Case Study · St. Gregory the Great · 2019–2021

School Enrollment Campaign

Rebuilding a small Catholic school’s website, and showing families the school when they couldn’t walk through it.

Client / Brand

St. Gregory the Great Parish School, Milwaukee

Role

Marketing & Communications Coordinator

Year

2019, 2020, 2021

Pieces

School & Parish Websites, Virtual Open House, Grade Tour Videos, Facebook Ads, Brochures, Flyers, Bulletins

01

Problem

The School Needed a Modern Front Door.

For a small Catholic K4–8 school like St. Gregory the Great, every new family matters. When I started in 2019, the school’s website was one of the first things parents saw, and it was out of date. It didn’t show what the school was actually like, and it didn’t make the next step easy.

Then COVID hit. The open house, the one day most families come in, walk the halls and decide, was suddenly off the table. Now the website wasn’t just one way families found the school. For a while, it was the only way.

Main goal: modernize how the school showed up online and drive up enrollment.

02

Insight

Families Needed to See the School and Meet the Teachers.

I looked at how other local schools were marketing themselves. During COVID, the hard part was the same everywhere: showing off the school and letting parents meet the teachers. That’s usually what wins families over, so we needed a way to do it without a traditional open house.

03

Idea

Bring the Open House Online, Then Make It Personal.

We built a virtual open house with a tour video for every grade, K4 through 8th, where each teacher introduces their classroom. For families who wanted to see more, we offered 1:1 tours. Everything pointed to one step: schedule a tour.

04

Execution

How It Came Together.

Websites: I redesigned the school and parish websites around “Schedule a Tour Today,” with a virtual open house page in English and Spanish, an application page and a tour request form.

Video: I filmed and edited a tour video for every grade, a school promo video and parish videos for Advent and the Stations of the Cross.

1:1 tours: instead of one big open house, families could book a one-on-one tour.

Facebook ads: campaigns pointing to landing pages built for tour sign-ups.

Print: two open house brochures, an enrollment checklist, a “Looking for a new school?” rack card, Back to School Night pieces and parish bulletins.

Spanish: I translated school documents and parent communication so Spanish-speaking families got the same information.

Result: in 2022 the school had its highest enrollment to date.