Schools firm gives Boost top marks after profits rise by a third

An education sector marketing agency has increased profits by 36%, increased turnover by 16% and created four jobs, thanks to the Boost Growth Mentoring Programme.

Chorley-based School Mailings supplies businesses in the education industry, as well as charities, with a range of marketing services to help them access UK schools.

School Mailings has significantly broadened its range of services in response to the digital revolution and the use of email, internet and social media, which have changed the way businesses market to the education sector.

The company offers its clients the opportunity to send email marketing  campaigns direct to the inbox of teachers and decision-makers, as well as to purchase schools data in order to run their own marketing campaigns.

Boost is Lancashire's Business Growth Hub and is led by the Lancashire LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and Lancashire County Council and supported by funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).  Michael McVerry, managing director of School Mailings, Michael McVerry, said: “Working with Boost has allowed us to reflect on the areas where we perform well, while highlighting aspects we can improve.

Our mentor has proved invaluable in identifying areas for business growth, as well as improving our sales process. “This input has been vital for our recent success. Working in a niche market, we knew we had a strong business that was ready to grow, but we needed support to identify the best way to achieve that.

“Our team of five has now grown to nine and we have exciting plans in place for 2018. Our business growth model sees us developing new services, more sophisticated sales processes, and attending exhibitions to expand our reach – thanks to the team at Boost.”

Simon Drake, mentor from Community & Business Partners, said: “One of Michael’s key aims was to find an outside pair of eyes to look over the business. We worked together on sales conversion rates and the sales process which was very reactive.

We reviewed every aspect and implemented bi-weekly team meetings to focus on sales. We also introduced a new interactive chat facility to the website. “With the review complete, Michael now fully understands his clients’ budgets. I also shared tips with him and encouraged the team to share their innovative ideas to develop a pro-active culture throughout the company.

Michael and his team are working on systemising inhouse processes and building in the production of video content for the website.” Michael added: “School Mailings has the largest data management team in the industry, whose job it is to manage and cleanse our data on a daily basis. Their role is to ensure that, although we have a 99% data accuracy refund guarantee, no client ever needs to use it.

Our team also includes dedicated client managers and campaign managers who ensure that our focus never waivers. “We pride ourselves on the insights we can bring to education suppliers, helping them to get great results from their marketing efforts.”