Belmont Christian College

We asked Belmont Christian College’s Director of Mission & Community, David Gray, about his experience working with Bolsta Digital. Here’s what he had to say:

When I first arrived at the College, we had never engaged in a long term marketing strategy and so while things happened in their own time, there was no general consistency, nor long term thinking put into how we marketed the College. I realised pretty quickly that we were going to have to build a marketing and communications department from the ground up and Jacob has played a considerable role in helping us achieve that very thing.

I consider Jacob a trusted extension of our marketing department, who not only comes up with thoughtful ideas and well structured strategy input, but based on the very strong relationship we have developed over 5 years, he is willing to ask me the difficult questions. Avoiding the tough questions means that you just keep doing the same old stuff.

It is just so easy working with Jacob. As a leader in our school, I often have my mind focused on numerous things throughout any given day and to have someone who gets it, is readily available and requires minimal prepping and context backgrounding is so helpful to me personally.

Jacob really understands the intricacies of school marketing. He has learnt over many years what makes school marketing different to selling a product, and he applies his skills across the schooling network in such a professional manner. I feel like without Jacob, we would not have made the developments and growth targets that we have managed to achieve in recent years. I consider Jacob an extension of our team, for a fraction of the cost, and yet if you ask me, his return on investment is ten fold.

Practically, and on numbers alone, the College has grown 30+ percent in enrolments since we enhaged Jacob, and whilst there are a multitude of reasons for enrolment growth in schools, having a clear messaging base and support structures in place has definitely supported the growth projections.

If you’re a marketing manager at a school thinking about engaging Bolsta… Go for it. Do it yesterday.

You will not regret working with Jacob. He is thoughtful, articulate, understands Australian independent schools, and most importantly, is not selling you a template. He has the capacity to go toe-to-toe with you on strategic thinking and big picture projects. I get tired of the usual suspects trying to box you in and sell you a quick fix.

Jacob is committed to the long term and once his run sheet of schools is full, folks will regret that they did not get in sooner and bring him into their extended team. I plan to keep Jacob and the wider team from Bolsta locked into my budget planning for many years to come. They are one of us.

One final note for the smaller schools…you have to do this ASAP. The return you get from Jacob based on his years of experience will bring you up to speed and put you on the right track within 18 months compared to years and years of slugging it out on your own. If you want to punch above your weight, get him onboard today. You won’t regret it.