I've sat in your chair. It changes everything.

21 July 2026 · Beyond Bonjour

By Simon Jones, The Bonjour Agency

Most content suppliers to schools have never held a marketing job. This is written by someone who has — the ROI conversations with the Head, the defended budgets, the stretched teams. The argument: when you hire an agency, you're really buying judgement, and judgement comes from having sat in your chair.

"Can you demonstrate the ROI on this?"If you work in school marketing, you've heard that question. Probably from a Head, probably in a meeting where the budget was on the table, probably at the exact moment you least wanted it.I've heard it too. Not as a supplier sitting across the desk from you. But as a Marketing Manager, being asked to justify my own spend, my own campaigns, my own ideas.And I think that's the single most useful thing I bring to working with schools.<h3>A supplier who's held your job</h3>Before I ever produced a podcast or filmed a testimonial for a school, I worked in marketing properly. Campaigns planned and campaigns that flopped. Budgets defended line by line. Analytics dashboards stared at on a Sunday night wondering how to present them on Monday morning.So when I sit down with a school marketing or admissions team, something is different from the usual supplier meeting.I'm not guessing at your world. I've lived in it.That shows up in practical ways:When you tell me the Head wants a number attached to everything, I don't wince. I know which numbers matter, which ones flatter, and how to have that conversation without overpromising.When we plan a podcast or a testimonial series, I'm thinking about your enquiry funnel, your open days, and your admissions calendar — not just what would look nice on the website.When you're stretched (and every school marketing team I've ever met is stretched), I know which corners can safely be cut and which ones will cost you enquiries in eighteen months.The reality is that most content producers make things. Far fewer understand why the thing needs to exist, who it needs to reach, and what should happen after someone watches or listens. That's not a criticism of them — it's just a different job. Making content is a craft. Marketing is a discipline. Schools need both in the same room.<h3>An enthusiast, not just a veteran</h3>Here's the other half of it: I never actually stopped being a marketer. I just changed who I do it for.I still read the research. I still get unreasonably interested in email open rates. And I still test new marketing ideas the way I always have. On myself first.Quick example: right now I'm experimenting with an improved AI assistant on my own website, to see how well it can answer visitors' questions before they ever fill in a form. It's useful for me. But truthfully, I'm running it because I want to know whether it's worth recommending to schools — before any school spends a penny finding out. Admissions teams answer the same questions hundreds of times a term. If a tool can genuinely help with that, I want first-hand evidence, not a vendor's sales deck.That's the pattern. Whatever's new in marketing, I'd rather test it, break it, and learn from it myself, so that when a school asks me "is this worth doing?" I can answer from experience.<h3>Why this matters for your school</h3>When you hire a content agency, you're not really buying videos or podcast episodes. You're buying judgement. Which stories to tell. Which parents to reach. What to do with the content once it exists.Judgement comes from having done the job. Mine comes from years of being the person accountable for the marketing, not just the person delivering the assets — and from staying hungrily curious about where marketing goes next.So if you're a school marketing manager wondering whether a supplier will actually get it — the pressures, the politics, the Head who wants ROI on everything — drop me a message. We'll talk marketer to marketer.Talk soon 😎Written by me. Tweaked with AI to make it easier to read. But still me.

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