A Marketing Roadmap Sequenced Around Impact
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.
Ongoing Advisory
A fractional partnership for schools that want sustained alignment across enrolment, brand, and communications.
One-off projects create momentum. But momentum fades without continuity.
Advisory is a sustained thinking partnership that keeps your school's enrolment ecosystem aligned through the year. Regular sessions, in-person visits, and access to Bolsta's tools and frameworks — designed so each conversation picks up where the last one left off.
Input spans all three streams: clarity and alignment, story and experience, and creative and infrastructure.
$1,500 per month. 12-month engagement.
Why an ongoing partnership?
Schools don’t stand still, and neither should the support around them.
Marketing priorities shift term to term. Staff change. New challenges surface. A one-off project can set direction, but without sustained input, teams drift back to old patterns or lose the thread of what was started.
Advisory provides the continuity to keep enrolment, brand, and communications work aligned — without adding another role to the payroll or another project to the calendar.
What's included
Advisory is a thinking partnership built around sessions, visits, and guided conversations.
Each term
3 advisory sessions (60 minutes, online) plus email follow-up between sessions. Sessions cover whatever is most useful — strategy, alignment, planning, or working through a specific challenge.
Each year
4 in-person visits for workshops, facilitation, or stakeholder conversations. Additional visits beyond the included four are billed for travel. Plus one full Enrolment Ecosystem Pulse to track progress and surface new patterns.
Across the engagement
Strategy or alignment facilitation during calls or visits. Input across the three streams (clarity, story, creative). Guided access to Bolsta’s tools and frameworks — journey maps, experience cards, story scaffolds, archetype work, and the marketing flywheel. Priority access on additional work commissioned during the engagement.
What's not included
Advisory is a thinking partnership, not a delivery retainer. It does not include significant background work, asset preparation, or independent project delivery (scoped separately), day-to-day operational responsibilities (CRM setup, content creation, admissions admin), or internal project management and logistics.
For schools who
- Have completed an Audit and want to act on the findings without a full project
- Are implementing brand, journey, or experience changes and want sustained input
- Want a regular sounding board across enrolment, marketing, and family experience
- Need continuity after a one-off project to maintain momentum
What you get
Sustained input across enrolment, brand, and communications — so your team stays aligned and your work compounds.
Regular advisory sessions
Three sessions per term (60 minutes, online) to maintain momentum and keep work on track
In-person visits
Four visits per year for workshops, facilitation, or stakeholder conversations
Enrolment Ecosystem Pulse
One full Pulse per year to track progress and surface new patterns
Tools and frameworks
Guided access to journey maps, experience cards, story scaffolds, archetype work, and the marketing flywheel
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is the Advisory commitment?
Advisory runs as a 12-month engagement. It is designed as a sustained partnership, not a short-term retainer.
Can Advisory lead into project work?
Yes. Advisory partners get priority access when commissioning additional work. Many schools use advisory sessions to scope and plan project work across the streams.
What happens during in-person visits?
Visits are shaped by what the school needs at that point — strategy facilitation, team workshops, stakeholder conversations, or a combination. Additional visits beyond the included four are billed for travel.
Is Advisory right if we have not done other work with Bolsta?
It can be. Advisory works well for schools coming out of an Audit, but it also suits schools that want a sustained sounding board without committing to a specific project. Book a call and we will talk through whether it fits your situation.
What does $1,500 per month include?
Three advisory sessions per term (60 minutes each, online), email follow-up between sessions, four in-person visits per year, one full Enrolment Ecosystem Pulse per year, and guided access to Bolsta’s tools and frameworks. Significant background work or independent project delivery is scoped separately.
Can we pause or cancel?
Advisory is designed as a 12-month engagement because sustained input produces better outcomes than intermittent check-ins. If your situation changes, we talk about it openly. The relationship is built on mutual value, not a lock-in contract.
How is this different from hiring a consultant?
Advisory provides continuity without the overhead of a retainer or the cost of a full-time hire. We know your school’s context, your team, and your history — so each session picks up where the last one left off rather than starting from scratch.
When to call us
We partner with school leaders and their teams.
Something that once felt strong has started to fade, and misconceptions are creeping in to fill the gap. The team no longer shares a clear, confident sense of who the school is. We help you re-find and re-anchor the core story, mission and culture, then build the language to hold them.
See related case studiesWhat families see doesn't match how good the school really is, because the visible work has aged out of step with it. We make the rebuild a chance to align story, system, and creative, instead of replacing one piece with another that still doesn't fit.
See related case studiesFamilies slip away between enquiry and enrolment, the journey feels clunky, and the tour depends entirely on who's running it. We map the whole journey and design the moments that decide how a family feels, from the first phone call through to day one.
See related case studiesAdmissions, marketing, communications, and leadership are each holding a different version of the school, and there's so much to fix it's hard to know where to start. We diagnose first, then bring everyone into one map and one language with a sequence matched to your capacity.
See related case studiesWhether you need more of the right families enrolling or the staff to grow with, sustained growth, or sustained slippage, is rarely about marketing alone. We look at the whole enrolment ecosystem and identify the few moves that will move the most.
See related case studiesA new principal, a strategic plan reset, an anniversary, an expansion: moments where the school's story needs to be re-told. We work with leadership to make sure the new chapter is actually heard and felt, and embedded into culture for years.
See related case studiesStart a conversation.
Case Studies
See more case studies
Re-Architecting a Website Without Rebuilding It
We rewrote CEN’s entire services canon and re-architected their website from the school’s point of view, without rebuilding it, turning eleven ungrouped services into five clear categories and the generic pages into role-based guides.
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