mullingar montessori
website case study

We have worked with Mullingar Montessori & The Den since 2018, growing their online school enquiries and camp payments.

This Case Study includes these sections.

Click on any icon to scroll…

the website design...

Each section of the site serves a specific purpose to help convert parents to enquiries, applications, bookings and payments.

- first impression

happy images

TOP BAR – Contains clickable Phone number and Address

LOGO + NAVIGATION – Stays visible as user scrolls down

TRUST IMAGE – Depicts the affection each happy child has for the school, overlaid with the school name and call to action button

SERVICE LOGO’S – Increase brand awareness of the new after school service

SEASONAL CALL TO ACTION – This section from February each year until fully booked, promotes the Summer Camp

- visual navigation

school overview

Introduction text –

Convey briefly the longevity of the school and that it is family run, managed day to day by the owner

Image Grid –

In one view a parent can see every part of the website
Clicking on any image box will open that page
All photographs we took in the school

Enrolment Call To Action –

For parents who already want to apply, the button scrolls them to the Book A Visit form below

- parent reviews

word of mouth

Social Proof –

Nothing is more influential in the decision making process than reviews from other parents

Using images and real names increases the credibility

A button underneath links to the full reviews on the Testimonials Page

- news blog

the latest

An updated school news blog is good for Google rankings, and keeps the website information current and up to date in the eyes of a visitor

It is also a good opportunity to convey the wide variety of work that goes on with the children

- book a visit

call to action

The most important section of the website is the Call To Action.

In this case it is where parents can take the next step towards enrolling their child by booking a visit to the school. It can be uniquely customised to your school.

It captures all the information required about the parents, the child(ren) and the services required.

The form when submitted generates an email to the school and the parent.

For other schools this could be an application form, or a form from their School software.

- school information

contact details

Share Buttons –
Here the website page can be shared by visitors via social media, whatsapp or email

Contact Details –
School name, address, phone number, link to Google Maps and opening hours

Industry Organisations –
A list of logo’s of organisations the school is registered with, another trust signal

Copyright and Legal Pages

the setting...

What started out life as a single room in a converted garage, is now a six classroom, state of the art early years setting.

school

Name
Mullingar Montessori & The Den
Owner
Ursula Keenan
Founded
1994
Location
Mullingar Co. Westmeath

profile

Classrooms
6
Ages
2-12 Years Old
Hours
7:45am to 6:15pm
Open
Full Year

services

– Full Day Care
– Toddler Montessori
– Part Time Montessori
– School Drop Off
– Breakfast Club
– School Collection
– After School Care
– Summer Camp

the project...

In 2018 the school had no Website, no Google Listing, no online Applications Process, Bookings or Payments.

It also had location and brand awareness challenges to overcome, to ensure continued growth in the future.

challenges

1 – Because the school is located outside of town, and the campus is hidden from view behind a residential house with no signage, some parents did not know it or it’s services existed

2 – New parents who were referred to the school by existing parents could not find contact details online, or any listing on Google Maps to find the campus

3 – Parents searching Google for early years services in Mullingar were not finding Mullingar Montessori & The Den but instead seeing other schools listed

4 – Summer Camp had spare capacity, no shows and was an administration headache collecting payments

solutions

1 – Create a Google Optimised website
for all their services

2 – Get the school listed on Google Search
for it’s school name with a knowledge panel

3 – Have all their school services
ranked on Google Page 1 search results

4 – Optimise the website
to capture School Visit bookings

5 – Take Summer Camp bookings and Payments online
on the website and promote it with Facebook Advertising

project work

– Website Design & Build
– Website Copywriting
– Online Visit Bookings
– Enrolment Enquiry Automation
– Summer Camp Bookings Online
– Summer Camp Payments Online
– Summer Camp Admin Automation
– Photography
– Google Listing
– Google Rankings
– Bing Listing
– Website Optimisation
– Website Reporting
– Website Hosting & Updates
– Email Setup
– Social Media Advertising

the results for 2022...

The Project continues to be a big success year after year.

1

2022 new
applications

113 Child Applications on the website for Montessori, Full Day Care and After School

2

camp
applications

127 Child Applications for Summer Camp

3

camp
payments

200+ Full weeks Summer Camp 2022 Booked & Paid Online, eliminated no-shows

4

top google
rankings

Page one Google Rankings for school services driving applications on website

5

social media
advertising

Ad Campaigns on Facebook driving new parents to the website for conversions

the summer camp form
results for 2022...

