ConnectED: Designing & Maintaining a Digital Marketing Ecosystem
- Matthew East
- Aug 2, 2024
- 3 min read
Company
ConnectED is a data management company for the higher education sector.
Challenge
Up until this point, ConnectED had gained all their business through existing contacts and positive word of mouth.
However, after launching their new website with the help of Way Marketing, they needed a supporting digital marketing ecosystem to drive traffic to the site.
The challenges were multifaceted:
ConnectED had never ventured into digital marketing before and needed guidance on best practices.
They had limited resources and funds requiring full-service inception, creation, and development with minimal involvement from their end.
They needed ongoing management of each channel with minimal input.
Solution: A Digital Marketing Ecosystem
Research
We began with persona research to discover where ConnectED’s target audiences were online and what type of content would resonate most.
This led us to focus on three primary channels:
LinkedIn
Email
SEO.
LinkedIn was selected due to its prevalent use among higher education professionals for networking and staying current.
Email marketing was chosen to leverage ConnectED’s existing email list for immediate outreach.
SEO was identified as a valuable tertiary focus due to the presence of high-value, low-difficulty keywords and minimal competition, allowing us to capture organic traffic effectively.
Campaign Design
With the channels selected, we created a campaign flow chart to illustrate how LinkedIn, email, and SEO would work together to capture the target audience and drive them to the website, ultimately encouraging contact form submissions.
We developed a LinkedIn content plan for both the ConnectED brand profile and the profiles of its two owners, ensuring consistent resharing of posts across all profiles.
We created branded assets for use across all posts and repurposed pre-existing articles into multiple LinkedIn posts.
Using a LinkedIn scheduler tool and UTM tags, we tracked which posts drove the most traffic, allowing for continuous optimisation based on performance data.
We aligned our email campaigns with the content posted on LinkedIn, creating emails to engage ConnectED’s existing base.
These emails were designed using a template that had previously achieved a 31% open rate—significantly higher than the sector average of 5%.
We incorporated ConnectED’s brand assets and design elements throughout the emails to maintain visual consistency and engagement.
SEO
Our SEO strategy involved comprehensive keyword research and mapping.
We developed a 12-month keyword calendar outlining the content and keyword focus for each month. This calendar guided the creation and optimisation of existing articles for SEO keywords and common search queries.
Additionally, we set up a Google My Business profile for ConnectED, incorporating keywords and valuable FAQs to enhance local search visibility.
Results
The implementation of this comprehensive digital marketing ecosystem yielded outstanding results for ConnectED:
91% better site duration than the sector average: Visitors spent significantly more time on the site, indicating highly engaging content and a positive user experience.
80% more traffic from social media than the sector average: Our LinkedIn strategy effectively drove traffic to the website, demonstrating successful social media engagement.
86% more returning visitors than the sector average: The effective use of email marketing and engaging content resulted in high levels of repeat visitors, showcasing strong audience retention and satisfaction.
By partnering with Way Marketing, ConnectED successfully transitioned from word-of-mouth referrals to a robust digital presence, effectively engaging their target audience and driving business growth through an expertly crafted digital marketing ecosystem.
