school is noticing a decrease in prospective students, applicants, and registrants, just improving a promotional campaign on social media may not be enough. You need to do much more than that.

Achieving inquiry goals in schools can be challenging, and there are two main areas where issues commonly arise: Awareness and Conversion.

To increase awareness of your school, reach out to local families and community members, and tell them about what makes your school special. You can also work on making your school more visible online, through social media, paid campaigns, events, and other channels. Make sure that your school's website is up-to-date and provides clear information about your programs and services.?

When it comes to conversion, it is important to ensure that the process of conversion is not overly complicated, as this could discourage families from taking the next step. To make things easier for you, here are 4 tips to simplify the conversion procedure:

1. Offer Valuable Information: Not every visitor to your website will fill out the inquiry form immediately. You will have to nurture these leads. Offer them valuable pieces of information and help them in their journey of finding the right school for their child. It can be through a blog or a case study. The objective is to get prospective families in your admissions funnel earlier on.?

2. Avoid Lengthy Inquiry Form: Lengthy Inquiry forms don't work as the attention span of your prospective parent is limited. Your inquiry form should be brief and specific. It may not give you every bit of data that you're trying to acquire, but it can make a huge difference for those considering investing their time and money with you. Remember that marketing and admissions are not just about what you want from your prospective families - but rather about creating an engaging experience that will draw them into your school.

3. Make Your Landing Pages Better: When all your paid campaigns and social efforts aren't yielding the desired results, it's probably time to look again at your landing page. Traffic with low engagement may be an indication that your content on the landing page needs improvement. So, when someone comes on your school's landing page, make a statement about why someone should apply to your school, as it is the first thing your prospective parent will see. Don’t limit the statement to ‘Inquire Now’ or ‘Admissions Open’. Use it to say something about the experience at your school.?

For instance, you can say - We are the only school in (city), dedicated to giving your child meaningful and progressive growth. Or, our school is the fresh start that you have been seeking.?

4. Mobile Responsive Website: As we know, more than half of school-related web traffic is coming from smartphones, hence it is a must to make sure your inquiry form can be easily completed on such devices. A great way to check this out is to personally test it using a tablet or phone - observe the amount of scrolling, pinching, and zooming required. Too much difficulty could indicate it may be time for an alternative solution.?

There may be a number of causes for the decline in inquiries at your school. It is important to identify what needs to be changed and develop a strategy for improvement accordingly.

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