In 2022 we added our Summer Camp Payment Booking Form to the Mullingar Montessori website.

The goals were to; Increase Bookings – Payments in Advance – Eliminate no shows – Reduce Administration Time

The website has two forms, a Camp Enquiry form and a Booking/Payment form.

100+

child
payments

100+ children booked and paid for by parents through the camp booking/payment form

200+

camp
weeks

200+ Full 5 day week Summer Camp payments online

127

camp
Enquiries

105 Parent enquiries on website camp enquiry form for 127 children

2

2 problems
solved

Eliminated no-shows and outstanding unpaid fees
Automation of bookings, payments and reporting

Clicking the Orange “Add Child” button on the parent form opens the child booking part of the form in a pop up on screen.

In this case the school has chosen that Parents must first submit the Summer Camp enquiry form. If the camp has availability for the requested weeks then the school emails the parent the link for the Booking and payment form. We tailor the process to the schools requirements.

every step
is automated

1 – The Parents do the booking and payment

2 – The Website sends the school and parent emails

3 – The Camp reports do your administration on Google Sheets

4 – Stripe processes the payment to your bank

5 – The School Owner can relax, we set it all up

Camp Booking & Payments
Automated to Google Sheets

We set up an automated system where every Camp Booking automatically is added to a Google Sheet.

There is a Master summary sheet which totals the revenues, bookings by week, capacity, spaces left etc.

There is a children’s booking sheet by week. Using this you can filter the week and it gives you your sign in sheets data.

Finally there is a Parents List with all their contact details and which children they have booked.

(Google Sheets are Googles version of Spreadsheets, but better because they are accessed online and multiple staff can view and edit.)

the faceboook summer camp
ad campaigns

The school had previously been Boosting Posts on facebook. They switched their spend to facebook adverts instead.

Carousel Ad’s
Click any image to enlarge

Facebook ads, rather than boosting posts, is the best way to target parents in your locality.

This gets parents from Social Media on to your website.

Bringing your school service to their phones.

Mullingar Montessori got a new Facebook Business Manager and a Facebook Ad’s account and we installed the Facebook pixel on their website.

The ad’s for summer camp brought 1,598 visits from Facebook to the website.

The camp enquiry form got 105 submissions for 127 children.

The camp booking form then got over 100 children booked for over 200 weeks.

Google rankings for the school for search queries like Summer Camps Mullingar also brought visitors to the website contributing to the booking numbers.

the enquiry / book a visit
forms

Having a formal online enquiry or application process for parents is the key function of a school website. There are three enquiry forms on the website.

Book A Visit Form
Contact Form
Summer Camp Enquiry Form

All the form submissions auto populate to individual Google Spreadsheets.

Class Lists and Waiting lists by service type and enrolment year, are then managed on these Google Sheets.

This helps to automate capacity management and reporting. So you can easily see for the next 2/3 years how enrolments you have confirmed, and how many applications there are for the remaining capacity for each service.

step by step
the process

So how do the website forms work for Schools and Parents?

Well we set up everything, and the following happens automatically…

1

Parent

- A parent fills out the enquiry/application form on the school website.

- On submission, it opens a page on the website detailing that a confirmation email has been sent to them.

2

Auto Emails

- Once submitted, the form generates two emails.

- A confirmation email with all the details to the parent, and one to the school.

3

Auto Reports

- The details of the enquiries are populated to the schools reporting system.

- This system is on Google Spreadsheets, and can combine class enrolment lists and enquiries by service and year.

4

Response

- The school admin can then review the website enquiries.

- In the reporting dashboard, by service, by school year, and reply to the enquiry as required.

School Applications &
Enquiries Management Automated to Google Sheets

We set up an automated system where every Enquiry automatically is added to a Google Sheet.

There is a Master summary sheet which totals the number of enquiries by service, by school year.

Linked to that we have separate sheets for each service, which can further be divided into school years.

You can then add your existing pupils to the sheets so your allocated places and waiting lists are all in the one place.

It can also display how many places are filled, and vacant by service, by year.

(Google Sheets are Googles version of Spreadsheets, but better because they are accessed online and multiple staff can view and edit.)

the owner...

Ursula Keenan describes the project experience and outcomes.

