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Far Hills Country Day School

Expanding its Influence with Digital Marketing

Thirty miles west of Newark, New Jersey is Far Hills Country Day School, a 94-year-old private, co-educational day school. But within the Somerset County, New Jersey area, the education market is full of competition, with roughly 345,000 people in the county —  21% of which are under 18 years old. 

“Everybody's looking to get their attention,” laughed Shannon Hurley, the director of strategic marketing and communications for Far Hills, “so we need to stand out in this competitive market.”

Pulling from 50 different zip codes, Far Hills is up against 12 competitor schools within 20 miles of its campus, not including exclusive preschools or public schools, which are quite strong, noted Hurley. “That's a challenge for us that we have to rise to.”

As the education landscape becomes increasingly competitive, the preschool — Grade 8 school knew it needed to invest in its online presence and reputation to attract and retain the best students and families. To achieve this, they partnered with Finalsite’s Digital Marketing Services (DMS) to focus on its SEO and PPC strategies and reach new audiences and improve its online visibility.

With the launch of a new learning commons and its advanced STEAM program, Far Hills had the differentiators it needed and identified key entry points in its preschool and middle school divisions. Far Hills just needed the time and expertise to develop its digital marketing plan.

a group of students gathered around a laptop

 

At a Glance

As a co-education private school for pre-school-Grade eight, Far Hills is set on 54-acre campus in northern New Jersey, complete with woodlands, a ropes course, and ample opportunities for students learn beyond the walls of the classroom. 

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With its web platform already in place, the school partnered with Finalsite’s digital marketing services to develop its search engine optimization (SEO) and pay-per-click (PPC) strategy.

“We reached out to Finalsite and talked about how we can have a better digital footprint that not only meets our families where they are but speaks their language.”

Far Hills' digital marketing efforts began with a comprehensive survey of its community to understand its strengths and challenges, as well as the school's brand identity. The results of the survey helped to shape the school's partnership with the DMS team, which focused on promoting its strengths, such as its academic programs and sense of community, and addressing the challenges, such as low visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) and limited online presence.

SEO Strategy

To begin, Finalsite and Far Hills School's SEO strategy focused on improving the website's structure, content, and keywords to increase organic traffic. The DMS team began with a kickoff survey and competitor analysis to understand Far Hills’ goals and identify gaps in its online presence. 

The SEO strategy involved optimizing the school's website to improve its visibility in search engine results pages, or SERPs, particularly for relevant keywords related to private schools in New Jersey. 

“We find that being present where people are purposefully already looking for what we have has a lot of value,” Hurley said. “It really helps us to speak to a group that is already interested.”

“People need more information, and it’s really important to be thinking about what they may be looking for and considering how we can be a part of that.’”

screenshot of far hills country day school blog

This involved a range of tactics, including optimizing meta titles and descriptions, improving the structure of web pages, and ensuring that images were named and tagged appropriately. The school's SEO efforts also focused on content creation, particularly through blog posts and other types of informative content that would resonate with prospective parents and students. 

The goal was to provide useful information that would help parents make informed decisions about their children's education while also positioning Far Hills as a thought leader in the education space.

Over time, the results showed significant improvements, with organic users up by 51% year over year and organic search driving more traffic than direct search. Far Hills has also seen a 58% increase in SERP positioning for relevant keywords, and 59% of clicks on the "apply now" button came from organic traffic.

51%

Increase
in organic users

58%

Increase
in SERP positioning for relevant keywords

59%

Of Clicks
on Apply Now come from organic traffic

PPC Strategy

As Far Hill’s slower — but sustainable — SEO campaigns were off and running, the team knew digital marketing works best when SEO and PPC are integrated and strategically aligned with a school's particular goals.

screenshot of a google ad for Far Hills Country Day School

The PPC strategy was designed to complement the school's SEO efforts by targeting prospective parents who are actively searching for private schools in the New Jersey area. PPC is the digital elevator pitch — it’s the chance to grab the attention of prospective parents and lead them to the Far Hills website, where they could learn more about the school and its programs.

“We did a lot of competitor research, and it gave us great insights into the landscape we're competing in,” said Finalsite’s Digital Services Project Manager, Tracey Gray. “We’re looking to see who are the biggest players, what are the top keywords and how difficult it could be to rank for those terms, and what's going to be an affordable cost per click.”

“Both PPC and SEO allow you to be responsive and flexible, and so instead of having to wait six months for the ad that you just submitted today for a magazine, we’re able to develop a real-time plan that goes into action quickly.”

SHANNON HURLEY
DIR. OF STRATEGIC MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

The PPC ads were designed to be highly targeted, with keywords related to specific grades and programs, such as kindergarten and early childhood education, to build brand awareness and search ads to capture intent-driven searches. The ads also utilized ad extensions, which allowed Far Hills to provide additional information about its programs and services directly in the ad.

Gray and the Finalsite team monitored the campaign's performance by analyzing click-through rates, conversion rates, and landing page effectiveness. The results showed that PPC was the third highest traffic source, generating almost a third of the traffic in the admissions section, and had a conversion rate of 12.19% for the "apply now" button.

“We really embraced everything that the DMS team did,” said Hurley. “Both PPC and SEO allow you to be responsive and flexible, and so instead of having to wait six months for the ad that you just submitted today for a magazine, we’re able to develop a real-time plan that goes into action quickly.”

One of the keys to the school's success with SEO and PPC has been its commitment to ongoing optimization and monitoring. Today, Far Hills still works closely with the DMS team to continually refine its strategy based on the latest data and insights, including regular reviews of keyword performance, ad copy and design, and website metrics such as bounce rates and pages per session.

“When we're noticing there's a particular grade level that we haven't received any applications for, we’re able to jump on a call with Tracey and the team and talk strategy,” Hurley said. “That’s the immediacy of PPC, which is awesome, but then the Finalsite team will be able to come back to me and say, ‘We looked at the pages that are for that grade level, and we suggest a blog that maybe talks to this and uses these keywords.' All these efforts that will add up over time and we’re seeing the results; preschool is on a waitlist, which is something we haven’t experienced before.”

The Results

By taking a comprehensive and data-driven approach, Far Hills has been able to stay ahead of the curve and continue to drive positive results from its digital marketing efforts with Finalsite. Through SEO and PPC tactics, the school was able to reach new audiences and position itself as a top independent school in New Jersey. 

“This was something that we’re able to provide to the Board and show them how in just a couple of years, we're seeing many more applications come in for just this grade level, which is a big entry point,” Hurley said. 

“If we nurture that relationship, hopefully, all of those students in preschool will graduate from Far Hills in nine years. It’s a great way to show our success.”