A small K to 10 Christian school in Sydney, around 75 students. For most of its history it never marketed at all. Enrolment was limited to particular church communities, so the churches were the pipeline. That changed recently, and for the first time the school had a marketing budget, a board keen to see it used, and nobody whose job was marketing. They came to us through a principal we’ve worked with for years.
The entry point was a one-day Enrolment Journey Workshop on site, and the reason we start there is simple: we don’t know what we don’t know. I would never recommend a plan for a school without a deep conversation first. What’s actually going on? What have you tried, what worked, what didn’t? What are you trying to do, and where are you trying to go? The workshop is a mini audit in many ways, and it does double duty: I leave understanding the school, and the school leaves having thought harder about its own enrolment picture than it ever has. They’d tried things before we arrived, like schools in this position usually have, each one sensible enough on its own. Patches without a plan. And the fix for that isn’t another patch.
The big thing the day surfaced was that the school’s greatest asset is its difference. The families who are there love it. The teachers know every child. The values run deep, and the academic results hold up. But the marketing told a different story: it presented the school like a smaller version of a typical school, which invites a comparison it can’t win. The line I used in the workshop was that we have to develop a story more convincing than the gymnasium. Stop comparing, and embrace who you are.
The positioning that landed was the bridge between homeschooling and big school. I floated it and the principal said that’s exactly how the board already thinks. Families considering homeschooling because mainstream schooling isn’t the right fit, who want the safety and values alignment, but with the structure, community, and rigour homeschooling can’t provide. It’s a narrow audience, and that’s the point. A big school can advertise to a postcode and convert a percentage. A school this size needs the right families to recognise themselves.
The plan that went to the board was phased, costed, and mostly about sequence: build the story and messaging first, drawing it from the school’s own parents, because everything downstream flows from there. Reach comes later, once there’s something true to put in front of new families. And one more call: the school was heading into a leadership transition, so the plan recommends not starting the work that defines how the school talks about itself until the incoming leadership endorses the direction. That slows things down, and it’s the right way around. A story the school’s own leadership hasn’t owned won’t survive.
The board summary was in their hands the morning after the workshop, and the full plan followed within the week. A school’s first marketing plan doesn’t need to be clever. It needs to be sequenced, honest about who the school is, and small enough to actually happen.
A phased, costed two-year marketing plan, with a board summary in the board's hands the morning after the workshop.
A positioning the school recognised as its own: the bridge between homeschooling and big school.
A clear sequence the board could say yes to: story first, spend later, with the budget protected until the foundations are in place.
CEN had a long list of marketing goals and little capacity to deliver them, so we built a roadmap sequenced around impact, not size, starting with the levers that unblock everything else.
A large school with full classes and long waitlists asked a great question: What would it take to be known for the best enrolment experience in the city? An Enrolment Ecosystem Audit gave them the foundation to answer it.
