Successfully marketing your school is not about your budget

Most education providers are under pressure to do more with less.

In my 18+ years as an independent education marketer, I have learned that successfully attracting your ideal students is rarely about having the biggest budget or any other specific resource.

What matters most is:

Clarity – Are you clearly articulating why students should choose you, and not one of the many alternatives?
No leaks – No point in spending lots of time and money on ads if your website and follow-up are unhelpful and people drop out.

This is the central thread in my books Genuinely Helpful (university websites) and Successful Student Recruitment with Google Ads.

As an education marketing coach, I help your team to see the full picture and support you in making focused improvements through audits, training, coaching and consulting.

So that the resources you do have will actually translate into enrolled students.

Get the Field Notes

The easiest way to stay in touch with me is my Field Notes email. I share one practical marketing idea. Every two weeks.

You’ll also get the PDFs of my books:

Genuinely Helpful – A practical guide to effective university websites
Successful Student Recruitment with Google Ads – The essential guide

How I work with education providers

Depending on where you are, we can start with an audit, focused training, or ongoing support for your team.

Web channels including WeChat, Instagram, Google, Study.eu with arrows pointing in between them. Eventually, all arrows point to a website mockup.

Digital student recruitment audit

I’ll review your current marketing engine and document where and how you can improve.

See what helps and what holds you back.
Get a 12-week roadmap with concrete actions.
Align key people around the same priorities.

Courses and training for your team

Practical, education-specific courses on effective online marketing, Google Ads, Google Analytics and Genuinely Helpful university websites (including SEO, GEO and CRO).

Recorded, live online and in-person options
For individuals as well as teams
Ideal for getting everyone on the same page.

Coaching and consulting

Regular support for marketing teams who want senior guidance without adding another full-time hire or long-term agency retainer.

Scheduled calls and email support.
Help with decisions on campaigns, budgets and priorities.
A sounding board who understands both education and digital.

Organisations I've worked with

Books that underpin the way I work

If you like to understand the thinking behind the work, these two books go deeper into two areas where education providers often leave the most value on the table: their website and their search campaigns.

Genuinely Helpful – A practical guide to effective university websites

Your website is the one channel you fully own and control. Every prospective student will pass through it at some point, and it is one of the few places where you can attract targeted visitors through search and AI-assisted tools without buying ads.

This book gives you a practical framework for making your site more helpful for students and staff, and for steering internal debate in a productive direction by focusing on what actually benefits students.

Learn more about Genuinely Helpful

Successful Student Recruitment with Google Ads

Many education providers invest in Google Ads without a clear link to enrolments – and that leads to disappointing results. This book explains how to structure campaigns, keywords and measurement so your search advertising supports your student journey instead of just buying clicks. It starts with strategy, as any ad campaign should!

It is written for education marketers and managers who want to be more strategic about Google Ads, whether they run campaigns in-house or work with an agency.

Learn more about the Google Ads book