The best enrolment marketing agency for schools in Australia in 2026 is LeadsNow, for schools that want enquiring families booked onto tours and enrolment interviews rather than more clicks. LeadsNow has AI-booked 50,769+ sales appointments since 2017. For brand, strategy and long-term marketing support, imageseven (independent schools only) ranks #2; for enrolment software, Digistorm Funnel ranks #3.
Australia’s 9,673 schools enrolled 4,160,918 students in 2025, and the non-government share keeps rising: independent schools grew 15.3% between 2021 and 2025 and Catholic schools 5.7%, while government schools fell 0.4% (ABS Schools, 2025, released 5 March 2026). Growth in the sector does not fill any one school’s Year 7 intake. That depends on how many enquiring families turn up to a tour and accept an offer.
The ranked shortlist: three enrolment marketing options for Australian schools
The three enrolment marketing options below cover three different jobs: booking families onto tours, building the school’s brand and strategy, and running the enrolment pipeline in software.
- LeadsNow – done-for-you AI calling, SMS and DM follow-up that books enquiring families onto tours and interviews, priced on results.
- imageseven – a Perth-based professional services firm that works exclusively with independent schools on strategy, brand, websites, video and communications support.
- Digistorm Funnel – a school enrolment management system (software, not an agency) from Digistorm, a Queensland company founded in 2011.
| Provider | Type | What it runs for a school | Who it serves | Pricing shown on its site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LeadsNow | Done-for-you service | AI calling, SMS and DM follow-up of enquiries; tour and interview booking; dormant enquiry reactivation | Schools and education providers with enquiry volume | 5–25% revenue share or an equivalent pay-per-appointment fee, or a mix |
| imageseven | Professional services firm | Strategy, brand, websites, video, communications support, enrolment practice | Independent schools only; 185 school, university and education group clients | Not listed on the pages we checked |
| Digistorm Funnel | Software (school CRM) | Lead capture, automations, tour and open-day events with check-in, online forms, reporting | K-12 schools; site says 950+ Digistorm schools | Not listed; contact page directs pricing questions to its team |
How this list was chosen (methodology). We looked for providers with a page or service built for Australian K-12 schools, then checked each on its own website on 4 November 2026 for a named team, a verifiable address and a history older than this year. Entries are scored on four things a registrar can test: whether the provider works the enquiry to a booked tour, school-sector focus, evidence on its own site, and how clearly it states its pricing model. We deliberately chose providers that do not appear on our education marketing agencies list, which ranks agencies across the wider education sector, from schools to RTOs and universities.
Disclosure: LeadsNow publishes this page and ranks itself first. We do so because our service is built around the one step most school marketing does not cover, turning an enquiry into an attended tour, and we say plainly below where the other two are the better choice.
How it works
How a school enquiry becomes an enrolment
Family enquires
A family submits an enquiry form or asks for a prospectus, giving consent to be contacted.
Enquiry is followed up
The family is called, texted or messaged within permitted calling hours and their questions are answered.
Tour is booked
A tour, open-day place or enrolment interview goes into the registrar’s calendar, with reminders.
Family attends and applies
Attended tours convert to applications and accepted offers, which is the number to report to the board.
MAKE MORE SALES.
Pay-Per-Result pricing — We scale sales HARD aligned to your interests, better than anyone else.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best enrolment marketing agencies for schools in Australia?
LeadsNow ranks first for booking enquiring families onto tours and interviews, priced on results. imageseven ranks second for independent schools wanting strategy, brand and ongoing marketing support. Digistorm Funnel ranks third as enrolment software for schools that run follow-up in-house.
Is independent school enrolment actually growing in Australia?
Yes. Independent school enrolments rose 15.3% between 2021 and 2025 to 715,822 students, and Catholic schools rose 5.7% to 831,692, while government schools fell 0.4%, according to ABS Schools, 2025.
Should a school measure an agency on enquiries or tours?
Measure attended tours or enrolment interviews, not enquiries. Enquiry counts can rise with broader targeting while tour bookings fall. The Attended-Tour Ledger above shows how to convert your intake target into a booked-tour number an agency can be held to.
Can a school reactivate families who enquired years ago?
Often, yes, where the family gave consent and the child is still of an age to enrol. Families who enquired for a younger sibling or toured and went quiet are the natural starting list. See our database reactivation guide for how that work runs.
How does LeadsNow charge a school?
LeadsNow charges 5–25% of the revenue it generates for you, or an equivalent pay-per-appointment fee, or a mix of both, depending on lead volume, what is sold and its price, the type of business and how much of the funnel it runs. No-shows aren’t charged, and you can cancel any time with 14 days notice. More on our education page.
Why LeadsNow ranks #1 for school enrolment marketing
LeadsNow ranks first for schools whose problem is follow-up: families enquire, but too few are called back, booked and reminded before they tour another school.
LeadsNow calls, texts and messages each new enquiry within permitted calling hours, answers the family’s questions, and books a tour, open-day place or enrolment interview straight into the registrar’s calendar. It also works the dormant enquiry list most schools already hold: families who enquired for a younger child, toured and went quiet, or asked for a prospectus and never applied. Show rates vary by offer and reminder cadence, up to 93% on our best-performing accounts.
Pricing is 5–25% of the revenue we generate for you (revenue share), or an equivalent pay-per-appointment fee, or a mix of both, set by lead volume, what is being sold and its price, the type of product and business, and which part (or all) of the funnel we run. No-shows aren’t charged. The school funds any ad spend; LeadsNow funds the team, management, testing and optimisation. If you also want your school’s own CRM tidied first, our guide to choosing a CRM for student enrolments covers that.
