Test Prep Professionals || Summer Marketing Strategy
Marketing: Summer 2016
As the 2015-16 academic year comes to a close, test prep and tutoring demand generally declines. With the decline in demand comes a reduction in business cash flow and often a good deal of stress.
Belt tightening may ensue and for many, planning for the Fall tutor recruitment represents the biggest challenge during an otherwise quiet time of year.
In contrast, Summer is a great time for admissions counseling. Motivated students and helicopter parents tend to plan in advance and to work feverishly on Essays and Early Action / Early Decision applications.
This is of course why it is ideal for the two businesses to pair up. Beyond having complementary business cycles, it is difficult to have a conversation about college planning without mentioning SAT or ACT prep and equally difficult to have a conversation about SAT or ACT prep without discussing the goal for those test results.
But let’s assume one has not diversified the product mix to include College Admissions. Although the aforementioned drop in tutoring demand may seem universal, it is not; there are a number of firms who do quite well from about mid-June through mid-August ( when the cycle tracks upward again). Relative to the rest of the business cycle, this period of time is still known as a trough…but some folks have it figured out.
If I were to generalize what these firms have in common, the first piece would be reputation. Firms that have quality tutors, high standards, and strong referral networks, seem to be realizing an early uptick in demand relative to last summer. So, in a sense, good business practices generate summer sign-ups. But I am not telling you anything new there.
Next, almost without exception, these companies have planned for summer by expanding their program offerings. That is to say, there are services on the calendar tailored to the summer business cycle. Some of the more common offerings include:
- High School Credit Recovery
- Intensive SAT/ACT Tutoring or Classes
- International Student Programming
- SAT, SSAT, ACT Boot camps
- College Admissions Work Shops
- College Admissions Essay Camps
- Reading & Writing Workshops
Lastly, these firms are diversified enough to exploit the dynamic nature of summer demand. This does not mean that each company has a sophisticated and expansive product line. What it means is that these companies leverage their personnel or academics in a different way over the summer. A pretty common example: take a great SAT or ACT Verbal, Reading, Writing person with an English or Journalism degree and have them work on college essays.
Having said all of this, the reality most boutique firms is that summer is lean. If this fits your profile, here are five tactics that may prove helpful:
1. Schedule Practice Tests. A business trough is arguably an opportunity to stoke one’s lead funnel for fall. Best practices include scheduling face-to-face meeting to go over results and engaging in disciplined registration practices. Use only real SAT or ACT questions and provide item-analysis feedback reports.
Use a calendar to schedule result discussions and challenge yourself to fill that schedule in the same way one fills a tutor’s dance card. Also, make it easy for parents by holding these consultations via Skype or some other web conference if they cannot meet in person. Keep a list of non-attendees and invite them to the next event or practice test.
2. Schedule Intensive SAT or ACT Test Prep. Use your existing curricula and build a program to meet the needs of the ultra-competitive student. Assign your very best tutors and consider raising the fee for this “Summer Intensive” prep. Offer a minimum of 30 hours and consider adding in 4 + practice tests and plenty of extra practice questions accessible when students head off for a vacation.
3. Hold College Application Camps or, if that is too broad, hold College Essay Workshops. These should be compact and high yield. Cap the number of seats and don’t over-schedule the number of camps. Have a top notch essay specialist or tutor run the camp. This person is not only an expert, she or he is also a dynamic presenter with an affirming personality.
4. Try SAT or ACT Classes. if you have not run SAT or ACT classes in the past, summer is an ideal time to run compact classes, weekend-only refreshers (end of summer), or boot camps. The same rules about capping availability and limiting the number of options as mentioned in point 3 above, apply.
5. Math-Only Refreshers. Target Middle School and High School students who scored C’s or below during the academic year. Ask to see a syllabus from their past class and target Algebra I, II, Trig, and Calculus.
In terms of strategic planning, it’s not too late to feature services which resonate with parents nor is it too late to diversify in a strategic way for summer. It is, however, important to decide on your offerings and place them in your operations calendar; on your website and through Facebook; Twitter; Snapchat/Instagram pages. Email is also an inexpensive way to reach out.
Give yourself a 3 week time line when adding any of the above and avoid the week of July 4th. We have an event planning tool on our community site which is free to use.
Beyond these items, it is important to address the administrative side of things. Expenses need to be managed in concert with revenue. A good rule of thumb: expenses should not exceed 70% of revenue. Because rent is fixed, one may need to look to reduce variable expenses to observe that rule. However, in the ideal, any decision to cut expenses should not impact the quality of service.
Summer is often about scaling down to match the academic calendar. At the same time, one can scale down but also choose high-yield, short duration programming to meet the specific needs of local students and limit the impact of reduced demand.
I believe in this not only in word but in deed. Beyond the fact that TPP guides its clients using the logic espoused here, we’ve also spent the past 24 months building affordable programs, implementation guides, and support tools to help small tutoring companies navigate the summer doldrums. See our service menu,
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