CASE STUDY
The Tatnall School
Age-and-Stage™ campaigns increase inquiries by 63%
With enrollment down in key Ages-and-Stages® and facing intense local competition, The Tatnall School struggled with low campus visibility and high turnover.
Yet the marketing and admissions team at The Tatnall School in Wilmington, DE, knew they had something that families in the area were looking for. The school needed help translating their value proposition into a story that could be shared with prospective families.
CAMPAIGN RESULTS
Paid Search
433%
increase in tours
Paid Social
127%
increase in submitted applications
38.8%
increase in gross tuition generated
Challenges & Opportunities
- 7 years of leadership changes
- Declining enrollment in Early Childhood
- Significant competition in the area, including four independent schools, and numerous parochial, preschools, daycare centers, and charters
Charged by their Board to increase early childhood enrollment as well as overall enrollment, the Tatnall team began searching for a marketing vendor that could help them translate their most unique value propositions into a compelling story that prospective families would want to be part of.
Partnering with an agency that was experienced working with independent schools was key, as was the ability to have immediate access to return-on-investment (ROI) metrics and real-time data. Having awareness of North Star Marketing through published Healthy Enrollment™ resources and word of mouth, Tatnall reached out for a consultation in 2022 seeking support for the 2023-2024 school year.
Standing out from the competition
As the largest day school in the Greater Wilmington area and with a unique approach to learning outdoors, The Tatnall School offered something no other school was doing. Its 110-acre campus featured a certified outside classroom, where students from early childhood to high school benefited from differentiated instruction and movement while learning about environmentalism firsthand. Fun, dynamic, experiential moments were elevated with a dedicated outdoor music space, art space, habitat, and ropes course.
“Our outdoor areas and educational approach allow us to compete with local independent schools and early childhood centers because no one else is doing anything like it,” the Tatnall team shared.
North Star’s team understood that showing the value of their outdoor classrooms and approach to learning was key. Knowing that Tatnall was looking to increase enrollment in a focused Age-and-Stage® over a short period of time, North Star proposed an early learning campaign through paid search and social, encouraging prospective families to download a content asset that provided an overview of the school’s Early Learning Program (PK3-Kindergarten).
The campaign focused on helping prospective families understand the value of an education at Tatnall by casting a vision of what their child would receive at the school that they couldn’t find anywhere else. Parents gained a sense of the meaningful connections and community Tatnall fostered through unique experiences designed to nurture their child’s natural curiosity — not only during the early years, but all the way through to graduation.
Shortly after, a custom middle school campaign was developed to generate additional enrollment in higher grades. After seeing strong results from the first two campaigns, Tatnall partnered with North Star to develop a third campaign with an overview of the Ages-and-Stages® they served.
The number of leads generated across all channels grew impressively from 265 to 432, achieving a year-over-year growth rate of 63% and demonstrating the campaign’s effectiveness in attracting and converting right-fit families™.
Connecting metrics with strategy
When looking for an agency to partner with, Tatnall knew it wanted access to real-time data to measure the success of specific marketing strategies. North Star’s Healthy Enrollment™ Dashboard delivered that and more, with performance metrics that connected to key points in the Family Journey™, including inquiry-to-tour and tour-to-application numbers.
RESULTS
Paid search
433%
increase in tours
Paid social
127%
increase in submitted applications
38.8%
increase in gross tuition generated
“Before, I felt like we were flying blind in terms of using data effectively, particularly with SEO and targeted ad spend. North Star Marketing gave us guidance and direction to empower us to make intelligent decisions for the money we were spending and how we were measuring success.”
Pat Manahan, Director of Advancement
“The [Healthy Enrollment] Dashboard helps us see what ads, language, and images are performing well in the communities we’re targeting. North Star isn’t shy about pivoting strategy if something isn’t performing as well as they think it should be,” says Manahan.
Aligning teams around prioritized goals
North Star continues to support Tatnall’s marketing team through bimonthly conference calls to review campaign performance. As a result, the school has been able to use insights and Healthy Enrollment™ strategies developed during their work with North Star to guide other initiatives led by their in-house marketing team, such as brochures and online content.
“Partnering with a specialist gave us peace of mind,” shares Manahan. “It’s one thing to work with a marketing agency that has helped struggling businesses, but when an agency has experience working with other schools and has seen what other schools have gone through, it makes everything easier.”
