Case Study - Sivakasi Lions International Institute

Sivakasi Lions International Institute

All Tamil Communication: Converted 160+ parents with new PYP-IB curriculum

160

Admissions in 2 months

90%

Dependent on Online marketing

Sivakasi Lions International Institute

All Tamil Communication: Converted 160+ parents with new PYP-IB curriculum

160

Admissions in 2 months

90%

Dependent on Online marketing

Location

Sivakasi, Tamilnadu

Students size

200

Services

Complete Digital Marketing

Affiliation

PYP-IB & CBSE

Location

Sivakasi, Tamilnadu

Students size

200

Services

Complete Digital Marketing

Affiliation

PYP-IB & CBSE

About Sivakasi Lions International Institute

Sivakasi Lions International Institute proudly stands as Shivakasi’s first International school offering the IB-PYP program. With modern infrastructure,
smart classrooms, AI labs, and excellent sports facilities including a skating rink, cricket pitches, basketball/volleyball courts, and more, the school promises a
holistic educational experience.

But what truly sets it apart is the Edupreneurship program. Here, students explore educational technology startups, participate in language and culture exchange programs, and engage in community service.

Challenges

The client faced a product-market fit challenge when launching the new IB-PYP curriculum in a tier 3 city. Despite having a successful school with over 50 years of history, they relied mainly on offline media and referrals for promotions. Adding to the difficulty, the school building was still under construction, making it harder to convince parents of the new curriculum’s value.

To overcome these hurdles, we needed a robust strategy that would reassure parents and effectively promote the new IB-PYP program, leveraging both the school’s strong legacy and innovative marketing techniques to bridge the gap between traditional and modern approaches.

Results

1. Messaging fit

With over 50 years of educational legacy, the school aimed to introduce something new to the town with the IB-PYP curriculum. This was exciting news for marketing, providing a fresh angle for our messaging.

However, this innovation could also be a challenge if parents were not open to new approaches. To address this, we focused on clearly communicating the
benefits of the IB-PYP curriculum.

We created numerous videos and messages to explain how this new curriculum would benefit students and suit their needs, ensuring parents understood and embraced the change.

2. Online Ads

We were surprised to find that mobile use is very high in tier 3 cities. Initially, we thought we would need to rely on offline media for admission inquiries.
However, we quickly realized that promoting a modern curriculum like IB required a more contemporary approach.

With only 60 days for the campaign, we decided to go all-in with online marketing. We focused on video ads, which resulted in very low lead costs.
We maximized this opportunity to quickly engage with parents and gather feedback.

Thanks to our targeted online ads, we successfully reached our goal of 160-200 students, allowing the school to confidently begin its operations.

3. Call Schedules

Since the school wasn’t ready for tours, we focused on training our sales and conversion staff to handle detailed and effective sales calls. This helped reduce the need for in-person visits.

We also streamlined our payment process to be quick and efficient, offering refunds if parents needed to change their plans. Although we did issue some
refunds, which were only 6% of all transactions, this flexible approach encouraged more parents to commit to the school. As a result, we signed up more students than usual despite the facility not being ready for tours.

4. Online tour and sales

When our campaigns launched, we encountered a major issue: the school facility wasn’t ready for tours. Many parents wanted to visit the new facility, but we could only show them virtual previews, which was challenging for promoting something new in the city.

To address this, we used our field office and trained sales staff to provide parents with reassurances and timelines for the school’s completion. Additionally, we offered an exciting, value-packed incentive for early adopters. This approach helped the school secure enough admissions and overcome the challenge of not being able to showcase the facility in person.

Challenges

Firstly, the biggest challenge was that the school wasn’t ready, but the client understood this and adjusted their expectations. We created a specific plan
to minimize this issue by focusing on online ads, virtual calls, and online payments.

Another unexpected challenge was that parents in Sivakasi preferred all communications in Tamil, which was surprising given our assumptions about modern
parents. Initially, this language barrier led to some wasted resources, but once we adapted and switched to Tamil for all communications, engagement improved
significantly.

About Sivakasi Lions International Institute

Sivakasi Lions International Institute proudly stands as Shivakasi’s first International school offering the IB-PYP program. With modern infrastructure, smart classrooms, AI labs, and excellent sports facilities including a skating rink, cricket pitches, basketball/volleyball courts, and more, the school promises a holistic educational experience.

Challenges

The client faced a product-market fit challenge when launching the new IB-PYP curriculum in a tier 3 city. Despite having a successful school with over 50 years of history, they relied
mainly on offline media and referrals for promotions. Adding to the difficulty, the school building was still under construction, making it harder to convince parents of the new curriculum’s value.

To overcome these hurdles, we needed a robust strategy that would reassure parents and effectively promote the new IB-PYP program, leveraging both the school’s strong legacy and
innovative marketing techniques to bridge the gap between traditional and modern approaches.

Results

1. Messaging fit

However, this innovation could also be a challenge if parents were not open to new approaches. To address this, we focused on clearly communicating the benefits of the IB-PYP curriculum.

We created numerous videos and messages to explain how this new curriculum would benefit students and suit their needs, ensuring parents understood and embraced the change.

2. Online Ads

We were surprised to find that mobile use is very high in tier 3 cities. Initially, we thought we would need to rely on offline media for admission inquiries. However, we quickly realized that promoting a modern curriculum like IB required a more contemporary approach.

Thanks to our targeted online ads, we successfully reached our goal of 160-200 students, allowing the school to confidently begin its operations.

3. Call Schedules

Since the school wasn’t ready for tours, we focused on training our sales and conversion staff to handle detailed and effective sales calls. This helped reduce the need for in-person visits.

We also streamlined our payment process to be quick and efficient, offering refunds if parents needed to change their plans. Although we did issue some refunds, which were only 6% of all transactions, this flexible approach encouraged more parents to commit to the school. As a result, we signed up more students than usual despite the facility not being ready for tours.

4. Online tour and sales

When our campaigns launched, we encountered a major issue: the school facility wasn’t ready for tours. Many parents wanted to visit the new facility, but we could only show them virtual
previews, which was challenging for promoting something new in the city.

To address this, we used our field office and trained sales staff to provide parents with reassurances and timelines for the school’s completion. Additionally, we offered an exciting,
value-packed incentive for early adopters. This approach helped the school secure enough admissions and overcome the challenge of not being able to showcase the facility in person.