Understand your audience.
Research.
Research is an essential for creating an effective marketing strategy. By minimising guesswork, it leads to successful evidence-based actions.
Our research modules can be commissioned independently or collectively as part of a Brand Audit.
However, if you can’t see the research module you need, just ask us - we can create a bespoke one for you.
We also carry out research projects on contemporary and emerging trends. Recent reports include Millennial parents, Gen Z, ED&I, and Personalisation.
The vital research module.
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We interview families who turned down a place at your school and provide insight into key areas of your school’s marketing.
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Understanding your position in the marketplace and why parents turned you down.
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• Your Admissions Process
• The family’s Customer Journey
• Your school’s admissions process versus your competitors
• Which other schools families are choosing and whyA full report and recommendations, debrief session with you and your SLT.
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As soon as possible after parents have turned you down and before they get involved with their chosen school. For most senior schools with defined acceptance dates, late Spring and early Summer Term are usually the best times.
Walk in prospective parents’ shoes.
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We visit your school as a prospective parent - either on an open day or an individual tour - and embark on the admissions journey.
Our report then provides a fresh and impartial view of how your school comes across.
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• Seeing your school from the viewpoint of a prospective parent.
• Informal conversations with other prospective families. -
An in-person visit to your school:
• Hearing the Head’s talk
• Taking the tour
• Meeting key members of staff and pupils
• Casting an impartial eye over your facilitiesWe can even visit your competitors’ Open Events and report on how they compare to yours.
A full report and recommendations, debrief session with you and your SLT.
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Any time in your marketing cycle to fit your open day/personal tour dates.
The original influencers.
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Feeder Heads are a critical stakeholder group whose influence on their parents and advocacy for your school is critical.
We carry out telephone interviews with Heads identified by you to investigate their views on your school and compare you with your competitors.
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A deep understanding of their perception of you and your position in the marketplace, with the opportunity to rectify any misconceptions, connect with new feeder schools and develop and improve relations with this key stakeholder group.
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• What they know about you and whether it is accurate
• Whether they recommend you to their parents
• What they say about you
• The type of pupils they recommend to you
• The type of relationship they like to have with next stage schoolsA full report and recommendations, debrief session with you and your SLT.
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Ideally in the Summer to inform your marketing cycle in the coming year, but is also effective at other times.
The voice of your community.
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Staff, parents, pupils, governors, alumni and local opinion formers are all at the heart of your school community.
Their views are critical to ensuring your school continues to deliver a great service to its pupils. We talk to stakeholders via a range of methods, using whichever is most appropriate.
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• Understanding what stakeholders think about the school
• Identifying what’s working well and what needs improvement
• Ensuring ongoing support from your school community
• Encouraging advocacy and spreading the word about how good your school is
• Informing a successful marketing strategy
• Defining your school brand and communicating its unique values -
• Face to face and telephone interviews
• Online questionnaires
• Focus groupsA full report and recommendations, debrief session with you and your SLT.
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• When you’ve lost touch with stakeholder views
• When a new Head takes up their post
• When you are facing a big decision and need insight to make the right choices
• If you are writing marketing strategy and need to understand the core components of your brand
• When you need to test the temperature of your community
• As part of a comprehensive School Brand Audit
How you stack up against other schools.
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We look at all of your key competitors to see where your school sits within the market place.
We combine this with research into local consumer habits and our knowledge of the wider independent sector to give you an overview of where you are and identify where you would like to be.
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• Keeping up to date with what your competitors are doing and how you compare to them
• Assessing your own offer and planning any changes
• Reporting to Governors -
• Comprehensive digital research using our extensive knowledge of the independent school sector
• Opinion former interviews on you and your competitorsA full report and recommendations, debrief session with you and your SLT.
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Annually, to keep a check on all the key criteria for your competitors including school facilities, changes of staff, fees, results.
Location, location, location.
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Provides a broad overview of your geographical location, taking into account the location of your feeders and competitors, areas of appropriate social profiling for targeting new locations and potential travel routes.
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• Identifying potential new target areas
• Planning marketing activity
• Planning bus routes -
• Detailed maps showing postcodes of your pupils and identifying year-by-year trends
• Areas of appropriate affluence and birth rate that can be added for potential targeting and marketing planningA full report and recommendations, debrief session with you and your SLT.
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When you are planning marketing campaigns to increase numbers in the school.
