Summary
Sompting Abbotts Preparatory School is an independent non-selective school in West Sussex that needed to increase enrolment. Its traditional offline marketing and existing website were failing to attract enough new parents or web traffic. Website visitor numbers were static and the SLT wanted to improve user engagement and boost lead generation.
Connected Copy worked with the school to discover the root of its challenges. The result was a re-brand, a website re-design away from WordPress to a new Squarespace platform, and development of an innovative digital and content marketing and social media campaign. This was targeted to appeal to the school’s millennial parent audience.
Results and ROI
Enrolment: +39.7%
Enquiries: +97%
Traffic to the school website +169%
Facebook followers + 333%
The school’s top 10 target SEO search terms are all on Google’s first page, many in top 5 results
Several year groups are now full and operating a waiting list
Sompting Abbotts was named a 2019 winner of the UK Content Awards
“The real-world results achieved by Sompting Abbotts are absolutely incredible, and a testament to the quality of the content being produced. Rather than seeking to 'sell' the school, instead, the web and video content created addresses the very real concerns of parents - from battles over screen time, to STEM skills, to outdoor learning, to winning scholarships. As a result, it is reaping the benefits in the shape of social engagement, increased visits to the site, increased enrolment enquiries, and most importantly, increased pupil numbers. You've proved that you are indeed a small school with a big voice. Fantastic work!”
- Hannah Smith, UK Content Awards Judge
Video presentation at ISBI Schools Marketing Conference by Sarah Monaghan of Connected Copy and Stuart Douch, Headmaster of Sompting Abbotts Preparatory School: How to position your independent school’s marketing so the 'right-fit' parents are drawn to your school
The independent education sector is facing challenging times. Its schools tend to be the first to experience the effect of any downturn in the economy.
Financially, they're facing business rate debates, inflation-triggered fee rises, teacher pension contribution increases and compliance-related obstacles.
Add to this the fact that in the UK, middle-class families – the traditional parent base of the sector – are seeing their incomes stagnate.
Independent schools, like many organisations, are also having to adapt their marketing strategies to reach their millennial prospective parent customer base.
Marketing to millennial parents isn’t easy. The millennial generation lead hyper-connected lives. They depend on their phones to do their Internet research. They're able to recognise hype, insincerity and misinformation.
84% of millennials don’t trust traditional advertising. They also want to buy from a brand with which they have high emotional engagement. Smart brands are ditching traditional ads, focusing on design, and leveraging social media and technology.
The buyer's journey has changed. Consumers do more of their own research, and they engage with more content to support their decision-making. A consumer engages with 11.4 pieces of content prior to making a purchase. (Forrester)
Independent schools traditionally haven’t had to focus hard on marketing to guarantee a steady stream of pupils. They're having, though, to become more business-minded.
A smarter marketing approach is now needed to attract what is a smaller applicant pool. This pool is shrinking for socio-economic reasons and due to changes in the UK birthrate.
The Office for National Statistics states that the UK birthrate reached a 12-year low in 2018. Couples are having fewer children or deferring having them until later.
Millennial parents require a new approach to engagement. It hinges on user-focused content that answers the key questions these inquisitive and caring parents are asking.
That means a multi-channel strategy, with an emphasis on social media and video marketing.
SOLUTION
Researching the challenges the school was facing and its competitive reality was the first step. This sought to uncover:
The school’s ideal parent 'persona'
A survey of parents was run. This turned out to be a rich source of material that fed into the concepts for the school re-brand. Parents responded enthusiastically and revealed what they valued about the family-run school.
Factors such as small class sizes, whole child development, emphasis on outdoor learning, scholarship potential, focus on ‘old-fashioned’ courtesy, and sports, drama, arts and music opportunities scored high.
The survey provided real voice of customer. This was used to add authenticity to the website copy by using parents’ words in the headlines, body copy, and calls-to-action.
It’s often the smaller stuff that is most resonant. Phrases that stood out were some of these: “Children can actually climb trees”. “The school’s like Hogwarts”. “There’s lots of old fashioned courtesy”. “Children actually open doors for one another”. “Kids get to do den-building, exploring copses and collect conkers”. “My children can now identify sparrow hawks and buzzards”. “Confidence-building: everyone gets to be on sports teams, in plays and music concerts”. “My child’s no longer lost in a crowd like she was at her state school”.
Competitor school assessment
Sompting Abbotts is one among other (bigger) independent schools in its area. It became clear via online research and review mining that what differentiated it in a positive sense was that it was a small school.
The traditional values and homely atmosphere were what appealed to the parents. They felt they were getting value for money from an individually tailored approach where every staff member knows every child. They preferred this to the one-size-fits-all style, more ‘hot-house’ approach, of the larger schools.
Value proposition and USP
The combined research gave rise to the school’s new tagline: Education to future-proof the magic of childhood.
Parents clearly appreciated that the school was somewhere children are immersed in nature each day. The school has no concrete playgrounds, only fields and woods. So it is a protected place where children really can ‘be children’ in a world in which they risk being forced to grow up too fast due to the pressures of screen time and social media.
Search Engine Optimisation
Keyword research showed that the content on the current website meant the only target phrase Sompting Abbotts ranked for on Google’s first page was its own.
This had to be rectified. Page content was carefully written to be SEO-effective. It leant on strategic keyword use and crafting of SEO meta elements.
A Wikipedia page for the school was also authored. This was good for credibility and SEO visibility. A Google My Business listing strengthened this.
