393% ROI in 7 Months

How we grew an international language school 4x online.

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OISE contacted us to repair SEO damage. What happened after exceeded their expectations.

A potentially fatal SEO error had occurred and we were contracted to fix the issue.

During our time working on the problem, we observed various shortfalls in the overall online marketing strategy.

After meeting with the OISE team to discuss their challenges, we pitched a plan that would multiply their online revenue in a manner that meant we would only be paid our profits if we reached the pre-agreed goals.

The client accepted and the information below is a breakdown of what we did and what we achieved.

oise school
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oise language coaching

About the client.

Our client’s brand is a language education company selling English, French, Spanish and German language courses since 1973. The brand is by far the most important of our clients businesses, delivering language courses abroad for children, students and professionals in British, North American, Australian, German, French and Spanish locations. These courses are promoted both on and offline through the client’s network of booking offices located in the following countries:

The brand has an upper-premium positioning in the marketplace and the average order value pre-2014 has been 2,500 eur. The client has never enjoyed a fully-functioning digital marketing team on its staff, and from 2012–2013, due to a lack of foresight, certain decisions were made that nearly catastrophically damaged their online presence and traffic to their 11 website properties.

Similarly, online marketing efforts had not been measured nor analysed in any meaningful way. The business also lacked online brand consistency in its marketing. Until now, the client has additionally faced large technological hurdles as a result of its very outdated customer management system, which is used to manage data for all websites and online sales.

oise school
oise students
oise language coaching

Here's what we did.

Business Development Platform

The archaic sales platform was kept out of necessity, but we needed to port the data into a more robust and easy-to-use solution.

The solution was picked for the following features and benefits:

  • A reduced-cost cloud solution
  • Integrated e-commerce
  • Integrated CRM
  • Email marketing
  • Helpdesk support tool
  • Web apps
  • Event manager
  • Forums and blogs
  • Secured zones
  • Integrated analytics suite
  • Task manager

We built a bespoke bridge API that connected it to a popular CRM solution, and configured the software to align perfectly with the marketing & sales activities.

After installing this, the marketing qualified leads could be prioritized using a lead scoring system that allowed the staff to considerably increase conversion and resulting sales.

Recruitment & Training

We built and trained a digital team, injecting new blood into the organization and installing support for digital operations.

To do this, we created and launched recruitment ads on local platforms and performed initial vetting before sending on the shortlisted candidates to the client.

We recruited and trained for the following positions:

  • Community Managers for five languages
  • Photographer & videographer
  • Webmaster

One week a month over the course of six months was spent on the ground with the client.

We were also reachable online and by phone to supplement.

Comprehensive Competition Research

During our competition research process, we spent one month analyzing approximately 200 online competitors based in 10 countries. The analysis was made comparing 81 kpis which were relevant for the client’s business model and for its market.

Upon analyzing the resulting data we were then able to go ahead and create:

  • Building an industry benchmark
  • Building an industry leaders benchmark
  • Calculating the competitors' market share
  • Comparing the competitor at the country level with the average for each relevant country, but also with the top 20% of competitors from each country
  • Establishing our next big marketing moves based on the resulting data

Web & E-Commerce Design & Development

Altogether, we rebuilt and redesigned eight websites for the client.

These sites were location-specific, and were translated into each country's native language.

Each had an e-commerce element, allowing visitors to book courses online.

These platforms all routed back into the CRM seamlessly.

In the early stages of the project, we focused on methods to increase the number of quality leads generated by the website. To do this we:

  • Created blogs on all web properties with clear calls-to-action in each article
  • Drove paid traffic to each page through Google AdWords
  • Installed and configured a live-chat tool and trained the team to use it
  • Clearly placed phone numbers on each web property

Target Audience Profiles

In the early stages of the project we engaged in one-on-one meetings with key staff and helped them define their exact target audiences.

These were then used to help steer subsequent marketing efforts, to ensure relevancy and to qualify and prioritize leads. Each audience was articulated with the following criteria:

  • Demographics
  • Personal identifiers
  • Needs
  • Concerns
  • Solutions
  • Real customer feedback

Brand Identity Revision

The brand required a refresh and modernization to appeal to the target demographic and to help win back marketshare.

When we found the brand, there was a glaring disconnect with what the marketplace had become, and with what consumers expected when seeking a reputable, credible school.

We created a style guide to help us apply the brand consistently accross channels, platforms and media.

Marketing & Advertising

Prior to our involvement, attempts had been made to generate results with paid advertisements on the Google Adwords platform, but drew no successes.

Once we began to create and manage the client’s ppc campaigns, we were able to generate targeted leads, create sales and statistically perform better than their top competitors.

Our Google AdWords advertisements were majority position 1 and within budget.

Additionally, we developed high-converting funnels for our paid campaigns thanks to A/B testing using the Google's own software.

This included creating and sending email campaigns from the business development platform we had installed.

Google Analytics

The Google Analytics setup previously used by the client was not optimized. The websites were configured erroneously and goals defined by previous agencies did not align with our revised business objectives.

We created one single account for the organization with one property for the brand and separate views for each of the 11 websites.

Then we created goals that suited the objectives of the project, whereby we could track our progress for various calls-to-action on the website landing pages.

This resultined in consolidated reporting tools and much better data segmentation.

In the first six months of the project, one week a month would be reserved for on-location training of the digital team. We were also required to brief the international sales team to bring everyone up to speed on the project, its objectives and their responsibilities.

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oise language school

Our new brand aesthetic spoke volumes toward their target audience, and they received a brand style guide that showed them exactly how it should be applied across various media.

Here's how we did.

The following data is based on a 3–month period before the launch of the new materials, and the 3–month period following it.

In actual fact, the period leading to the launch was the busiest time of the year for the client, followed by the least busy time of the year, making this even more remarkable.

7 months
Traffic increase50.83%
Leads generated2,018
Orders generated358
Resulting revenue€1,128,416
Avg. order value€3,066
ROI393%

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