What Should We Do If Student Applications Are Down?

Many school enrollment teams are getting a sinking feeling in their stomachs as they head into the summer months. Why? Applications are down. It’s been the most chaotic school year in memory, and the added uncertainty has affected staff’s typical recruitment plans and families’ motivations to enroll. But if your school has realistic enrollment targets for the coming year, don’t give up hope. You have time to make up ground. Here are three ways you can strengthen enrollment headed into this fall.

1) Work to Increase Your Conversion Rate

Although you may be shy of your target number, you still have a solid group of families who have already applied. Converting as many of these applicants to actual students will be crucial. The average applicant to student conversion is 3:1. However, with an organized enrollment team that is meeting the needs of families, your school can improve that ratio to 2:1 (or better). Your team must expertly remove the barriers that keep families from matriculating. Here are common obstacles and how to overcome them.

Forgetting They Applied

This sounds crazy, but schools have applicants in their systems who forgot they applied in the first place. They may have applied to multiple schools and yours was last on the list. They may have completed an application late at night or in the early morning. The guardian may have no record of the event because a relative registered on their behalf. Whatever the reason, your school needs to remind families that you exist to help their children get the most out of their education. The first thing you can do is have a personal “check-in” call with each applicant. The purpose of this call is to let them know they have a seat at your school, you are excited to meet them, and answer any questions they may have about registration. Focus on being personal and welcoming rather than operationally oriented. Next, automate an email/text drip campaign. This campaign will consistently keep your school on their radar and position yourself as the obvious choice for students. Campaigns can highlight past student success, staff profiles, or share summer learning resources. Every email should contain a link to your registration page and contact information in the footer to reiterate the process.

Transportation

Transportation is a headache for charter schools and parents alike. Depending on your location, this could be the number one reason applicants don’t matriculate. Here are a few tips so that transportation doesn’t hold families back.

• Create a PDF of your bus route and make it easily accessible online.

When parents are aware of your bus routes, they can better plan for the fall. This may mean shifting their work schedule or arranging rides with a family member. Keeping parents in the dark will increase their chances of bailing last minute when they haven’t had time to problem solve.

• Allow Families to Opt into a Carpool Directory

You may serve families who stay outside of your bus route. Allow them to opt into a carpool directory by sharing their address and phone number. Send out the directory to everyone who opted in highlighting families who live nearby. Your job will not be to administrate the carpooling system, but rather encourage families to lean on one another.

Uniforms

Uniforms are commonplace in most charter schools, but the cost may dissuade families from attending. To mitigate this issue, consider subsidizing the cost of uniforms. Paying for a student’s uniform may be an unwanted expense on your organization, but it far outweighs the cost of under-enrollment. Another tactic is to give free uniforms to families who complete registration by a certain deadline. This is a win-win because you relieve a burden for both parents and staff. Whatever uniform policy you choose, make sure to make it visible on your registration page to eliminate confusion.

2) Accelerate Your Audience’s Relationship With the School

Great recruitment marketing follows the arch of normal relationships. First, you must pique your audience’s interest. Next, you must educate them about who you are to build trust. Finally, you can ask for commitment through registration. Ideally, these three stages correspond with the fall(interest), spring(educate), and summer(commit) seasons. When you are engaging new families during the summer, you still need to respect each stage of the relationship, but you need to speed up the process.

To do this, combine two stages of the relationship into one recruitment effort. For example, instead of sending families a postcard with a link to your website (interest), send out a letter with a program overview including location, academic results, leadership, and how to apply (interest + educate). Another idea is to host a public event and give a presentation on your program and help parents apply onsite (educate + commit). Or if you have a team of volunteers canvassing a neighborhood, relax and spend quality time with those who are interested rather than rushing to the next door (interest + educate).

It’s helpful to have great collateral on hand for each stage of the process. Staff can be present and attentive with families and point them to the perfect resource to match their level of engagement.

3) Make Your Ad Spend Count

Because of the stress and uncertainty of the pandemic, many families have delayed big decisions. A large portion of parents is still on the fence about where to send their children this fall. Don’t be afraid to spend money on advertising in these final summer months. Here are two places I consistently see a return on investment:

• Mailers - You can use public information to send mailers to households with students of age for your school.

• Facebook/Instagram Ads - If your team is new to this, you should ask for help, but well done social media ads are a great way to engage undecided parents this summer. At this time of year, prioritize strong “learn more” or “apply now” calls to action rather than generic awareness campaigns.

Recruit with Empathy

When a child’s education is on the line, it’s easy to get frustrated with parents who are procrastinating. However, it’s important to remember that this year has been just as hard on families as it has been on educators. There are many important things we have put off (like not going to the dentist for 14 months), and we are all trying to catch back up to the normal pace of life.

This summer will be a whirlwind. If you focus on taking great care of your current applicants, allowing families to build relationships quickly with your school, and reaching folks with advertisements that call them to action, you will be in a better position than you are today.

Sawyer Schafbuch is a StoryBrand Certified Guide and founder of Everydesk, helping quality schools recruit students. He recently moved to Des Moines, IA with his wife and daughter.