SchneiderB Media Inc.

SchneiderB Media helps schools get more inquiries. We accomplish that goal through our SEO consulting, Inbound Marketing consulting, Fractional Digital Marketing program, and our SchoolMakretingCRM school marketing software.

Founder and CEO

MarCom Society

The MarCom Society is a community created expressly for marketing and communications professionals as schools.

Founder

ChalkBooks

Advisor

ByDesign

Advisory Board Member

Teachers College, Columbia University

Guest Lecturer, Marketing Class

Sewickley Academy

Oversight for all external functions of the school including admission, alumni, development, marketing, and communications.

Director of Advancement

Director of Admission & Financial Aid

Assistant Boys' Varsity Lacrosse Coach

edsocialmedia

Contributing Blogger for edSocialMedia which explores the role of social media in education.

Contributor

AISAP: The Association of Independent School Admission Professionals

Board of Directors, Secretary

Hootsuite

- Advocate on behalf of the Hootsuite brand
- Amplify Hootsuite messages to their existing networks
- Provide feedback on the Hootsuite dashboard and regional insight
- Create a stronger presence for Hootsuite regionally through participation in events and online advocacy

Hootsuite Ambassador (Volunteer)

Western Reserve Academy

Director of Enrollment and Financial Aid

Head Boys Basketball Coach

Assistant Varsity Boys' Lacrosse Coach

Dean of Students

Director of Technology

Web Publishing

Faculty Member

Founder and CEO @ SchneiderB Media Inc. | K12 Digital Marketing Consultant

👋 Hi, I'm Brendan. 

A decade ago, I was immersed in traditional K12 school marketing, following the conventional playbook that everyone else used. After years of expensive advertising campaigns and diminishing returns, I discovered something transformative: inbound marketing—a methodology that would revolutionize how schools attract and enroll new families.

That revelation led me to pioneer a new approach to education marketing, helping schools move beyond outdated tactics to build sustainable enrollment systems.

In 2025, I captured these insights in my new book "School Marketing The Right Way," which became an instant Amazon bestseller in Education Marketing. The book reveals the system I've used to help schools transform their enrollment outcomes.

Today, I share what I've learned through:
→ My weekly newsletter read by 5,000+ education leaders
→ Speaking engagements at major education conferences
→ Consulting with K12 schools ready to use the Internet to drive inquiries
→ Training workshops and community through the MarCom Society
→ My Marketing automation software, School MarketingCRM

My mission is simple: help tuition-charging schools earn more inquiries and empower marketing, communication, and enrollment professionals with the tools and knowledge they need to thrive in the digital age.

Want to transform your school's marketing approach? 

→ Get my book: https://amzn.to/4hH0syP
→ Subscribe to my newsletter: https://schneiderb.com/subscribe-school-marketing-insider
→ Book a consultation: https://www.schneiderb.com/booking

The future of education marketing isn't about selling—it's about creating genuine connections through inbound strategies that showcase your school's true value and transform casual inquiries into lifelong community members.

Twitter: https://x.com/schneiderb
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/schneiderb.com

Brendan Schneider

One of the biggest mistakes I see schools make? Using "marketing" and "communications" interchangeably.

It sounds like semantics, but this confusion creates real problems.

I've watched schools hire "Directors of Marketing" who spend 90% of their time on internal newsletters. I've seen "Communications Officers" get frustrated because they're measured on enrollment metrics they can't influence.

The result? Scattered efforts, unclear accountability, and underwhelming results on both fronts.

Here's the clarity that changed everything for me:
Marketing = Recruiting (attracting new families) 
Communications = Retaining (engaging current families)

Both are critical. Both require different skills, strategies, and measures of success. And both deserve dedicated focus and resources.

When schools understand this distinction, they can finally build the right team, set the right goals, and stop wondering why their "marketing person" isn't moving the enrollment needle.

What's your take? Does this distinction resonate with your experience?

