MarComs Review for St George's British International School, Rome
“We knew of RSAcademics from recruitment projects but hadn’t realised the extent of the services that they offer. Using RSAcademics for a review of the marketing and communications in the school was recommended to us by an external company. After contacting the Team, they were very responsive and following an initial call, it was clear they would be able to conduct the review we were hoping for in a sensitive but suitably thorough way.
The school has restructured our staffing around MarComms and employed a new head of the MarComms Team. As the school is undergoing a period of campus and student number expansion, it is particularly important the marketing team is effectively supporting the admissions team to help hit targets. Alongside this, surveys with parents had identified school communication as an area requiring improvement.
The main challenges around communications were the increasing complexity of the school, with split campuses and a growing number of communication platforms and channels. An external review with staff and parents to provide recommendations, as well as benchmarking against competitor schools to help us form a marketing strategy, was desired.
The team were very good at probing to get below the surface of issues and providing practical and useful recommendations. At the same time, they were very sensitive that any recommendations could be viewed as criticisms and were able to let staff share their experiences without ‘pointing fingers’ at anyone in the team.
The team were purposeful and met all deadlines. They were suitably probing to get to the heart of issues, yet were sensitive and didn’t leave problems behind after they left. It’s early days but the advice from RSAcademics has given us a clear roadmap for improvements and we are already seeing benefits from following the advice.
In terms of communication, we are gaining clarity about the key issues and identifying ways to make both short- and long-term improvements. However, we were also reassured this process takes time, which helped us to give realistic expectations to the wider community.
For the marketing support, this resulted in clear targets and helped lay the groundwork for a marketing strategy. We have already altered our meeting structure and connected the work of marketing to support the admissions team and their targets, which has resulted in new campaigns with measurable results in admission numbers.
We would be happy to recommend RSAcademics for a Marketing and Communications review. The Team showed expertise and sensitivity and the report gave very helpful recommendations that resonated with us.”
- John Knight, Principal, St George’s British International School, Rome