Reviewing your school marketing budget? Then you're probably feeling the squeeze, and you're not alone. Budget season is here, and this year it feels a lot less like strategic planning, and more like playing Red Light, Green Light.
One minute, leadership is freezing spending. Next, you're asked why applications are down or why the open house wasn’t full. Sound familiar?
Here’s the truth: enrollment goals are up, but budgets rarely follow. And if you’re not prepared to defend your marketing dollars, you could be left scrambling in Q1. So, how do you survive budget season — and even advocate for more support?
Let’s talk strategy.
Lead With Outcomes,
Not Activity.
It’s tempting to focus only on hard metrics like inquiries or enrollments. And yes — those numbers matter, especially when defending your budget. But not every marketing activity has a direct, short-term ROI — and that doesn't mean it's not valuable.
Many school marketing efforts, like storytelling, branding, or community engagement, serve long-term goals: building trust, strengthening reputation, and connecting emotionally with prospective families. So instead of trying to force everything into a cost-per-inquiry framework, reframe the outcome:
“Our video project was part of a long-term strategy to build an emotional connection with prospective families. So we looked at engagement metrics as the primary success indicator.”
“This social media series helped increase brand familiarity,
which we know is critical in a long decision-making process.”
This shows that you're not only strategic about what you’re doing, but why and how you’re measuring success too.
Visualize the Funnel (and Where Marketing Fits)
Leadership teams often underestimate just how much marketing contributes to the enrollment journey, especially in independent schools or smaller institutions. The key is making your impact impossible to ignore.
Try creating a clear funnel presentation that shows:
- Awareness → Inquiry → Application → Enrollment
- Where your efforts live (e.g., paid search = inquiries, events = applications, nurturing = enrollments)
- Where things are breaking down — and how more investment can fix it
Identify and articulate bottlenecks clearly:
"Our biggest challenge isn't generating interest, it's converting inquiries to applications. We're losing 70% of families between initial contact and application submission. A targeted email nurturing sequence and personalized follow-up system could capture 20% more of these families."
Track specific metrics at each stage (where possible) and make it easy to see that marketing is not just a megaphone, it's a growth engine that touches every part of the enrollment process.
Reframe Marketing as a Revenue Driver
The easiest budgets to cut are the ones seen as "nice to have." Flip the script. Instead of asking to preserve spend, build a case around what you’ll generate.
- Calculate ROI even without perfect tracking. Start with what you know. If you can't track every touchpoint, use conservative estimates.
- Connect "soft" activities to revenue outcomes. For brand-building efforts, tie them to measurable improvements in conversion rates. Try language like:
“We project that a $15K digital campaign could yield X inquiries and Y enrollments,
based on past conversion rates.”
or
“Every $1 spent on this campaign brought in $4.25 in tuition revenue.”
or
"This investment pays for itself if we enroll just 3 additional students."
- Build revenue projections with templates: Create a simple spreadsheet that shows: Campaign Cost → Expected Inquiries → Projected Applications → Estimated Enrollments → Revenue Generated. Use historical data to establish realistic conversion rates, then model different investment scenarios.
- Counter common objections: When leadership says "we can't measure marketing's impact," respond with: "You're right that attribution is complex, but we can measure leading indicators. Our digital campaigns consistently generate 40% of our inquiries, and inquiry volume directly correlates with enrollment. Cutting marketing spend means accepting lower inquiry volume and, ultimately, smaller classes."
Don’t just defend the budget — show them what they lose by cutting it.
Align With Strategic Priorities
Tie your marketing efforts to what the school is already prioritizing. Budget decisions get easier when your work feels like a force multiplier for institutional goals.
Research what leadership truly cares about
Before budget meetings, review board minutes, strategic plans, and recent all-school communications. Listen for repeated themes in leadership meetings. What keeps the head of school up at night? What metrics does the board track most closely?
Position marketing as essential to strategic initiatives
- DEI initiatives? Support these with activities like targeted outreach to underrepresented communities.
- Are there new academic programs to roll out? Show how the likes of digital campaigns can reach new and relevant audiences.
- A push for geographic diversity? Traditional word-of-mouth won't help you expand to new territories so show how you can build brand awareness in expanded regions.
Budget decisions get easier when your work feels like a force multiplier for institutional goals. Be sure to use their language and create clear connections to each priority identified.
Plan for No, Pitch for Yes
Let’s be real — you may not get everything you ask for. That's why it can be helpful to build your pitch with three tiers in mind.
- Must-have: The core strategies you need to maintain current performance.
- Should-have: Scalable ideas that could improve results with moderate investment.
- Nice-to-have: Innovative, high-risk/high-reward tactics that set you apart.
This structure shows you’ve thought through the ask — and makes it easier for leadership to say yes to activities that are really going to move the needle.
Final Thought: You’re Not Alone
Marketing teams everywhere are feeling the pressure right now. Enrollment is more competitive than ever, expectations are sky-high, and the tools to do the job well don’t always match the stakes. But with a little strategy (and a lot of poise), you can make it through this Red Light, Green Light season — and come out stronger.
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Meet The Author Gretlin has spent the last 15 years in marketing, both agency and client-side, and has a rich understanding of content marketing, SEO and digital advertising. With significant experience in the education sector, Gretlin joined Amplify in May 2024 as Director of Services. She now supports schools worldwide in amplifying their enrollment strategy. |
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