Are You Measuring Open House Success the Right Way?
A packed open house can still be an enrollment missed opportunity.
Families toured campus, met faculty, asked questions, and your admissions team walked away feeling like the event was a success. But attendance alone cannot tell you whether the experience moved families closer to enrollment.
According to the latest NAIS State of Independent School Marketing research, individual tours and group open houses ranked among the most effective admissions touchpoints reported by participating independent schools.
If these experiences matter to enrollment, the real question is not only how many families attended. It is what happens to those families next.
1. Decide What You Need to Learn Before Families Arrive
A strong post event strategy starts before the event. If follow up is going to reflect what families care about, your team needs a practical way to capture that information while they are on campus.
Do not document every conversation. Focus on information that could actually influence what happens afterward:
🟢 Primary interest: What programs or aspects of the school matter most to this family?
🟢 Key question: What are they still trying to understand or evaluate?
🟢 Recommended action: Based on the conversation, what should happen next?
Use fields or notes in the admissions system your team already uses. If that is impractical during the event, create a standardized way for staff to record the information immediately afterward.
A useful rule: If collecting the information will not change what you do with it, you probably do not need to collect it.
2. Let What You Learned Shape the Follow Up
Once the event ends, put that information to work.
A family that spent time discussing athletics with a coach may benefit from relevant program information or another conversation with that coach. A family with questions about academic support may need a resource or connection that addresses those questions directly.
You do not need an individual communication plan for every attendee. Build a manageable number of follow up paths around common needs:
🟢 Program interest: Share relevant information or connect the family with the appropriate person.
🟢 Unanswered question: Provide the resource or contact that can address it.
🟢 Ready to move forward: Make the appropriate admissions action clear and easy to complete.
The goal is not more communication. It is a more relevant interaction.
3. Define What Progress Looks Like
Sending a thank you email does not tell you whether the event influenced enrollment. Decide which action would indicate that an attendee continued moving through your admissions process.
Depending on the event, that could be:
🟢 Scheduling an individual visit or shadow day
🟢 Registering for another admissions experience
🟢 Starting an application
🟢 Completing another specific admissions milestone
Define the intended action before reviewing the results. Then compare your attendee list with the activity already recorded in your admissions system.
Attendance is an event metric. Progression is an enrollment metric.
4. Look at Who Has Not Progressed
Once you know who moved forward, look at who did not.
Use the information your team captured to identify whether there is a useful reason to continue the conversation:
🟢 Did they leave with an unanswered question?
🟢 Is another admissions experience more appropriate?
🟢 Is there relevant information they have not received?
🟢 Have they engaged with another admissions communication or experience since the event?
Not taking an immediate admissions action does not automatically mean a family is no longer interested. Continued communication and, where appropriate, digital advertising can help your school remain visible while families continue evaluating their options.
The objective is not to repeatedly ask them to apply. Give them useful reasons to keep considering your school.
5. Use the Results to Improve the Next Event
A simple post event scorecard can turn each admissions event into information your team can use.
Track:
🟢 Registrations: How many families registered?
🟢 Attendance rate: What percentage of registrants attended?
🟢 Progression rate: What percentage of attendees completed the intended action?
🟢 Common interests: Which programs or topics generated the most meaningful conversations?
🟢 Common barriers: Which questions or concerns appeared repeatedly?
Compare these results across similar events. If attendance remains strong but progression consistently falls short, the problem may not be promotion. Your team can investigate what happens between the event and the following admissions action.
Pay attention to the qualitative patterns too. Repeated questions may reveal information that needs to be clearer in your marketing or admissions communications. Recurring interests can show which programs, stories, or people deserve greater visibility.
Each event should make the next one smarter.
At Schoolcraft Digital, we help independent schools connect admissions events to the broader enrollment journey through audience targeting, digital advertising, retargeting, campaign creative, and ongoing optimization. The goal is to help schools reach the right prospective families before an event and remain visible as those families continue toward an enrollment decision.
The event may be over. The enrollment opportunity isn't.
🌐 Schedule a free 30 minute consultation with Schoolcraft Digital.
