The Herman Trend Alert
February 8, 2017
Non-Profits Find Acres of Diamonds* in Data
Recently we had the privilege of interviewing exceptional education marketing consultant Michael Connor. We sat fascinated as he recounted his roadmap for helping his clients, mostly independent schools, boost their enrollments in an admittedly competitive environment.
Tuitions have skyrocketed
In the last 10 years, while the Consumer Price Index has gone up 22 percent, school tuitions have gone up 67 percent. If that trend line continues, tuition may soon cost $100,000 USD/year. In fact, tuitions are already so high that even many wealthy families need tuition support.
Competition abounds
Plus, there has been additional competition from public and charter schools with special arts and/or sciences programs. Run by well-respected private venture capitalists,
programs like Khan Academy, AltSchool, High Tech High, and Basis Schools in Arizona, Texas, and Washington, DC also appeal to families who have traditionally been independent school prospects.
Independent school leaders need to keep their schools sustainable
The heads of schools and their boards are understandably concerned. To keep their enrollments up, these leaders have embraced Connor's highly targeted and effective approach. CFOs and Boards of Trustees need as much psycho-demographic information as they can find to target the families who are most likely to have the resources and the will to enroll their offspring.
Connor's program: a highly targeted method
Using big data, Connor's program helps schools locate their most qualified leads. Factors like home values, household income levels, ages of students, and education levels of parents help client schools find the best target families in their geographical areas. The valuable deliverables ConnorŐs program provides are a map of the locations of the best-fit families and an overlay with the locations of "Brand Ambassadors", current families, alumni, and trustees.
Person-to-person outreach
This valuable data allows the schools to target the best households where they may apply word-of-mouth marketing to find the "right" families and students. Of course, then the ambassadors may contact the prospective parents with the right messaging and call to action invitation to visit the school. Typically, about 60 percent of the targeted households will sign up for a visit---most impressive. By this means, the school may strategically deploy its assets to optimize its enrollment activities. It also has value for direct mail campaigns to raise awareness.
Community outreach is important, too
This kind of program works best when the community already knows and appreciates the great work of the school in preparing kids for the world they are going to inherit, so External Image Audits and Board Sphere of Influence Studies can also help.
Applicable to many types of non-profits
With data about which families have interests in educational philanthropy, the arts, music, environment, and other characteristics, schools can further target development opportunities. However, these data could also be valuable to other non-profits in the area. It is important to remember that with appropriate enhanced data, any local non-profit may optimize its marketing activities.
.For more information about Connor and his programs visit www.connor-associates.com.
* "Acres of Diamonds" refers to a fable about a wealthy man selling his farm to seek his fortune afar, while the man to whom he sold his farm found acres of diamonds underneath his feet.
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