When things aren't going the way you want, the first instinct is to put more money on advertising. However, that doesn't always solve the problem.

In fact, you're probably working on a budget. And you're hearing about all these different things others are doing to grow their school/business.

But which way should you choose?

To make the right decision, here are the steps to follow:

1.  Write down your full process of getting students

What is your student’s journey to go from first knowing about you to enrolling?

It may look something like this:

Instagram Post ->Arrives Webpage --> Schedules a call ---> Register -> Enroll -> Start

In this example, the student first learns about you through an Instagram post, and along the process, they schedule a call with you, decides to register, enroll, and finally start.

The more detailed you can get about the process, the better.

2. Check the conversion rate

Conversion rate is basically the percentage that people move on to the next step.

For example, to calculate the conversion rate going from arriving webpage to schedule a call, the equation would be:

(No. of students who scheduled a call/ No. of students visiting the webpage) x 100%

Calculate the conversion rate for each step.

3. Rank the conversion rates in descending order

4.  Examine the conversion rates and decide what to fix first

It’s of course important to consider industry average for these numbers. For the ones you know about industry averages, which ones are below industry average? Fix these first.

If your numbers are above industry average, then which steps can you improve on that take you least time and get the biggest growth in your results?

How do you keep track of your success in each step of your process?