HOW INBOUND MARKETING INCREASED ONLINE SUMMER …

HOW INBOUND MARKETING INCREASED ONLINE SUMMER ADMISSIONS INQUIRIES BY 19%

The Alice Smith School

An IMPACT Marketing International Case Study

Increasing admissions inquiries is the goal of every school. However, not many schools would set out to achieve that goal in the summer months when most admissions and marketing departments are on break or functioning with minimal staff. Additionally, it’s commonly thought that parents are not looking for schools for their children in the summer months.Can the seasonality of admissions be conquered?This case study will demonstrate the misconceptions of this typical mindset. It will prove when a goal is defined, a persona identified, and there is a well-crafted marketing strategy in place, it is possible to increase prospective family lead generation in lower admissions seasons using automation tools.

Impact Marketing International Case Study

The Alice Smith School: How Inbound Marketing Increased Online Summer Admissions Inquiries by 19%

With more than 75 international schools in Kuala Lumpur, it’s a competitive school landscape.

Alice Smith needed to increase inquiries and applications in both the Primary and Secondary levels of their school.

Both the Reception Year (PreSchool) and several Secondary years were below their budget for enrolment heading into a

new school year.

THE CHALLENGE

Impact Marketing International Case Study | THE CHALLENGE


Unlike many international schools, Alice Smith’s marketing and admissions departments are fully operational during the

summer holiday and they wanted to maximize the opportunity to offer tours and connect with parents during these months.

The goal was to not only increase the volume of inquiries and tour requests, but also the quality in a season where the

volume of parents looking at schools for their children is lower.



In an attempt to increase both the number of leads in the summer, as well as the quality, we made the strategic switch

in early June to focus ad language, landing page content and audience targeting specifically to the personas named

“Elizabeth” and “Laura”.

THE STRATEGY

Impact Marketing International Case Study | THE STRATEGY


Once a lead submitted an inquiry, they were put into a targetted, three email, lead nurturing strategy.

This is a practice to lead prospects further around the admissions flywheel, or through their journey, with the content

focussed on their pain points.



By leveraging automation tools to implement the targeted strategy, online admissions inquiries increased 19% year over year in the slowest admissions period of the year. Additionally, tour requests were up 4%, with a total of 71 admissions inquiry

and tour booking leads.

THE RESULTS

Impact Marketing International Case Study | THE RESULTS


19% 71 up to 68% up to 24%Increase in admissions

inquiries

Admissions inquiry and

tour booking leads

Open rate of lead nurturing

sequence

Click-through rate of emails



The automated lead nurturing sequence that prospects were placed into after filling out the admissions inquiry form

achieved an overall open rate of 61% and a click-through rate of 24%. The average open rate for educational-related organizations is 21.8% and the average click rate is 2.48%.



“It’s very satisfying when a collaborative strategy produces the intended results.

The data supports what we’ve known all along but is often so difficult for organizations to do: write your content for a specific persona and

don’t be afraid of leaving a people group out. Targeted, customized content and the use of automation will bring in the right prospects.”

- Maryanne Lechleiter, Client Manager at IMPACT Marketing International



Most noteworthy was the third email in the series which typically sees the lowest engagement in lead follow-up email sequences. In this series, the third email was the

most successful because we strategically addressed the persona’s biggest pain point - finances.

This email achieved an open rate of 68% and a click rate of 20% on the Call-to-Action

that asked them to book a tour.



Beyond the numbers, it was the quality of the leads that made this campaign even more successful.

After analyzing the supporting information provided by the prospects in their inquiry form, reviewing the Google Analytics data and debriefing with Alice Smith, we were

able to definitively state that the strategy shift increased the admissions potential of the leads.



“Typically the summer is a slower tour time for our school; however, with the changes in our inbound marketing strategy and the addition of automated technology, the volume of tour

requests [greatly] increased.”- Andrea Grassby, Director of Marketing and Admissions at Alice Smith School



We determined there were several factors that played into the campaign’s success including:

➜ The ad language and audience targeting to a specific persona.

➜ The emails were personalized with the prospects’ names in the subject line.

➜ The content in the automated email sequence addressed the persona’s top three pain points.

➜ The Call-to-Action (Book a Tour) was appropriate for the geolocation of the audience (they’re in Malaysia).

➜ The admissions department offers tours in the summer, unlike many other schools.



Book a Free Consultation Today!

The success of this campaign is proven in its results and clearly demonstrates that it’s possible to conquer the seasonality of

admissions by implementing an automation tool, defining your goal, choosing your persona, and executing a well-crafted

campaign strategy.

Want to create an inbound marketing strategy to see results like this one?

https://mia.im.international/site/impact/online-scheduling?staff=2a755b28978115cb&service=29uv8h4febj1sfly

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HOW INBOUND MARKETING INCREASED ONLINE SUMMER …