Celebrate

Receiving an acceptance letter is an important moment in a family’s educational experience and creating something that feels like it was built just for them makes an impact. A landing page that captures the excitement and celebrates an important (and fun!) milestone in the enrollment journey should also recognize the hard work and perseverance that led them to this point — interviews, applications, recommendations, test scores — yes, it’s a lot! Now is the time to welcome families and students to your community and celebrate their accomplishments.

What to include on your landing page:

An eye-catching visual

Your landing page should feature the congratulatory announcement front and center with a strong image or video so they won’t miss a thing. Follow an engaging visual with a brief paragraph sharing how thrilled your school is about these new families joining the community, and congratulate students on their acceptance.

An engaging video message

Include a recorded video greeting from the administration, admissions office, faculty, and/or other students on campus. An energetic, authentic, and creative video is a fun way to celebrate your accepted families, and a great way to introduce more members of your school community. Invite staff, athletic coaches, student ambassadors, and even your maintenance crew to offer their congratulations — get everyone involved and show your enthusiasm. Don’t be afraid to go a little crazy—now’s the time to show your school spirit!

Our Lady of Good Counsel H.S. put together a video of current students congratulating students and families on their acceptances, welcoming them to the school, and sharing their favorite things about campus. You get a real sense of student involvement and start to imagine which activities, clubs, and student organizations you could see yourself joining. They shared their video on social with a #NowAFalcon branded hashtag, and have already received more than 1800 plays on Instagram. 

And speaking of Instagram…

Social media content

Pulling in social media feeds onto your landing page from your Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter accounts is a great way to create some buzz and keep your page’s content looking fresh. Include the posts from accepted students and families with a branded hashtag and share the excitement that’s happening online. If you’ve mailed out acceptance packages with school swag and admissions material, just like Our Lady of Good Counsel H.S. did, encourage others to share their celebrations with a tagged photo using your accepted student hashtag.

Suffield Academy welcomes accepted families with a landing page just for them. With smiling student faces, a branded hashtag (#SABound), and more ways to learn about the school, the faculty, and community involvement. It's a great way to congratulate families and encourage them to enroll—more on that later…

School merch

On your landing page, think about including a link to your online school store, stocked with school swag for those newly accepted families. When a family is riding the excitement of being accepted and making their choice to join your community, it’s a perfect time to encourage them to show their school pride (and share with grandparents, siblings, aunts, and uncles!) with sweatshirts, bumper stickers, and “class of” gear.

Communicate

Well-crafted communications and relevant resources on your landing page need to deliver information that will keep your families informed and feeling supported as they decide to enroll.

What to include on your landing page:

Important details

Make sure essential announcements about upcoming enrollment contracts and deposit deadlines, or forms that need to be signed and completed aren’t lost in the excitement. Include a section with quick links and FAQs, the website links to access your online portal documents, and contacts within the admissions office, so families have everything they need in one place. Keep them organized in an accordion folder and make sure they’re presented clearly with iconography or visuals that pop.

Bishop Fenwick High School in Peabody, MA collects so much of what we’ve talked about—celebrations, important dates, links to social media, and additional ways to learn about the school on its accepted students landing page. The “connect” section is also a great way to start building relationships with current students and families by sharing all the different ways to get involved before enrolling, like invites to open campus events or the athletics schedules. They even have a link to register for their summer orientation program— now that’s being proactive!

Frequently asked questions

Don’t forget to include an FAQ section on your landing page. Answering any questions families may have about tuition deadlines, visiting campus, or waitlists, for example, can clarify the process and empower them to action and hopefully take the next steps in the enrollment journey.

Convert

As families are faced with an important decision to either enroll or continue exploring their options, now is a critical time to double-down on positioning your school’s values and strategies to convert your accepted students. While all the content above supports your landing page’s efforts to convert families, you’ll want to include strategies that are specifically designed to get families to enroll.

What to include on your landing page:

Clear calls-to-action

Your landing page should have a clear call-to-action button for what you want families to do next — enroll. You have the attention of an engaged and elated audience, so you need to make sure your families have a clear understanding of how to take the next step and complete the enrollment process through your school’s enrollment management system, student information system, or admissions office. A button with minimal text and action-based language, like “Enroll Today,” or “Enroll and Become a Wildcat” will guide them forward.

Are you ready to become a Griffin? The Pomfret School in Connecticut celebrates, supports, and prompts accepted families to take the next step with their all-inclusive accepted families landing page. Using Finalsite's enrollment management software, Finalsite Enrollment, families can continue their enrollment process, manage all their forms, complete their health and medical records, and submit their tuition and fees with just a few clicks.

With a streamlined process like this, you can guide your families through the entire enrollment journey with dynamic checklists and create a custom enrollment process for each family. You can even include calendars and registration for important re-visit days, placement testing, and virtual meet-and-greet events for new parents.

Testimonials

Sharing the voices of your communities is a great strategy for bringing social currency to your landing page. Include testimonials and quotes about the value of your school, the benefits of your education, the strength of the community, or your differentiators. You want to strategically place them on that page, near your CTAs, as a reminder of why your school is the best choice for your families.

Cathedral High School’s accepted families landing page empowers accepted families with resources and links to its parent newsletter and portal, bus routes, its volunteer form, and even a parent survey for the incoming class — everything new families would need to feel supported and welcomed. CHS also does a great job at outlining the next steps to enrolling and it’s clear what’s needed from families to continue the process. 

Simple forms

Invite your families to important accepted students events, such as a student revisit day, an information night, or a “shadow day” with an easy-to-use online form. Events like these are important crossroads for conversion, and getting families and students back on campus can often help cement a family’s decision to enroll. A simple registration form should be easy to find and require minimal information to register.

Including opportunities to learn more or speak with your school 1:1 can help sway a decision in your favor. Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Fairbault, MN makes it easy for accepted families to register for its upcoming virtual admission events with just a click.

Calendars for accepted families

Providing a calendar specifically for accepted families is a great way to streamline the important, can’t-miss admission events. Cor Jesu Academy in Missouri has its own admissions calendar with important events that would resonate with newly accepted families, like an incoming students day and a preview day, for example.

More resources

Content that showcases your school’s mission or gives a better sense of your community or programs can help support a family’s decision to enroll, so the sky’s the limit in terms of content that would help convert accepted families. If families can’t make it to campus for an accepted students day, your landing page can offer alternative options like a virtual tour of campus, or an interactive campus map, so families can explore on their own and take another look at campus facilities. Share your school’s newsletters or admission’s blog, just like Bear Creek School in Redmond, Nebraska did with its “A Day in the Life” page and its post on “9 Ways to Prepare for Success in Middle School as a New Student."

Key Takeaways

Throughout the entire admissions process, your families’ enrollment journey can be supported by how your website presents the value of your school’s education and the spirit of its community. As accepted families make the decision to enroll, your website is your best tool for welcoming, celebrating, and converting families, so you can meet your school’s enrollment goals.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. As Finalsite’s Web and Marketing Manager, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, story-telling, coffee, and creating content that connects.