StrataTech Education Group is a holding company for the Tulsa Welding School (TWS) and the Refrigeration School, Inc (RSI). Both TWS and RSI are the largest accredited schools for their respective trades in the United States, with more than three thousand attending students, and StrataTech wants to continue increasing the number of their campuses.
“We’re looking to aggressively grow the company within the next five years,” said Mary Kelly, StrataTech’s Chief Executive Officer. “We open and buy schools—that’s our strategy.”
Initially, StrataTech tasked two different companies with identifying the largest welding markets in the country. However, the companies didn’t provide StrataTech with the level of detail it needed about the markets.
“Both companies primarily focused on a blue-collar trade demographic of a location,” said Mary, “but their studies didn’t give us anything on social media searches or lead generation. They were fairly simple.”
One of StrataTech’s employees used to work for a different holding company, which relied on Gray DI for its data collection needs. At the employee’s recommendation, StrataTech contacted Gray DI about providing a study on welding and HVAC markets.
Increased revenue
Highly detailed reporting
Data-informed decision making
Gray DI used its educational market database, demographics, and machine learning models to rank cities by market characteristics and predict the success of StrataTech Education Group campus in new cities. From the start, StrataTech was impressed with Gray DI’ reports and
findings, which provided far more detail than the simplistic data and demographics previously provided by competitors.
“Gray DI looks at what the openings are for these jobs and what schools in the area are offering,” said Mary. “They’ll also tell you how many graduates are coming out and how many of those marry up to the demand. That kind of detail is amazing.”
Gray DI’s subscription service also offers plenty of detailed information on demand. “We can go in and look at certain areas, selecting our own parameters,” said Mary. “With the other companies, we had no ability to look at anything other than just whatever they gave us.”
StrataTech also enjoys Gray DI’s high level of customer support and expertise.
“They’ve done this so many times that they understand how to help you suss out whatever it is you need,” said Mary. “We generally work with Zach, who’s phenomenal. He’ll spend however much time we need to go over the data and cut and slice it in different ways, even after we’ve paid and gotten our product.”
Situation
We’re looking to aggressively grow the company within the next five years.
Solution
They’ve done this so many times that they understand how to help you suss out whatever it is you need.
Results
The new HVAC program has brought in around $1.5 million in revenue.