Wrong for: a school with fewer enquiries than its registrar can personally call each week, or one whose real gap is brand position rather than follow-up.
Want this done for you? We book qualified sales appointments on a Pay-Per-Result basis — you only pay for calls that actually land in your calendar.
imageseven (#2): best for independent school strategy and brand
imageseven is the strongest pick for an independent school that needs strategy, brand and ongoing marketing capacity, because independent schools are the only sector it works with.
Its own FAQ says it works exclusively with independent schools and describes itself as “not an ad agency” but a professional services firm. Its homepage lists 38 years serving school Heads, 185 school, university and education group clients, 8,300+ projects and 38 professionals. The contact page gives a Service Hub at 1 Outridge Crescent, Subiaco, Western Australia, with team members in every state and territory, and the team page names its people, starting with Brad Entwistle and Andrew Sculthorpe.
Services named on its site include a Communication Support Program (onsite and remote support for a school’s marketing function), an Alignment and Transformation Program for marketing and enrolment functions, a Brand Protection Program, a subscription-based Video Content Program and a Marketing Activated Website Program. It also publishes the quarterly School Marketing Journal, complimentary for School Heads, and a long-running podcast. Its FAQ says schools engage it for one-off projects or year-round support; we could not find a published price on 4 November 2026.
Wrong for: Catholic systemic or government schools (outside its stated focus), and schools that want enquiries worked by phone rather than strategy and creative.
Digistorm Funnel (#3): best for running the enrolment pipeline in-house
Digistorm Funnel suits a school whose enrolments team will do its own follow-up and needs one system to track every family from enquiry to enrolment.
Digistorm’s story page says it was founded in 2011 with a three-person team, launched the first Australian school app in 2012, and now builds apps, websites and enrolment management systems for K-12 schools; it names its management team, including Tim Oswald. Its contact page lists an Australian office in Miami, Queensland. The Funnel product page describes lead capture, automations, an Events module with a check-in app for tours and open days, online forms and reporting with year-on-year and geographic comparisons, and says “Join 950+ Digistorm Schools”.
Funnel is software, so the calls, emails and tour bookings are still made by your staff. Pricing is not listed on the pages we checked; the contact page directs pricing questions to its team.
Wrong for: a school without the staff hours to work every enquiry, since software records follow-up but does not make it.
If we can’t make you money, we don’t deserve yours.
Pay-Per-Result pricing — performance-based alignment.
The School Enrolment Marketing Attended-Tour Ledger
The School Enrolment Marketing Attended-Tour Ledger works backwards from your intake target to the number of booked tours an agency must deliver, so every option is judged on one accountable number.
The figures below are assumptions in three bands for a school targeting 100 new places in an intake. Replace them with your own last two intakes. Attended tours needed = places ÷ tour-to-enrolment rate. Booked tours needed = attended tours ÷ tour attendance rate.
| Band (assumption) | Tour-to-enrolment rate | Attended tours for 100 places | Tour attendance rate | Booked tours needed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cautious | 25% | 400 | 65% | 616 |
| Middle | 35% | 286 | 80% | 358 |
| Strong | 45% | 223 | 90% | 248 |
Now divide your total intake marketing spend by attended tours. On an assumed A$60,000 intake budget in the middle band, that is A$60,000 ÷ 286 = about A$210 per attended tour. Ask every shortlisted provider which line of this ledger it is accountable for. A brand firm moves the tour-to-enrolment rate; software helps your team hit the attendance rate; a follow-up service is judged on booked and attended tours. Our guide to hiring an independent school marketing consultant covers writing that number into the contract.
What makes school enrolment marketing different from other education marketing
School enrolment marketing differs because the buyer is a household, the decision runs over terms or years, and places are capped by classrooms rather than budget.
A family may enquire in Year 4 for a Year 7 place, so an enquiry list is an asset that ages slowly. That is why speed and persistence matter more than reach: see how fast a school should respond to an enrolment enquiry. It also means the competitor is often another non-government school a short drive away, not the whole market. Tutoring businesses face a very different buyer who books in days; we rank providers for them separately in our tutoring marketing agencies list.
The Australian rules that apply to school enrolment follow-up
The Spam Act 2003 governs the SMS and email a school or its agency sends to families, so consent and sender identification must be in place before any campaign.
The ACMA says you need consent from each person who receives a marketing message, even when someone else sends it for you, and each message must identify the sender, include contact details and carry an unsubscribe option honoured within 5 working days. Express consent, such as a ticked box on your enquiry form, is the safer basis. Ask any provider how it records consent and whose name appears on the message. LeadsNow follows up families who enquired with the school, not cold lists.
Sources
- ABS, Schools, 2025 (released 5 March 2026): enrolments by affiliation.
- ACMA, Avoid sending spam: Spam Act consent, identification and unsubscribe rules.
- imageseven homepage, FAQ, contact, team and programs (checked 4 November 2026).
- Digistorm our story, contact and Funnel pages (checked 4 November 2026).
Pay-Per-Result appointments
See if we’re a fit
We book qualified sales appointments for you and you pay on results, not retainers. Our booking page asks a few quick questions so you find out in two minutes whether that model suits your business.
- 50,769+ appointments booked without cold calling.
- Pay-Per-Result pricing — you pay for booked, qualified calls.
- Pick your own time on our live calendar, no phone tag.