Project Description

MAT Marketing – Attracting Pupils and Staff

Hales Valley Trust

MAT Marketing – Attracting Pupils and Staff

Hales Valley Trust

Reaching a wider audience for admissions, and attracting quality teaching and support staff

Recruitment advertising

Facebook PPC

Digital marketing

Hales Valley Trust needed to increase awareness of its primary schools in the local area and also showcase its employer brand. Ambleglow developed a cost-effective PPC advertising strategy that generated interest quickly, as well as new recruitment assets to inspire potential new staff.

The challenge

Hales Valley Trust is an academy trust currently made up of five primary schools, based in Dudley in the West Midlands. The trust initially approached Ambleglow for ideas on how to increase pupil numbers for three of its schools. Later the brief expanded to include helping them to attract quality staff in a competitive local marketplace. 

The trust had no internal marketing resource, so were looking for an agency to undertake any marketing activity. It was important to deliver some short-term quick wins to drive admissions for September that, importantly, wouldn’t cost the earth. 

A strategy brochure was part of a cost-effective MAT marketing strategy, which helped Hales Valley Trust recruiting new staff and is valuable for parents too

The solution

Firstly, we developed a cost-effective strategy, together with recommendations as to the best ways to reach their goals. At the heart of our fully-costed proposal was social media promotion to support admissions. For MAT marketing, which often works with smaller budgets, social media is an effective and measurable channel. 

As the trust was short on time and budget, Ambleglow created three Facebook traffic-driver PPC campaigns. These 7-day campaigns aimed to increase awareness of the trust in the local community as well as promoting the pupil spaces available. 

We created engaging copy and creative, particularly highlighting the USPs of each school. Most importantly, we brought to life what parents could expect when sending their child to Hales Valley Trust. During each campaign we made tweaks to audience demographics, and copy too, in order to bolster their results. 

The second part of our work was to support the trust’s recruitment offering. We created a trust-wide strategy brochure, to inspire prospective staff in the trust’s exciting plans. We are also developing a candidate pack, showcasing all that Hales Valley Trust can offer new staff. 

The results

The admissions campaign drove the audience to a dedicated webpage. The page was fully optimised with key information around booking a tour or arranging a call. The campaign delivered really positive results with an average of 422 clicks per school, with an average cost per click of £0.79p per school. In short, the client was delighted with the results for this quick-wins campaign. As a result, they are looking to use Facebook PPC in future MAT marketing campaigns.

The trust’s efforts to attract high-calibre staff have also been strengthened. Not only will the strategy brochure help engage applicants in the trust’s approach, but also the candidate pack will be a great addition to their recruitment assets and will help drive applications too.

The future

Due to pressure on pupil numbers and increased competition for staff, MAT marketing is more important than ever. Hales Valley Trust recognised this, so worked quickly to get its message out. Above all, the team can now build on these initial projects, showcasing their great offer, and we’ll be on hand to help.

The results of a PPC traffic-driver campaign, part of a MAT marketing strategy for Hales Valley Trust

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