Challenge:
The Parent Encouragement Program (PEP) is a non-profit, educational organization based in Kensington, Maryland that provides classes, events and other educational resources to parents and others who care for children – toddler age through teens. Their programs include classes, community talks, presentations by noted authors and access to innovative resources for raising children. PEP has provided parenting classes to nearly 4,000 parents and caregivers throughout the country and their representatives have spoken to nearly 100 PTA’s and community-based organizations since 1982. However, the organization was looking to boost enrollment in its parenting classes and help even more families by overhauling its email marketing and response mechanisms and creating a stronger presence on the Web.
Solution:
As a fellow parent, Spring13’s Founder and Creative Director, Bronwen Kennedy, knows firsthand how challenging parenting can be. As a PEP pupil and assistant teacher, she believes in their mission to help parents do their job more effectively, and has a vested interest in PEP’s success. In the past, PEP enrollment was driven by a few staff members who dabbled in print and digital marketing initiatives, while also wearing other hats. When Spring13 came on the scene, an experienced team of marketing specialists was assembled including marketing strategists, market researchers, a social media guru, a creative director and an accomplished digital media director and web developer. Designed around PEP’s marketing needs and budget, this top-notch team crafted a unified, streamlined communications strategy to overhaul PEP’s email marketing and response mechanisms and increase enrollment in their organization.
This was accomplished by combining the best of digital media (social) Google Analytics, SEO, email marketing and website optimization with tracking codes to create a bold, cost-effective marketing plan that could reach and impress current students while also attracting new ones. Additionally, the Spring13 team refined PEP’s website, redesigned their email templates and upgraded their newsletter to become a stronger marketing tool. All of these components were launched on-time and on-budget .
Results:
Since implementing their new digital marketing plan, there has been steady growth in the number of visitors to PEP’s Facebook page and a growing number of unique visitors to the PEP website. Engagement with PEP’s Facebook page has increased to 5% (industry average for non-profits is .27%.) Spring13 recently completed comprehensive analysis which showed blog posts and paid-Facebook advertising (especially those with videos from published authors and PEP parenting experts) have increased traffic to the PEP Facebook page the most. Spring13 also collected important data determining which topics and key words trended best during online searches for parenting advice. Additionally, updates have been made to the Opt-in Form and User Experience emails, including a new “welcome” email for members new to the PEP community. Overall, recognition of and interest in PEP is growing and user experience of the PEP website has improved. We predict this positive trend will continue in the months and years ahead and look forward to hearing many new success stories from parents and caregivers positively impacted by PEP.