Betting on Your School’s Success
Dan Yorsh
If you came here expecting insider gambling tips, I’m sorry to disappoint you. When I go to the casino, which is VERY rare – I get upset if I lose the $20 I brought with me. But, I do know my way around a casino and want to use roulette as the perfect analogy for how most schools approach media spending and event marketing strategies.
You’re standing at a roulette table. The wheel is spinning, and the stakes are high (or in my case, not very). You can either pick a color—red or black—or guess the exact number where the ball will land. Seems like the odds are stacked against you, right?
Now, imagine someone hands you insider knowledge: a clear blueprint revealing the winning number and color. Your chances of winning go from unlikely to predictable.
This is the kind of advantage schools can gain by using Aryval Promote for marketing their events. Let me explain.
For many K-12 independent schools, spending on media campaigns is like playing roulette, just guessing at what might hit. You’re taking a gamble with Google ads, Facebook campaigns, and third-party platforms, hoping the right families will notice your event.
The reality? Without the right data, you’re just guessing, and that makes hitting the jackpot—families attending your events and enrolling their children—an expensive uphill battle.
I meet with dozens of schools each month, and a common trend is that many schools struggle to track whether a click resulted in an inquiry and where that initial click actually came from.
Schools may invest in one tool to manage inquiries, another for event registration, and yet another for post-event follow-up. I call this the Hot Dog Method and go into greater detail in my last blog post (). Much like placing additional bets on a roulette table, these extra tools might seem like they’re boosting your odds, but in reality, they only add complexity, more workarounds, and higher costs.
It doesn’t have to be this way, and we’re changing the story.
Aryval gives schools the tools they need to skip the guesswork and call the right winning opportunity. Imagine knowing exactly which families are most likely to attend your event—and better yet, which families are most likely to enroll.
So, how does Aryval Promote actually work?
We start with Precision Targeting. Aryval integrates data from all touchpoints—whether families come from Facebook, Instagram, Google, or a direct referral—and using your first-party data, serves targeted ads to these audiences who are already likely to convert.
Next, Streamlined Event Management. With Aryval, there’s no need to cobble together tools for scheduling, event check-ins, and follow-ups. Everything’s in one place, saving you time and making sure you never miss an opportunity to connect with prospective families.
Then, Follow-Up with Impact. Instead of generic drip emails, Aryval allows you to personalize communications and follow up in meaningful ways, whether it’s via email, SMS, or both! This tailored approach keeps your school top of mind for families during the hectic admission season.
Lastly, Real-Time Insights. Aryval gives you immediate insights into event success, revealing how families felt about their experience and offering guidance on the next steps to convert interest into enrollment.
Ok, I want to increase my chances of winning the game!
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The Clipboard, a “Trusty” Tool
Back in the day, before touchscreens ruled the world, there was one mighty symbol of authority: the clipboard.
It wasn’t just a tool – it was a badge of honor, used by those in charge with a flair that demanded attention. For many of us, encountering someone with a clipboard meant awaiting our turn at an event or checking in for a school field trip – our names diligently checked off or called out from its wooden surface.
Picture it: a thin brown wooden board, complete with a shiny sliver clip that could snap your fingers if you got too close. It was the same clipboard your great-great-grandparents might’ve seen in 1870 (by the way, the light bulb was invented in 1879), and miraculously, it survived into the 21st century, still going strong at admission events like a timeless relic.
Dan Yorsh
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Confessions of an Admissions Director : The Power of the Pause
As the final bell rang and the last parent picked up their student, a strange and beautiful hush fell over campus. Teachers submitted grades, students traded backpacks for beach towels, and my team and I traded our admissions hats for – well, still admissions hats, but slightly less frantic ones.
This is our version of summer: not beaches and daiquiris (though, wouldn’t that be nice), but whiteboards, goal-setting, and the annual deep-dive into the past year’s admissions cycle. It’s when we pause, regroup, and ask the most important question no one has time for in February: Did what we do actually work?
Workshop Season: Coffee, Sticky Notes, and Brutal Honesty
Every June, our team blocks out a couple of days for what we affectionately call “Admissions Retreat,” though there’s very little retreating involved. We bring snacks, pull up our calendars, and do the thing we secretly love: analyze, review, and optimize.
This year, as always, we started with events. The open house. The small group tours. The one-on-one tours. And the ever-evolving hybrid sessions where we tried something new – inviting current and prospective families to mingle. In years past, this process meant stitching together spreadsheets, toggling between our EMS, and making educated guesses based on anecdotal wins. Not this year.
Aryval Yield Report: The Data Whisperer We Didn’t Know We Needed
Enter: the Aryval Yield Report. Cue dramatic music – or maybe just the satisfying click of my mouse as I opened the file. For the first time, our event data wasn’t just there. It was talking to us. Clearly. Cleanly. Easy on the eyes, hard on inefficiency.
We could see exactly how each event type performed. Which ones converted inquiries to applications. Which ones converted applicants to enrollments. Which ones just…existed, bless their hearts.
And perhaps most importantly, we finally had capacity yield reporting. Let me tell you: understanding not just how many families attended, but how full the event was relative to what we could handle? Game changer.
The Big Reveal (And the Events That Didn’t Make the Cut)
What did the data say? Well, for starters, those early December tours we kept hosting “just in case”? Yeah. The yield was flatter than the soda in our breakroom fridge. Meanwhile, our smaller, targeted group tours in January punched well above their weight. And hybrid events? Surprisingly effective, especially when current families shared their authentic stories.
With the report in hand, we made some bold decisions. We’re cutting back on events that underperformed. Doubling down on those that delivered. And, for once, doing it all without arguing over conflicting spreadsheets.
Insight Is the Ultimate Relief
When I think back to previous years, our event planning process felt like squinting through fog with a flashlight. This year? It felt like flipping on overhead lights. We moved from gut feelings to grounded strategy. And the team felt it too. I saw nods instead of furrowed brows. “This makes so much sense,” Liz said, with the relieved tone of someone who just found the charger they swore was lost forever.
Looking Ahead
We’re not done yet, of course. No one in admissions ever really is. But this moment, the end of the school year, the quiet before the next storm has become sacred for us. Not because we stop working, but because we finally get the space to work smart.
So yes, summer planning still involves sticky notes and strong coffee. But now, it also includes clear-eyed decisions powered by real insights. And if that’s not progress, I don’t know what is.
Until next season,
Your resident data-driven admissions romantic
Annalee Neukam
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The Power of Automation
Struggling to meet enrollment targets in your independent school? You’re not alone. Every school faces one of three paths:
My enrollment is low and I want to increase it
My enrollment is steadily increasing and I'd like to start building a waitlist
My enrollment is full, my waitlist is growing, and we're adding more classrooms (which brings us back to #1)
The ultimate goal? Path 3: full enrollment and a growing waitlist. But how do you get there?
It starts with a strong marketing and admissions team, working together seamlessly, and a process for managing leads from inquiry through application.
This is where automation comes into play. ‘Automation’ may be a scary word, or it may conjure up feelings of impersonalization, but automation has evolved to become more personalized and efficient than ever before.
Jonathan Remis
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