Open day is treated as the campaign. It is actually the midpoint. Registrations are won in the six weeks before it, and enrolments are won in the six weeks after, and it is the second half almost everyone under-resources.
One provider we worked with lifted open day registrations 132% and attendance 78% with a four-week campaign. The registrations came from the front half. The enrolments came from what happened next.
Why does attendance matter more than registrations?
Because registration is cheap to give and easy to forget. The gap between the two is where most education marketing quietly leaks.
A registration list that converts at 50% attendance and one that converts at 80% produce very different days from identical ad spend. Closing that gap is mostly reminders, logistics clarity and making the day feel worth the Saturday, not more advertising.
Send the parking information. Say how long it takes. Tell them who they will meet. Every practical unknown you remove is a family that turns up.
The six weeks before
Weeks 6 to 4: reach. Families who are not yet thinking about it need to hear the date early enough to protect the weekend. This is where paid social and local awareness work hardest, because you are creating consideration rather than capturing it.
Weeks 3 to 2: intent. Search matters now: parents are actively comparing. Your enrolment pages need to answer the questions they are typing, and the registration form needs to be short enough to finish on a phone at 9pm.
Final week: reminders and reassurance. This is entirely retention of people you already have, and it is the cheapest conversion work in the whole campaign.
The six weeks after, which decide everything
Here is the part that is routinely missed. A family who attends is not enrolled. They are comparing you with two other providers who also had a good day.
What separates providers at this point is follow-up that is specific rather than generic. A message that references what that family actually asked about (the music programme, the bus route, the pathway into a trade) is worth twenty newsletters.
That requires capturing the question on the day and having a sequence ready to use it. Which is straightforward, and almost nobody does it. It is the same follow-up discipline we build for every other industry, applied to a decision families make once every several years.
What about the families who did not attend?
They registered. They were interested enough to give you their details. Treating them as lost is the most expensive assumption in the campaign.
A short sequence offering a private tour converts a meaningful share of them, because the reason they missed the day was usually logistics, not interest.
Measure enrolments, not registrations
The temptation is to report the big number: registrations up, attendance up. Both are inputs. The only number that matters is enrolments, and the only way to connect the two is to track the whole path from first click to enrolled student.
Our Education Growth System is built around that full path rather than the event, because the event was never the thing being bought.
Frequently asked questions
When should open day marketing start?
What is a good registration-to-attendance rate?
How long should follow-up continue after the day?
Want this looked at properly? Book a free strategy session and we will walk your numbers with you, with honest advice and no obligation.
