Guus Goorts

I am convinced that the world will be a better place when more people get the chance to broaden their perspective through cultural exchange.

That belief was formed when I took a gap year before entering University. Among others, I spent 6 months teaching at a school in Ghana’s countryside. This was no walk in the park at first. Being the only foreigner could be very lonely. But in a good way, it also ‘forced’ me to open up to people who are different from me. I built friendships for life and we learned a lot, vice versa, about each others' cultures.

In my University years, I co-founded OCEP, a foundation that eventually helped over 100 volunteers from various Western countries to do a volunteer assignment in Ghana. Building the website, in 2004, was how I first got to experience the power of SEO and digital marketing. We posted lots of personal stories with photos from volunteers. At the time, having an accessible, complete and relatable website was enough to attract a steady stream of applicants.

In 2004, I spent a semester on exchange at National University of Singapore. Not only did this shift my perspective from “Europe + Africa” to “Global”; I also met my wife and ended up living and working in Singapore from 2006-2016. I was lucky enough to find my first job as an Intercultural Training Specialist, organising training sessions for relocating expatriates in the entire APAC region. On the side, I studied Mandarin Chinese. Knowing how hard it is to choose the right language school, brought the idea of my first company.

In 2008, I started Yago.sg, a comparison website for language schools in Singapore. As I was bootstrapping the site, I had to quickly master the skillset needed for success. It turned out that building up a small site and being responsible for everything was a great way to learn strategic online marketing.

From 2014 onwards, I also put that skillset to work for various schools as an online education marketing consultant, specialising in search (SEO and Google Ads). Among others, I’ve worked with the British Council, Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS) and Avans Hogeschool. Some of the clients I’m most proud of, however, are smaller language schools, which I helped grow from start-up minischools with one classroom to thriving and well-known brands, with the help of targeted SEO and SEA campaigns on tight budgets.

Currently based in the Netherlands, I support education providers globally in their efforts to attract the right type of students through SEO and Google Ads.

Over time, one of the main lessons I've learned is that very few of the 'standard methods' of online marketing can be directly applied to education. Choosing where to study is a very high involvement decision. Most prospective students take 1-2 years to decide.

So getting the process absolutely right is more important than if you're trying to sell, say a piece of clothing in an online store.

I've documented my key learnings in an accessible format in my first book: "Successful student recruitment with Google Ads".

Besides being an author, I still help education providers with getting their 'online student recruitment system' right with a mix of consulting and training. I'm happy to have a chat with you - find more about me at guusgoorts.com!