#SchoolMarketing #EducationMarketing #SchoolLeadership #EnrollmentMarketing #MarketingStrategy

28 years inside K-12 schools taught me what actually fills seats. Now I help tuition-charging schools get more inquiries through SEO, Google Ads, Meta Ads, and marketing automation. Book a call to see if we’re a fit.

My wife and I visited our son this past weekend at Denison University to watch him perform in Macbeth.

In the theater building, I read this quote from Adam Weinberg, the president of Denison.

"I know of no society that remained open, free, and just without strength in the arts and humanities."

It's more true today than it was in 2019.

Thank you, President Weinberg.

A parent sits down on the couch after dinner. Instead of typing "private school Atlanta" into Google, they ask their phone a question.

"What is the best private school near me?"

And just like that, Google gives them an answer. Not a list of ten blue links. An answer.

This is what's happening right now. And most schools aren't ready for it.

The shift from Search Engine Optimization to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is real. Parents are asking full questions. AI tools like Google AI Overview, Bing Copilot, and ChatGPT are delivering direct answers before a parent ever clicks a website.

Here's what that means for your school:

If your content isn't structured to be the answer, you're invisible.

Not buried on page two. Invisible.

I put together a carousel that breaks down what AEO is, why it matters now, and five strategies your school can start using today.

The schools that figure this out early won't just rank higher. They'll be the ones families find first, trust first, and choose first.

What's your school doing to prepare for this shift? I'd genuinely like to know.

#SchoolMarketing #IndependentSchools #AEO #SEO #DigitalMarketing #EnrollmentManagement #SchoolMarketingTheRightWay

Answer Engine Optimization: The Future of School Marketing

Helping private & independent schools align message, mission, and community.

🎙️ Cutting the marketing budget to save money is usually the most expensive decision a school can make.

Why? Because when you pull back on your marketing initiatives (for any reason), you don't stay even ... you fall behind. And buying your way back into the market costs a lot more than staying present ever would have.

I recently joined Peter Baron on the MoonshotOS podcast to talk about the data schools actually need to advocate for their budgets (specifically Customer Acquisition Cost) and why your Marketing Director needs a seat at the leadership table.

If you’ve ever struggled to justify your marketing spend, this one's for you. ⤵️

Open article: Why Cutting Marketing Is the Most Expensive Decision a School Can Make by moonshotos.com

Why Cutting Marketing Is the Most Expensive Decision a School Can Make

More than half of independent school marketers rate their burnout between 7 and 10 out of 10.

That's not a wellness problem. That's a leadership problem.

The 2026 MarCom Society Salary Survey surveyed 358 professionals. Here's what the data shows:

• 53.2% rate burnout frequency between 7 and 10
• 61.7% report evening and weekend work sometimes or often
• 18% work more than 50 hours per week
• \~27% may leave their role within 1-3 years

The median salary sits at $85,000-$89,000. That's a reasonable number on paper.

But salary doesn't fix a role that bleeds into evenings, weekends, and every major school event on the calendar.

When burnout is this widespread, it's not a personal resilience issue. It's a structural one. It means the role has expanded faster than the resources, headcount, or boundaries around it.

And the retention signal is the part school leaders should pay closest attention to. Losing an experienced marketing director isn't just an HR inconvenience. It's months of lost momentum, institutional knowledge walking out the door, and a costly rehire.

The fix isn't a wellness stipend or a mental health app.

It's an honest look at what you're actually asking one person to carry.

Download Survey: https://lnkd.in/eaFu8Kdz

358 independent school marketing professionals shared their salary data this year.

That's the most we've ever had in four years of running the MarCom Society Salary Survey.

Here's what stood out.

The median salary rose to $85,000-$89,000, up from $80,000-$84,000 in 2025. About 35% of respondents now earn $100,000 or more.

But this year, we asked questions we've never asked before. And the answers were hard to ignore.

Over half of respondents rated their burnout at 7 or higher on a 10-point scale. Nearly 60% say their school has no clear career advancement path for marketing professionals. And about 27% indicated they may leave their current role within the next one to three years.

One respondent wrote that they had just taken off the school mascot costume. If that tells you anything about the gap between title and actual daily responsibilities.

