Posts in Forecasting
Ensuring the Future of Public Schools

All told, the national decline in public school enrollment last year was the largest since the turn of the 21st Century. As enrollment challenges continue, public schools and their districts will need to listen attentively and market themselves authentically to compete for families. Adequate funding is essential to a quality educational experience for your students. That funding depends on your district’s fundraising ability and your ability to maintain or increase your market share among an increasing array of alternatives. Are you ready?

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Finance and Marketing: Joined at the Hip

Your school’s identity is meaningless if your school isn’t sustainable. Your product is useless if it is not what people really desire or if you can’t prove its value. If you can’t identify and place your ideal customers by looking at present data and future trends, you’re handicapping your school. But it all goes south if you can’t align the marketing mix, demonstrably grounded in an objective determination of value, with your school’s long-term financial policy or pricing, grounded in data.

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Congratulations To The New Director of Finance and Operations at Summit Montessori

Please join Connor Associates in congratulating Christopher Hui on his new role as Director of Finance and Operations at Summit Montessori School in Framingham, Massachusetts. The candidate search was conducted by Connor Associates Strategic Partner, Thom Greenlaw, who helps schools around the country discover and place talent in leadership and administration roles.

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The "Burger Approach" to Seriously Increasing Inquiries, Conversions, and Yield!

I will be hosting a serious Big Data session on enrollment and communication lightheartedly titled “The ‘Burger Approach’ to Seriously Increasing Inquiries, Conversions, and Yield!“ on April 15 -16 for a new event hosted by Mia Johnstone, The School Marketing Summit. I will be joined by many other private school marketing leaders who will cover the top-of-mind concerns for those tilling the fields of admission and Marcom.

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The Marriage of Market Research and Effective Digital Marketing for Schools

Connor Associates’ Strategic Partner Angie Ward and Co-Founder of digital marketing firm Enroll Media Group: “Market research can avoid the “spray and pray” method wherein marketers spend money ineffectively, hitting almost everyone in a few markets and instead being very targeted about whom and where they target, and with what messages. Market research and digital marketing really do go hand-in-glove, when done well.”

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Macro v. Micro Marketing

Private school heads I have spoken with over the summer are not only trying to plan for uncertainty, but their marketing and enrollment administrators are adapting to this fast-changing and challenging environment by deploying more social media and a virtual shotgun of marketing tactics. Is that the best place to start? Not necessarily!

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