We're going to talk about Admissions Events, their return on investment, and conversions. So let's start with admissions events. Oftentimes as schools, we just do events because they've always been done. But really we need to track the return on investment. We need to consider the return on staff investment, and the return on investment for funds. I mean, those events aren't cheap. So looking at like the outcomes, what sort of conversions you see, and figuring out if it was worth the...

So we're going to talk about the three-year cycle. Why is this important? Well, let me explain how this works.

When you are planning to launch a project or make significant changes, maybe you’re going to launch a new event, get rid of an event, or trying to reorganize things in a department or anything like that.

Then you need to be aware of the three-year cycle. This is how almost everything works, on a three-year cycle. The first year is coming up with and implementing things. It's a...

I'm excited you're here with me today because we're going to talk about how to be successful in your role, particularly with delegating, deletion, and outsourcing. So a lot of times when schools come to me, they're very, very, very overwhelmed.

You all have very busy jobs. You're wearing many hats.  And a lot of times we see people burn out in schools rather quickly because they're just taking on too much.

I'm really passionate about making sure that school leaders stay in schools...

Today we're going to talk about silos. I always think of silos on a farm filled with corn. And I suppose that it’s the way each one contains only one product, and keeps it insulated from the weather on the farm is where the term came from. And if you think about it, schools tend to have a lot of silos. It's usually because that's the way it's traditionally always been done.

But what we're finding is that, especially when we're looking at holistic marketing and integrating everything,...

I'm going to talk to you today about a really cool concept called Surprise & Delight. You might already be doing this and not even know it's a thing, but I'm going to tell you about it. 

Surprise & Delight is where you do something unexpected for someone, and it's usually somewhat personalized and therefore really appreciated. 

And it's interesting when we do this, it triggers something called reciprocity.  

So I'll give you an example. There's a school we know...

Today I'm going to talk with you about relationship building.  

Now, relationship building is key to so many efforts.

Development

Marketing

  Retention.

It is so important. 

And there are many ways that you can relationship build.

You can have conversations.

You can attend events.

You can make phone calls.

  You can write notes.

You can send photos and swag...

To your current parents, your grandparents, your alumni, your alumni family, and your donors. So...

Hello, I'm Aubrey Bursch with Easy School Marketing and today I'm going to talk with you about professional development.   

Now usually October through March is prime professional development season, and this is when you want to take advantage of multiple forms of professional development. 

     Online 

     In-person 

     Events 

     Workshops

     Long-term...

Today we're going to talk about new family surveys. Now, why new family surveys and feedback right now? Because this is a prime time to ask your new families about their experience. Usually, you're doing this between four to six weeks into the school year when things are still fresh in those new families' minds.

We want to find out about their experience. We want to find out, how is the communication. Did they feel involved and welcomed? What about all those events you had? Were they helpful...

Grandparents. Now, why grandparents? Well, grandparents are such an important part of our independent school community. I mean, think of how many grandparents really want to be involved in their grandchildren's lives. In addition, how many are helping out with tuition or supporting families in other ways? So we need to make sure that we're engaging this important group. 

Now, usually around this time, there are lots of efforts to maybe have a grandparents' day or something like that, but...

At our last Small School Leaders meet-up, an interesting question arose. What is a small school?

"I'm not sure this gathering is for me,'" said a colleague from a school with 400 students. This came after a school with 75 students commented that a school of 300 seemed large. Another colleague wondered, "Maybe my school is too small. We only have 47 students." And so the conversation went on.

What defines a small school? After working in the field for almost 20 years, I think this is a...