A Simple Way to Increase Your Montessori Enrollment

Your school's website serves as a crucial tool for generating leads and engaging potential families.

By implementing this one effective strategy, you can optimize your website to capture the attention of more prospective families and encourage them to take the next steps towards enrollment.

Too often, schools are hesitant to focus on the top of the admissions funnel. (It feels too “salesly.”) But our benchmarks have shown that by focusing on the top of the funnel, you’ll see more engagement and enrollments on the other side!

If you’re a little rusty on the concept of the admissions funnel, here’s a review…

The Admissions Funnel

The Montessori school admissions funnel is a conceptual framework that represents the journey prospective parents go through from initial awareness of a school to enrollment. It outlines the various stages that families typically progress through as they explore, evaluate, and make decisions about their educational choices. 

The admissions funnel can vary in its specific stages and terminology depending on the school and context, but it generally consists of the following phases:

1. Awareness: This is the initial stage where prospective families become aware of a school's existence. It can occur through various channels such as online search, Google or Facebook ads, or word-of-mouth. At this stage, families may be exposed to general information about the school's programs, reputation, or unique offerings.
   
2. Interest: Once aware of a school, prospective parents develop an interest in learning more. They may visit the school's website to download informational materials about the Montessori philosophy and programs. This is the crucial stage to capture the attention and curiosity of parents, enticing them to dig deeper into what the school has to offer. 
   
3. Consideration: In this phase, prospective parents actively evaluate the school as a potential fit for their children. They compare the school's offerings, reputation, location, tuition, financial aid options, and other factors against their personal preferences and criteria. During this stage, parent may attend tours, participate in virtual information sessions, and request more detailed information from the school.
   
4. Intent: At this stage, parents have narrowed down their choices and are ready to apply to the school. They submit applications for their children. Schools may have specific deadlines and requirements, and applicants may need to pay an application fee.
   
5. Evaluation: After submitting applications, prospective families await admission decisions. Families who receive an offer of admission enter the evaluation and decision-making phase. They may compare offers from multiple schools, consider financial aid packages, and consult with others to make an informed decision.
   
6. Enrollment: The final stage of the admissions funnel is enrollment. Once a family has accepted an offer of admission, they complete necessary paperwork, pay enrollment deposits, and officially enroll in the school. This marks the successful conversion of a prospective student into an enrolled student.

Throughout the admissions funnel, schools employ various marketing and communication strategies to engage with prospective families, provide relevant information, address concerns, and nurture relationships. Each stage presents opportunities for schools to showcase their strengths, build trust, and guide parents towards making an informed decision to enroll their children in their school.

More Leads (Without Additional Ad Spends)

We have learned from working with hundreds of Montessori schools that the websites that offer more “top of the funnel” calls-to-action result in higher leads generated from the website, a higher number of tours down the line, as well as better ad performance.

This is because the decision making process is often long and it’s important to maintain engagement with those families during this critical time. Without capturing these parents in the early Interest stage, it’s likely they will become a lead for another school. These other schools will stay in touch with their leads using email campaigns, nurturing them down their funnel until they submit an application.

This stage becomes even more important if you're running Google or Facebook ads. You've paid for that click. It only makes sense to provide the next logical step for an interested parent!

Schools that focus on the full funnel:

• Generate more leads
• Incur lower ad cost to get a lead
• Have high website conversion rates
• Create more opportunities for tours and enrollment

Schools that focus only on the bottom of the funnel:

• Generate fewer leads
• Incur almost a 2x higher ad cost to get a lead
• Have lower website conversion rates
• Have fewer tours scheduled

What does this mean in practical terms?

1. Choose one or more “lead magnets” to offer on your website via a lead capture form. These can be PDF articles such as “Montessori or Conventional? What’s Right For Your Family?,” or “How to Choose a Montessori School.” These types of articles are of interest to parents who are still in the Interest phase of their journey. Other options include an online quiz such as “Is Montessori Right For My Child?” or your tuition rates. 
   
2. Utilize a CRM to capture the parent’s contact information and deliver the content directly to their inbox.
   
3. Follow up with an automated email communication workflow to stay in touch with the prospective parent until they reach a decision making stage.

The best part about this is that it can all be automated by utilizing a CRM! Set it up once and let it work for you like a lead generation engine, generating and nurturing leads from the top of your funnel all the way through to enrollment. 

Nido Marketing provides lead magnets, articles, white papers, quizzes, and email campaigns that can be customized for your Montessori school. Schedule a free consultation and we can discuss how to use these strategies to grow your Montessori school's enrollment!

Schedule a Free Consultation!