SMC: School Marketing and Communications

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – Creating clarity parents can see and navigate – Orientation In episode one of 'Creating clarity parents can see and navigate', Charlie explores why visible clarity is more than a design issue. He explores how parents experience a school through its website, visual identity, photography, publications, signage, social posts and everyday communications. Charl...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – How parents form confidence - and what it means for your marketing strategy – Applied In the final episode of 'How parents form confidence – and what it means for your marketing strategy', Charlie discusses how to turn parent confidence into a deliberate part of a school's marketing strategy. He explains why schools need to look beyond enquiries and conver...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan and Suzanne Willcock – How parents form confidence - and what it means for your marketing strategy – What we see In episode four of the Insight Series on how parents form confidence, Charlie is joined by imageseven Group Account Director Suzanne Willcock to explore what happens when a school's marketing, enrolment and leadership teams are working from the sa...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – How parents form confidence - and what it means for your marketing strategy – The Insight In episode three of the Insight Series on how parents form confidence, Charlie discusses why confidence is rarely built in one standout moment. While open days, tours and campaigns all play an important role, he argues they usually confirm what parents already believe...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – How parents form confidence - and what it means for your marketing strategy – The Reality In this episode of the Insight Series, Charlie examines why schools do not usually lose enrolments because they lack visibility, but because prospective parent confidence has been gradually worn away. As part of the Insight Series on how parents form confidence, he ex...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – How parents form confidence - and what it means for your marketing strategy – Orientation In episode one of 'How parents form confidence – and what it means for your marketing strategy', Charlie explores why enquiry is not the beginning of the school choice journey, but a sign that a decision is already taking shape.   He explores how parents often form vi...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – Why school marketing works differently – Applied    In the final episode of 'Why school marketing works differently', Charlie explores what it looks like to apply brand clarity to a school.   He explores how a school brand is shaped by far more than marketing outputs alone, with every touchpoint contributing to how families interpret the school and how con...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – Why school marketing works differently – What we see In episode four of Why school marketing works differently, Charlie is joined by imageseven Account Director Cassandra Kirkpatrick to discuss what marketers often underestimate when they enter the education sector. Drawing on her own experience, Cas explains why school marketing is rarely limited to campa...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – Why school marketing works differently – The Insight In episode three of 'Why school marketing works differently', Charlie reframes what a school brand actually is — and why clarity and consistency often matter more than creativity. For prospective parents, brand is not decoration. It's a risk-reduction mechanism in an emotional, high-stakes decision. What...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – Why school marketing works differently – The Reality In episode two of 'Why school marketing works differently', Charlie explores the reality of how school marketing can go off track when it borrows from the wrong playbook, especially a bottom-of-the-funnel mindset that overweights performance marketing and underinvests in brand-building. Charlie discusses...

The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan – Why school marketing works differently – Orientation Welcome to the first topic in The Insight Series . In this orientation episode, Charlie sets the context for why school marketing often feels harder than it should — and why that tension isn't accidental.   School choice is a high-stakes, identity-driven decision shaped by long timelines, multiple influe...

Introducing The Insight Series with Charlie Maughan   In the first episode of 2026, Charlie introduces a new format for SMC – The Insight Series . These short, focused mini chapters are designed to make big school marketing topics easier to tackle, with clearer priorities and practical next steps. Each topic follows a structured flow: Orientation sets the context, Reality names what gets in the wa...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, James Tindall and José Caceres In the final episode of SMC for 2025, Charlie is joined again by Senior Account Manager James Tindall and imageseven's Director of Design — José Caceres — to discuss a new video content solution created to help schools produce consistent, high-quality content – imaginate. The team explores how imaginate suppor...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and James Tindall In this episode of SMC , Charlie and Rita are joined by Senior Account Manager James Tindall to chat about why it's time for school marketers to stop chasing clicks and start building brands that last. In Making News, the team first discuss fresh data showing CMOs shifting their focus from performance marketing...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Harrison Shearn In this episode, Charlie is joined by Rita and Digital Marketing Specialist, Harrison, to explore some eye-opening stats from the marketing world. From job-switching in the industry, to the surprisingly low awareness of brand purpose, and even why ads perform better when the weather changes. In the Deep Dive,...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Harrison Shearn In this episode of SMC, Charlie is again joined in the studio by Rita and Harrison. The team explores Meta's latest addition of Threads as a placement option and whether schools should consider advertising on Threads. In the Deep Dive, the trio dissect comments from Carlsberg's new CMO regarding their renewed...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Andrew Sculthorpe and Harrison Shearn   In this episode, Charlie is joined by imageseven Managing Partner Andrew 'Scully' Sculthorpe and Digital Marketing Specialist Harrison Shearn. The trio explore how AI-generated summaries are affecting website traffic and SEO, and how school marketers should adapt. In the Deep Dive, they explore key fi...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Harrison Shearn   Charlie and Rita are again joined by imageseven Digital Marketing Specialist Harrison Shearn to assess Google's new 'AI Mode' and its implications for school marketers and digital marketing more broadly. In the Deep Dive, they explore how to brief your marketing agency or creative team effectively by discus...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Harrison Shearn In this episode, Charlie and Rita are joined by imageseven Digital Marketing Specialist — Harrison Shearn — to discuss how school marketers can navigate Meta's increasingly AI-automated platform. In the Deep Dive, the team focus on solo school marketer and strategies to help keep all the plates spinning. Fina...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Steph Wicks In this episode, Charlie and Rita are joined by imageseven Marketing Manager — Steph Wicks — to discuss the announcement that Google is removing reviews from school associated Business Profiles. The team talks about how these changes can affect schools and their position in the market. In our Deep Dive, the team...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan and James Tindall   In this episode, Charlie is joined by imageseven Account Manager James Tindall to discuss all things school marketing. In Making News, the pair discuss what caught their attention from the recent release of InspirEd School Marketers' annual MarCom Survey Report. In the Deep Dive, they discuss whether you should include em...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Harrison Shearn In this episode, Charlie and Rita are once again joined by imageseven Digital Marketing Specialist Harrison Shearn, who provides an update on the latest changes in Meta, Google and AI. The team then deep dives into the challenge of rising online advertising costs in 2025, as well as sharing how to capture aud...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Imogen Smith   In this episode of SMC, Charlie and Rita are joined by imageseven Senior Designer Imogen Smith. In the Making News section, the team discuss the future of TikTok as the world watches on to see what the American Government's next move will mean for the app. Imogen takes us through a Deep Dive into the psycholog...

  School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Harrison Shearn   In this episode of SMC, Charlie and Rita are joined by imageseven Account Manager James Tindall, to discuss the impact of reviews on consumers' purchasing decisions. In an extended Rants and Raves, Jaguar's controversial new rebrand is put under the microscope as the team share their thoughts. Finally, th...

School marketing and communications with Charlie Maughan, Rita Kilroy and Harrison Shearn In this episode of SMC, Charlie and Rita are joined by returning guest, imageseven Digital Specialist Harrison Shearn, to discuss the latest advancements in AI and LinkedIn's new AI models. In the Deep Dive, we look at the surprising surprising company appointed as the UK's most consistent brand, and explore...