Case Study
Creating a lead generation machine for this international school
How research and the right strategy helped increase student numbers and establish a new school as a trusted option.
We talked to:
Linh Le
Head of Admissions, The International School of Vietnam
The Client
The International School of Vietnam, offers an international education to children from the ages of 4 to 18. As a brand new school with well established and respected schools in the market, a new entrant had a tough challenge on its hands. The school initially intended on taking care of marketing internally, but with the opening date looming and almost no students enrollments confirmed, they soon realised it made sense to get experienced hands involved.
“We were a brand new school, with no track record, no students, and no one knew we existed.”
– Linh Le, Head of Admissions
The Challenge
When families relocate half way around the world, one of their chief concerns is where will their children go to school. With established international schooling options already on the “approved parent networks”, The International School of Vietnam was struggling to get in on the conversation.
Word of mouth is a fantastic thing, but that’s simply not going to work for a brand new school, still under construction, no teachers in place, no track-record and an 18 month decision making process.
While exciting and full of opportunities, this situation came with some major challenges:
- Incredibly low levels awareness amongst the target market.
- No clear positioning in place.
- No marketing assets.
- A decision to enroll (purchase) process of at least 18 months.
Client information
2012
Year opened
860
Enrolled students
43
Different nationalities
Our Approach
Every project we take on follows the same three-stage framework: Diagnosis. Strategy. Tactics.
First, we diagnose the problem. That means digging beneath the surface to understand what’s really happening — the customer, the market, and the business reality.
Next, we define the strategy. This is where we make the tough but essential choices: where to focus and how to win.
Only then do we move to tactics. Creative, media, digital, and everything in between — executed with precision and purpose.
This disciplined approach ensures that every campaign isn’t just loud, but effective. It’s how we give our clients an unfair competitive advantage.
Diagnosis
Before making any marketing moves, we set out to understand the real motivations and barriers behind families’ school choices. To do that, we used a two-step research approach: focus groups for depth, and surveys for scale.
Grounded in Real Parent Voices
We began with a series of focus groups involving carefully selected parents who matched our key target market: families actively considering international education in the city. Participants were identified through a mix of existing enquiry data, community networks, and targeted outreach. To ensure strong participation, we offered small but meaningful incentives — including shopping vouchers and early-access invitations to upcoming school events.
These sessions gave us qualitative insights that can’t be captured in numbers alone: the emotional drivers, trust signals, and frustrations parents experience during the school selection process.
To validate and expand these findings, we ran an online survey through SurveyMonkey, reaching a larger pool of prospective families. This gave us quantitative data on priorities such as curriculum clarity, location, extracurricular offerings, and perceived value — allowing us to identify clear patterns and segment differences.
This blend of qualitative and quantitative research meant we weren’t building the campaign on assumptions. We were building it on what parents actually think, feel, and value.
“We thought we understood what parents wanted — but the research uncovered a very different set of priorities. It completely changed how we approached our messaging.”
– Linh Le, Head of Admissions
Strategy
With clear insights from the diagnosis phase, we defined a focused strategy designed to connect with the most valuable audience segments and position the school with clarity and strength.
Target Market
The campaign targeted affluent, internationally minded families with children aged 5–14, primarily located within a 30-minute travel radius of the school. This segment represented approximately 35% of the total addressable parent market, and held the highest enrolment potential based on their willingness and ability to pay international school tuition fees.
This segment was chosen because they are actively evaluating options and have both the financial capacity and decision-making autonomy to commit. They are also more likely to engage early in the admissions funnel — increasing lifetime value and advocacy potential.
Positioning
The agreed working tagline was:
“Big world thinking. Close-knit community.”
This was deliberately chosen to differentiate the school from competitors focused solely on academic prestige or global credentials. Through research, we identified that parents valued both academic excellence and community feel — a combination underrepresented in the market. This positioning allowed us to occupy a clear and credible space between elite, high-fee international schools and smaller, less resourced institutions.
Funnel Focus
The campaign focused on the mid- to upper-funnel — targeting parents who were actively researching options, but had not yet committed to attending an open house or making a formal enquiry.
Why this stage?
- It’s where brand consideration is shaped.
- Competitor messaging is often weakest here.
- Capturing attention at this stage increases the likelihood of higher-converting admissions leads further down the funnel.
Campaign Objectives
- Increase Open House registrations from the target segment by 30% within 3 months of campaign launch.
- Grow qualified enquiry volume (from parents within the defined geographic and demographic target) by 25% quarter-on-quarter.
- Achieve a landing page conversion rate of 20% or higher from campaign traffic..
Tactics
The strategy gave us a clear map. The tactics that followed were not random acts of marketing — they were targeted, structured moves designed to turn insight into impact.
Landing Pages
The school’s existing website was built for information, not conversion. While it contained a lot of useful content, it had several issues that made it hard to turn interest into action.
To address this, we built dedicated campaign landing pages that aligned tightly with the agreed strategy.
These pages were:
- Focused on a single objective — driving Open House registrations and qualified enquiries.
- Tailored to the target audience — using language and imagery reflecting what parents valued most (warmth, community, quality education close to home).
- Built for performance — with clear CTAs, fast load speed, mobile responsiveness, and integrated tracking through GA.
Outdoor & Transit Advertising
Email Nurture Sequence
Interest was high, but too many warm leads were slipping through the cracks. We introduced a structured email nurture journey to turn early interest into action.
Each message had a clear role — from warm welcome to parent stories to Open House reminders — building trust over time instead of relying on a single touchpoint.
This simple, automated sequence kept families engaged and moved them steadily down the funnel toward enquiry and visit.
- Automated follow-up journey for leads, guiding them from awareness to visit or enquiry.
Google Search, Display & Remarketing Ads
- Targeting internationally minded parents within the school’s catchment area with creative focused on warmth + world-class education. Ideal for mid-funnel engagement.
- Keeping the school top of mind with warm audiences who engaged but didn’t convert on first touch.
Printed Collateral
- Premium brochures and flyers distributed at targeted locations (international clubs, cafés, relocation
The Results
Since activating this campaign, here are a few of the biggest wins to date:
- Generated $4.8 million in revenue for opening year.
- Signed up 670 prospective parent tours in the 12 months prior to opening.
- A conversion rate of 35% from tour to enrollment.
- 1300% increase in inquiries.
- 60% increase in Search Inquiries.
- 240 enrolled students for opening year.
- Increased Unaided Awareness among the target market from 0 to 40% within 12 months.
“Working with Your Marketing Rules took the guess work out of where to focus our limited resources to make the biggest impact“
– Linh Le, Head of Admissions