This report is 67 pages of real data from the people doing this work every day. Salary breakdowns. Reporting structures. Team sizes. Budget ranges. Remote work. Professional development funding. Job satisfaction. Burnout. Career outlook.

Whether you're a marketing director preparing for your next salary conversation, a Head of School trying to understand what your communications team is experiencing, or someone trying to figure out your next career move, this report was built for you.

Download the full 2026 MarCom Society Salary Survey. Link in the comments.

Thank you to every professional who participated. Your willingness to share openly is what makes this possible. And it's what makes our profession stronger.

If this data is useful to you, share it with someone who needs to see it.

Nobody warns you about the crash.

You spend months in survival mode. Inquiry season. Open houses. Application deadlines. Decision day. Running on coffee, adrenaline, and sheer will.

And then it stops.

The phone gets quieter. The inbox slows down. The urgency that defined your life for the last four months just lifts.

You should feel relieved. And you do, for about a day.

Then something strange happens. You feel flat. Tired in a way that sleep doesn't fix. A little lost. Like you've been sprinting toward a finish line for so long that you forgot what it feels like to just walk.

I've felt this. More than once.

For a long time, I thought something was wrong with me. Everyone around me seemed fine. And there I was, dragging myself through the day, wondering why I couldn't shake it off.

That crash is real. It happens to a lot of us in this work.

The 2025 MarCom Society Salary Survey found that a significant number of school marketing and communications professionals reported struggles with burnout and mental health. These are not people who don't care. These are people who care deeply, give everything they have, and have very little left over when the season finally ends.

If that's you right now, hear this.

You are not weak. You just ran a very long race, probably without enough support, and your mind and body are asking for something you haven't given them in months.

The work will be there when you're ready. Make sure you are there too.

If you are a school marketing or communications professional, I'd love to know: how do you recover after enrollment season ends? Share in the comments below.

Fusion Academy

Building the world’s most personalized schools.

Senior Vice President, Marketing

The CMO Club

The CMO Club is the world’s most engaged community of marketers supporting marketers. We’re committed to helping each other solve our biggest challenges and celebrate our greatest accomplishments in a candid, trusted environment. This isn’t another member network. This is a global family of innovative growth leaders building lasting friendships.

Member

Art of Problem Solving

Directed and managed performance marketing, product marketing, brand strategy, conversion rate optimization and PR efforts for the suite of Art of Problem Solving brands, helping train the great problem solvers of the next generation.

Vice President of Marketing

UC Irvine

Served as Advisory Board Member for UCI's Division of Continuing Education, specifically providing support and advice in the shaping of and enrollment strategies for their certificate programs.

National University System

Directed and managed brand, expansion, engagement, product and retention strategies for Harmony (social emotional learning), Inspire (teacher professional development), and Institute of Philanthropy (fundraising education) programs.

•	Brought a growth marketing strategy to a $10 MM marketing budget
•	4x’d lead generation in first 90 days
•	Grew Harmony by 1 million students served in first 6 months
•	Directed product marketing strategy for digital transition of 20,000+ schools nationwide
•	Secured 50,000+ net-new users in first 60 days of digital launch
•	Earned #1 school and district satisfaction ratings in the nation

Ronin Revenue

Served as Advisory Board Member for Ronin Revenue to provide support and advice in the shaping of new MarTech and AdTech products.

Helix Education

Directed brand strategy, demand generation and creative executions for corporate marketing and all EdTech clients. Effectively oversaw, managed and innovated marketing and creative performance strategies, including conversion rate optimization, lead nurturing, and website performance. In addition, provided performance management, clear goals and regular feedback to 20 reports, including creative, content, research, and strategy teams.

