Connor Associates Celebrates 2021’s Most Downloaded Podcast on InspirED
SparkCast host Rob Norman shared with Connor Associates that InspirED’s most downloaded podcast of 2021 was Finance and Marketing: Overlooked Alliance for Success, which features Mike Connor and Thom Greenlaw discussing the critical intersection of marketing and finance at independent schools.
InspirED School Marketers is among the top professional development organizations for private school administrators worldwide.
The conversation with Mike Connor, president of Connor Associates, and Thom Greenlaw, Connor Associates Strategic Partner for Finance, Operations, and Search Services, covers:
· Setting tuition with marketing in mind.
· How to determine the right size of enrollment at your school.
· Why schools are reticent to right-size down.
· How to prove ROI.
· Who should be interviewed externally to assess your school’s value proposition.
· Perceptions of existing families vs. prospective families and how to align the two.
· The need for schools to be a cause, not only talking about what they stand for, but what they won’t stand for!
· What to do with perceptions about your school, positive and negative.
· And sage advice for marketers and business officers alike: “No margin no mission!”
When asked about the episode’s popularity, Norman noted,
“What interested me was that Mike and Thom’s unusual approach in discussing the intersection of finance and marketing is one rarely sees in schools. Most schools set a tuition in January and then depend on enrollment management to ‘sell’ it without accounting for the school’s standing in the market. Mike and Thom use complementary approaches to get to the goal of long-term sustainability. I’d recommend that every Head of School and Board Chair listen.”
InspirED’s 2021 most downloaded episode was based on Connor’s Marketing Therapy blog post Finance and Marketing: Joined at the Hip, published in Fall 2021.
Connor’s first SparkCast episode in 2018, Private School Faculty as Marketers, is still among the top five podcasts of all time for InspirED School Marketers.
The SparkCast itself was named in the top ten of all educational podcasts for universities in 2021 by Terminalfour, an international digital marketing and web content management platform for higher education based in Dublin. The SparkCast was the only podcast on the list that focuses on K-12 schools.
Connor Associates stakes its value on its experience with providing comprehensive services, including ensuring proof of ROI through Image Audits (reputational asset and risk management), Alumni and Alumni Parent Surveys, Enrollment Feasibility Studies which identify qualified appropriate prospects at rooftop level, Five-year enrollment Forecasts, Location Studies, Business Office Evaluations and Plans (pricing sensitivity, tuition analysis, benchmarking, reliable revenue streams, and capital management), Strategic Marketing Plans based on research, and onsite training and coaching to get everyone in your school and your trustees supporting enrollment, retention, and philanthropy.
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