The Hot Dog Method

If you came here thinking this post would be about hot dogs, I'm sorry. Unfortunately (or, fortunately), I will be using processed meat as an analogy for the typical technical setup most independent K-12 schools use. 

Let me explain further: the buns of a hot dog represent the marketing and admissions departments, while the toppings represent the various technologies schools employ to guide families through inquiry and towards the application process. Don’t get me wrong, I love hot dogs — especially Chicago-style hot dogs, as they have just the right amount of toppings layered on top of a juicy, delicious, all-beef frankfurter. I guess it comes with growing up in Illinois.

But, enough about me and hot dogs; let's get back to the issue at hand. 

Between March and June 2024, the team at Aryval met with over nearly 200 schools across North America. What we found is that only 2% of schools used a single system that allowed for the capture of an inquiry through event attendance to a submitted application. I'm not referring to the use of an EMS - as almost all of these schools used one of the popular EMS providers - I'm referring to each element of the process from both sides of the bun — marketing and admissions.

Let’s start with the form schools have parents fill out. That dang form. At times, it creates a divide between the marketing and admissions departments. Admissions’s focus is to capture all the necessary information to create a record; but marketing would like the form to be shorter to increase conversion rates. From our data, marketing departments skew towards forms that prioritize user experience and result in high conversions. On the other side of the bun, admissions tend to stick with the forms that are pre-built from their EMS provider (which in most cases negatively impact user experience). Which is the correct approach? We have an answer for that at the end of this post! 

But wait! What about if the school wants to offer private tours? The two common options from our observations were third party schedulers (another tool) or a cumbersome EMS calendar. From our data, a third party scheduler tool is commonly used, and therefore another topping on your dog. 

Now that you have a (potential) solution for your form (topping #1) and third party scheduler (topping #2), you're probably wondering how the prospective family completed their conversion. Was it from Google? Facebook? Niche.com? This means we need to add another tool (topping #3), such as Google Analytics 4 to track your data. However, it's important to note that Google Analytics has limitations, as it prevents you from directly identifying one-to-one acquisition channels. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you about another tool later that is able to do that.

If you’re still with me, we already have three toppings on our hot dog and your prospective family likely has not stepped foot on the campus yet. Following best practices, after a family submits an inquiry, you’re probably wondering if they should be added to a drip campaign and how best to do so. Are you able to fulfill this within your EMS? Possibly, but at a cost of personalization and creativity. This means you’re likely looking at Mailchimp or Constant Contact, or in other words, topping #4. 

Finally, it’s event day and the family is on campus. What’s your check in process? A list? Name tags?  Or separate event management software? 

Admissions tend to gravitate towards choosing between the first two options. We’ll call this an extra topping (#5), but this also comes with a bit of indigestion, as it requires a lot of work for the to manually add each record into the EMS. 

I hope you’re still with me as we just have a couple more toppings to add. So after the family has shown up to the event and have shown interest in your school, what do you do following the event? Follow-up communications? Or just cross your fingers that the family will reach out? Most schools we met with reapply topping #4 (email communications) and introduce drip communications. However, with the surge in email volume and increasingly crowded inboxes, there must be a better way. And there is—the SMS text inbox. You’re probably saying to yourself “Dang it Dan, but that’s another topping”, and you’re right. Topping #6, please.

Whoa, whoa, stop the clock and grab some napkins! How do we know if the families had a positive experience at the event? From what we know, most schools skip this step, but for the ones that don’t, they manually send out an unbranded Google form to collect feedback. Hello, topping #7! We have now reached Chicago Style Hot Dog Status and while I may carry a bias being from Illinois (for hot dogs that is), let me tell you marketing and admissions teams never brag about the amount of “toppings” in their process. 

As you can imagine, seven toppings don’t mix well, and it sure makes reporting very difficult — especially producing reports for the board. You can run query after query in your EMS, or opt for another third party to attempt to produce your report. Introducing this mandatory topping gets you to topping #8. That is one messy hot dog. 

I know what you’re thinking: “Dan, I can’t eat an 8 topping hot dog, is there another option out there?” The answer is yes. That option is Aryval. Aryval can capture the essence of all those ingredients in one single integration. All you have to manage is the family application. 

If you liked what you read, send me an email: danyorsh@aryval.io to learn more about the Aryval option. 

If I made you laugh at any point, check out my story about the history of the clipboard—it's surprisingly relevant to this conversation.

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