The Problem: Prestige Meets Functionality
Most online course platforms look like online course platforms. Teachable, Kajabi, Thinkific—functional but generic. Fine for skill-based courses. Inadequate for fashion education where aesthetics are inseparable from the curriculum.
School of Style couldn't look like every other e-learning site. Law Roach's students weren't just buying information—they were buying access to his eye, his process, his understanding of what makes styling exceptional. The platform needed to convey industry credibility, editorial quality, accessible education, and community. Standard LMS platforms couldn't deliver that. We built something purpose-built.
Platform Choice: Why Webflow Over WordPress
Most education platforms get built on WordPress with LearnDash or similar LMS plugins. It works. It's also limiting.
WordPress plus LMS plugins imposes structure. You can customize, but you're fighting the system. For a brand where visual sophistication isn't optional, that's a non-starter. The performance issues compound it: plugins create bloated sites that load slowly under traffic spikes.
Webflow won because of design freedom (we could create exactly the experience Law Roach and Chloe envisioned), native performance (clean code, fast load times without optimization tricks), genuine content management (their team could manage courses without developer dependency), and clean marketing integration (sophisticated tracking and email capture without plugin conflicts).
The tradeoff: Webflow isn't a traditional LMS. We built custom solutions for video hosting, progress tracking, and student management. That flexibility created something that felt premium, not educational-industrial-complex.
The Marketing Ecosystem: Pre-Launch to Conversion
Launching a course isn't just building a website. It's building a system that turns awareness into enrollment.
Eight weeks before launch: simple pre-launch landing page with email capture, all tracking pixels installed from day one, behind-the-scenes content with Law Roach seeded across his social channels, and strategic outreach to his industry network. Result: 12,000 email subscribers by launch day, all organic.
Launch week: simultaneous announcement across Instagram (4.5M followers), TikTok, and Twitter. Email campaign to the pre-launch list. Retargeting ads to everyone who visited the pre-launch page. Press coverage in fashion publications. Real-time performance monitoring to catch any issues under traffic spikes.
Post-launch weeks 2–4: nurture email sequences for non-enrollers, student testimonials featured prominently on site and in ads, lookalike audiences built from enrolled students for expansion. Law Roach continued posting educational content organically—not every post promotional, but all reinforcing why the courses mattered.
The Infrastructure: Built for Scale
Launch traffic was unpredictable. Enrollment could be 100 students or 10,000. The site had to work regardless.
Video hosting on Vimeo Pro: brand control, no recommended videos pulling students away, better privacy, professional appearance, optimized delivery for mobile. Stripe for payment processing with the entire purchase flow happening on-site, maintaining brand experience through completion. Memberstack for student access control. And comprehensive analytics tracking the entire funnel: traffic sources, page engagement, conversion rates, course engagement, and revenue attribution by channel.
Launch Results
Expected enrollment: 400–500 students in the first month. Actual: 1,200+ students. 250% over projection.
By the numbers: 45,000+ unique visitors launch week. 18% of pre-launch email list enrolled (industry average: 2–5%). Average page load time under 2 seconds under peak traffic. 65% of enrollments on mobile. Cart abandonment at 12% versus industry average of 40–60%.
The low cart abandonment proved the checkout experience worked. People who decided to enroll completed enrollment. No friction stopping them.
Post-Launch: Ongoing Partnership
Launch was month one. We've maintained the site and supported School of Style's growth since. New courses added with consistent design treatment. Student feedback integrated into platform improvements. Performance monitored as the student base grew.
The maintenance model: monthly check-ins to review performance and plan updates, on-demand support for urgent issues (rare, because the site is stable), quarterly strategic sessions for platform evolution. This works because the foundation is solid. Support is strategic, not reactive.
Lessons for Premium Education Brands
Platform must match brand promise. If you're selling premium education, the platform needs to feel premium. Generic LMS platforms undermine credibility for brands where visual sophistication matters.
Marketing before launch is not optional. The 12,000-person email list made the launch successful. Without that pre-built audience, we'd have been marketing to cold traffic. Conversion is dramatically harder.
Technical stability matters more than features. If the site had crashed under launch traffic, momentum dies. Stable infrastructure isn't visible, but its absence is catastrophic.
Mobile experience is primary. 65% of enrollments happened on mobile. If we'd designed desktop-first and compromised mobile, we'd have lost the majority of conversions.
Ongoing partnership beats fixed projects. Launch is phase one. Growth requires continuous platform evolution. The relationship needed to be partnership, not transactional.
The School of Style Standard
250% over expected enrollment proves the model works. When brand, platform, and marketing align—when the digital experience matches the educational promise—students convert.
Your platform should be as carefully considered as your curriculum. The experience of enrolling should match the experience of learning. School of Style proves it's possible.