“I never thought I needed a website, until I found out I missed a child for full day care because their parents didn’t know my school existed.

I assumed everyone knew I was here. If I missed that one how many more did I not know about. We were not listed on Google and relied on our Facebook page.

Now when I read the visit enquiries from the website I realise that lots of parents use Google to look for schools like ours. Especially people new to the area or moving here from Dublin.

Local parents who are referred to us by current parents also seem to Google us first and browse the website before booking a visit.

We contacted Denis McCaul for the project, because we had seen the quality and results of his work for other schools. You don’t need to know anything about the web, he takes care of everything.

“I never thought I needed a website, until I found out I missed a child for full day care because their parents didn’t know my school existed.

I assumed everyone knew I was here. If I missed that one how many more did I not know about. We were not listed on Google and relied on our Facebook page.

Now when I read the visit enquiries from the website I realise that lots of parents use Google to look for schools like ours. Especially people new to the area or moving here from Dublin.

Local parents who are referred to us by current parents also seem to Google us first and browse the website before booking a visit.

We contacted Denis McCaul for the project, because we had seen the quality and results of his work for other schools. You don’t need to know anything about the web, he takes care of everything.

In Dec 2018 he brought my life’s work online, which was quite emotional. He got us on Google page one for all the important search terms, and delivered one of the best school websites in Ireland.

In the first 4 years we have had online visit applications for over 500 children through the website and lots more through email and phone calls. Many of the children are here today because of the website.

2022 was our first year taking Summer Camp bookings and payments for 200+ weeks online, plus running social media advertising was a huge success, we could not do any of that without the website.

A website and Google listing are your online sales people who never sleep, my only regret is not partnering with School Websites Ireland years ago.

Ursula Keenan

Owner, Mullingar Montessori

Have some Questions?
Request a Free 30 minute Consultation...

PLAY VIDEO

the video tour...

Join the website designer Denis McCaul, as he takes you on a tour of the website, google listing and the project results.

on mobile...

Between 60 and 80% of traffic to a Preschool website comes from a mobile device

We have designed a platform that adapts and re-sizes perfectly

clickable contact

Your phone number and address displayed prominently

fast loading

Websites hosted on our servers are built to load in a flash

contact buttons

Call and Directions buttons on phones making life easy for parents

fully responsive

Designed to resize perfectly on smartphones and tablets

simple navigation

A mobile flyout menu and sticky header makes everything easy to find

google optimised

Each page and post targets phrases parents use on google

the google solution...

Parents will use Google to search for two things relating to a school.
1 – The school by name or
2 – Services in the area that the school provides.
Mullingar Montessori had no listing on Google or Google Maps before we began the project.

Google Search Results Page for the query “Mullingar Montessori”

1.
School Name
Search Listing on Google

Mullngar Montessori previously had no listing on Google when a parent was searching for their school.

Now these searches, frequently conducted by local parents, have the school listed at the top of page 1.

Mullingar Montessori
Mullingar Montessori Phone Number
Mullingar Montessori Address/Location
Mullingar Montessori Summer Camp
Mullingar Montessori Facebook
The Den After School Club Mullingar
The Den Mullingar
Ursula Keenan

Click any image to enlarge…

Ursula Keenan

The Den Mullingar

The Den After School Club Mullingar

Mullingar Montessori

Mullingar Montessori Summer Camp

Mullingar Montessori Phone Number

Mullingar Montessori Facebook

Mullingar Montessori Address

2.
School Services
Search Listing on Google

Previously when a parent was searching on Google for related school services in Mullingar the school was not showing up.

Now they are on page 1 of the results for all the most popular search queries.

Google Search Results Page for the query “After School Care Mullingar”

Montessori Mullingar
Creche Mullingar
Creches In Mullingar
Childcare Mullingar
Preschool Mullingar
After School Care Mullingar
Summer Camps Mullingar
ECCE Mullingar

Click any image to enlarge…

Google Search Results Page for the query “After School Care Mullingar”

Google Search Results Page for the query “Full Day Care Templeogue”

Microsoft Bing
School Listing

Every Windows laptop and computer sold in Ireland has the default Internet Browser set to Microsoft Edge for accessing the Internet. And the default search engine on that browser is not Google, but Microsoft Bing.

Often on those laptops people think they are using Google to search, when in fact it is Bing.

That is why we also create a dedicated listing on Bing for schools.