• Improved clients' overall marketing performance by 23% YOY on identical media budget
• Designed and implemented funnel engagement strategies to improve conversion performance by 21% YOY
• Won Marketo’s 2019 Orchestrator Award, given to the marketing team creating the most valuable, personalized, and integrated cross-channel customer experience in the world
• Launched and hosted award-winning education thought leadership podcast that has been downloaded 250,000+ times
• Developed brand strategy and marketing performance programs for all clients
• Reduced corporate MQL and SQL cost acquisition metrics by 50% through account-based targeting, website personalization and content marketing strategies
• Designed and established marketing attribution models to evaluate marketing ROI and re-allocate spend to high-value channels
• Developed sophisticated marketing automation campaigns, components and testing strategies using Marketo, Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics

Head of Marketing

Effectively oversaw, managed and innovated all marketing and communication strategies, including brand awareness, demand generation, sales support, website performance, social media and public relations. Worked to tight timelines within budget constraints across varied projects including; a re-branding process, product launches, new website development, and the implementation of stage-specific marketing automation sequences and marketing attribution models. In addition, provided performance management, clear goals and regular feedback to marketing team, including content, graphic design, PR and product marketing managers.

•	Increased weekly inbound lead generation by 1000% without any increase in marketing budget
•	Led re-brand process that established new brand strategy, messaging, visual design and external re-organization of company offerings 
•	Designed and implemented vertical- and stage-specific marketing automation sequences in Marketo to optimize both inquiry and opportunity funnels
•	Developed and executed content marketing and SEO strategies that resulted in 40% increase in web traffic
•	Designed and established marketing attribution models in Salesforce to evaluate marketing ROI and re-allocate spend to high-value channels
•	Developed social media strategy resulting in 400% increase in social referral traffic
•	Helped develop sales screener lists for each vertical and targeted these audiences across all paid channels
•	Completed holistic website redesign from concept to go-live in three weeks, including 100% new content, UI/UX design, images and lead gen integration
•	Managed annual marketing budget and company-wide marketing expenses
•	Developed, managed and led corporate marketing team, including content, graphic design and product marketing managers

Executive Director of Creative & Corp. Marketing

Lewis University

Managed university-wide brand communication strategies for enrollment, web content development, social media, advertising and video communications. Led the development of marketing automation platforms (Salesforce CRM and Marketo). Furthermore, designed and executed multi-message automated communication sequences for each audience type alongside directing the university social media presence to promote key stories.

•	Directed communications strategy that brought in the largest incoming class in University history
•	Managed content and UI/UX design for responsive web re-design, resulting in a 38% increase in online applications, 36% increase in web inquiries and 19% bounce rate improvement
•	Increased undergraduate admitted-to-enrolled funnel conversion rate by 25% year-over-year
•	Managed University-wide brand and communication strategies for enrollment, including web content, social media, advertising, email, print and video communications
•	Helped improve University’s perception favorability scores among prospective students by 20%
•	Managed marketing team, including writer, multimedia designer, web programmer, social media coordinator and student workers

Director of Communications

Developed and managed the university’s Internet presence, including website, social media communications and online advertising. Showed political acumen while working across departments to restructure web content, navigation and conversion funnels based on user experience analytics to help increase inquiries and applications. 

•	Completely restructured web content, navigation and conversion funnels based on user experience analytics to help increase inquiries by 61% and applications by 65% year-over-year, resulting in an increase in both enrollment and the academic profile of the incoming class
•	Conducted SEO investigations and implementations for every academic program page, increasing the site’s organic search engine traffic by 44%

Web Content Manager

Eric is a growth marketing executive with experience bringing several technology companies from launch to successful acquisition, ​through brand building, performance marketing, and high-touch customer engagement strategies. Eric currently serves as Senior Vice President of Marketing at Fusion Academy, building the world's most personalized schools.

Specialties: Growth Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Brand Strategy, Lead Generation, Conversion Rate Optimization, Marketing Analytics, Attribution Modeling, Paid Search, Demand Generation, Marketing Automation, Marketo, Salesforce, Google Analytics, Product Marketing

taplio

The Battle

Brendan Schneider

Eric Olsen

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreBrendan Schneider's LinkedIn Performance

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taplio

The Battle

Brendan Schneider

Eric Olsen

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Brendan Schneider's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreBrendan Schneider's LinkedIn Performance