English courses: how we raised funnel completion from 12% to 31%

About the project

An online English school. The advertising worked and enquiries cost $11, below market. But out of 310 enquiries a month, 37 people reached a first trial lesson.

The challenge

The owner was convinced the traffic was the problem and asked us to bring a different audience. We asked for access to the CRM and looked at what happened to an enquiry after it arrived.

What we did

First, we measured time to first contact. The median was 19 hours, and for enquiries arriving in the evening or at weekends it stretched to two days. Second, we counted how many enquiries got at least two attempts. It was 23%: the rest were called once, not reached, and closed.

We added an instant message to the person’s messenger, an automatic sequence of three emails and a three-attempt rule for the sales team. We did not touch the advertising at all.

What worked

The message in the first two minutes. An enquiry answered within five minutes reached a trial lesson 2.8 times more often than one answered the next day. This is not about politeness. It is about the person still remembering why they left their details.

What went wrong

The first version of the email sequence was about the school: years on the market, teachers, methodology. It got 6% click-through. We rewrote it around a single question, whether a weekday evening or a weekend suits you better for the trial, and click-through rose to 22%. At that moment a person does not need the company history. They need a decision about time.

What we should have done

Look at the whole funnel rather than its opening. We spent a month discussing traffic quality when the enquiries were fine. They were dying in silence.

What a proper plan does to the economics

Before: 310 enquiries at $11 is $3,410 of spend and 37 students. Cost per student $92. After: 340 enquiries at $11 is $3,740 of spend and 105 students. Cost per student $36.

Budget grew 10%, student numbers grew 2.8 times. At an average course price of $210 that is the difference between $7,770 and $22,050 of monthly revenue. The advertising stayed exactly the same. What changed is what happens in the first two minutes after an enquiry.