The result is that the school is now on Google’s first page for all its target terms: West Sussex independent school; Worthing private school; Prep schools near Worthing; Preparatory school Sussex; Independent schools in Worthing; Private primary school Sussex; Private primary school worthing and Independent school Sussex.
The best brands tell a story. It was clear that Sompting Abbotts, established in 1921, run by the same family for three generations, had a fabulous one. Until the new website, it wasn’t communicating this story.
It was a story that could be re-invented to resonate with today’s audience and their needs. The new website tells this story through content, video and imagery.
The aim was to come over as warm, friendly and accessible. It was also to dispel the idea that independent schools are elitist and highbrow to counter the media’s current fixation on a handful of high-fee, high-profile schools.
CONTENT APPROACH
The website makes clear that Sompting Abbotts is nothing like the stereotype schools that are exclusive and expensive.
It is a local school. It offers small classes, dedicated teaching and an all-round holistic approach to education within a caring environment. It also produces astonishing success stories. Yes, impressive senior school scholarships, but above all, happy, confident, well-mannered children.
Staff, parents, pupils and alumni can be a school’s biggest salesforce. The website re-design succeeds in communicating what it is they value about the school and gives them a pride in being part of it. It helps create a ‘magnetic’ pull field around it and a consistent story.
By not listing out dull school facilities and statistics, the website’s home page is not what you'd normally expect. The content was written using direct response techniques to appeal emotionally to the underlying desires of prospective parents.
To meet the needs of its millennial prospective parent audience, the website also seeks to answer all the questions they might want to ask via friendly FAQ sections. It also provides a free educational e-book download “Your free guide to choosing a preparatory school” to build a mailing list of prospective parents.
Content marketing & social media
Content marketing has been a strong online visibility tactic. The website features an ‘Insight’ section in which a bank of informative (and keyword-rich) magazine-style blog content has been published.
These are articles on educational topics such as strategies to reduce your child’s screen time, most engaging reading books for pre-schoolers, how to help your Reception child start school, and tips for teaching your child phonics.
Each article leans on the strengthened brand to convey the school’s warm family personality and educational expertise.
They deliberately cover child-related subjects that are not just relevant to the school’s own parents but to all parents – in the state or independent sector.
These have been shared organically on social media: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. They have won strong engagement and shares from the wider public and the press, with many video films garnering over 15,000 views. The school’s Facebook page now has almost 1,000 followers, up from 203, 18 months ago.
“Content marketing is the process by which you build brand awareness, loyalty and commitment by providing relevant, quality, informative and entertaining content. As more and more consumers tune out invasive marketing methods and ignore sales pitches, content marketing has emerged as a preferred way to slowly build relationships with potential customers, and it is these relationships that lead to admissions.”
Video marketing
Video marketing is more important than ever today for the Millennial audience. Videos humanise a brand and make it relatable. The website makes strong use of ‘show-don’t-tell’ videos of real life at the school to help prospective parents in their decision-making process.
These videos have boosted search performance on Google. They are hosted on both YouTube for SEO reasons and on a school-branded Vimeo video platform that works to keep people on the website and reduce bounce rates.
Visitors to the website can now view existing parents and pupils talking about their experience of the school, plus many short authentic videos about school life, such as these below.
All the website and video content was produced and disseminated for Sompting Abbotts by Connected Copy.
“The real-world results achieved by Sompting Abbotts are absolutely incredible, and a testament to the quality of the content being produced. As a result, it is reaping the benefits in the shape of social engagement, increased visits to the site, increased enrolment enquiries, and most importantly, increased pupil numbers. Fantastic work!”
Facebook/Instagram advertising
The Pew Research Centre says that 74% of parents are on Facebook – increasingly parents are using Instagram too. We worked with the school on a number of successful Facebook and Instagram advertising campaigns – see example campaign here.
Selling a high-value ‘product’ such as an independent school education requires long-term nurturing.
This was a strategic Facebook ad campaign, run across one month, to attract prospects to discover the education on offer at the school. It works on the basis that parents first decide 'emotionally' that they like a school and then look for rational proof that it is the right fit for their child.
The goal was to persuade them to enter the school's enrolment funnel.
We began with an ‘awareness’ phase, targeting a segmented cold audience of parents of under-12s within a defined geographic area. Short video ads were used to attract viewers and highlight Sompting Abbotts' USPs of small classes, child-centred education and outdoor learning.
For the 'consideration' phase, engaged ad viewers were retargeted with videos ads featuring current school children, parents and staff that gave deeper authentic insight into the school.
This engaged warm audience was retargeted again for the 'conversion' phase with invitations to attend an Open Day. Lead gen forms were used to remove friction as these are automatically populated by Facebook with user details.
The campaign resulted in 23 sign ups to the Open Day event, the best result for the school ever.
“For us, Sarah has been a marketing sorceress. She carried out surveys, studied our market in depth, then rebranded us. She re-designed an ineffective website into one that is a lead-generation ‘machine’, plus it’s engaging and informative and really sells our USPs as an independent school. Thanks to this, and the content and video marketing strategy plan she's put in place, we’ve seen 97% growth in enrolment enquiries since launch, 39.7% increase in pupil numbers and 167% rise in visitors to the website this year to date. Before the new website, we didn’t rank for the keywords prospective parents might be searching for. Now for all 10 of our target terms, we’re on Google’s first page – for most, in the top five results.”
Stuart Douch, Headmaster, Sompting Abbotts
