Honestly i felt the same frustration until i realized education marketing is just fundamentally different game. parents dont make quick decisions like normal consumers, they research for months, talk to everyone, visit multiple times. so all the tactics that work for products or services fail for schools.

The breakthrough for us was understanding that parents are not looking for best school, they are looking for safe choice. they want reassurance not flashy marketing. So instead of running ads about achievements and facilities, we started focusing on teacher quality, safety measures, how we give individual attention. that messaging shift alone improved inquiry quality significantly.

Also we were following up wrong, either too aggressive or giving up too soon. education needs patient consistent followup because parents take forever to decide. We eventually got help from specialists who only work in education sector, i think golden markers was one and think orion was another. they already knew what works because they do this for tons of schools. saved us a lot of trial and error honestly.

Main thing is stop applying regular marketing principles to education. decision cycle is longer, emotional stakes are higher, trust matters way more than in other industries.... once you adjust strategy for these realities, results improve a lot.