Focus + Communicate

Three years ago the leadership of Mount Pisgah Christian School in John’s Creek, GA, decided to focus on growing the upper school enrollment.

Since the launch of the upper school program in 2000, the enrollment had grown steady until it hit a bump in the road in 2006. Because of this dip, the leadership took notice and created a strategy for growth.

This strategy focused on identifying existing differentiators as well as creating new ones. Some of the initiatives that they accomplished internally include:

• Developed the Life Ready Advisement and Guidance Program
• Strengthened the missions program for student involvement
• Created more choices for the student Mini-Mesters (two 2-week long periods of specialty elective course offerings providing a college-like experience)

In addition, they strengthened their brand and built consistency. A new logo was created as well as a campaign that invited families to Experience Pisgah. Because of the length of their school name, they shortened their website address to reflect this campaign: www.experiencepisgah.com.

They also tied everything together in a compelling tagline: College Prep. Life Ready. While many other schools use college prep as a key descriptor, the concept of being “life ready” was very unique. This phrase also tied back into the internal changes made to strengthen the programs so that students would truly be life ready by the time they graduated.

In order to take their brand to the next level, the school’s leadership worked with Cherry+Company to create an award-winning website, viewbook, banners and ad campaign.

The result? The enrollment rebounded in the upper school and has carried the growth at the school during the recession.

The difference? Leadership. At Mount Pisgah Christian, the leadership of their president, Scott Barron, and director of marketing, Rebecca Williams, has been able to effectively focus on and communicate the Pisgah Experience. I know both of them personally through my work at Cherry+Company and they are both outstanding leaders who have made the difference at the school.

Enrollment growth really does come down to the ability to focus and communicate.