It's The Cause, Not the College: Expanding Content Marketing Beyond the Brand

THE CAUSE, NOT THE COLLEGE EXPANDING CONTENT MARKETING

BEYOND THE BRAND

#CONFABEDU

ELIZABETH ATWATER

MANAGING EDITOR AND BRAND JOURNALIST

BABSON COLLEGE / @ELIZATWATER

GENE BEGIN

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF INTEGRATED MARKETING

BABSON COLLEGE / @GBEGIN

MEET BABSON COLLEGE

Small, private business college 14 miles west of Boston

#1 in entrepreneurship for 21 and 18 consecutive years

Approximately 2000 undergraduate and 1300 graduate students, representing more than 74 countries

Undergraduate program (top 25 in business)

Graduate program - MBA and MS degrees (top 50 in business)

Executive education program (top 10 U.S. and top 20 in the world for custom programs)

Babson Global, which works with corporate, university, government, and foundation partners to advance

entrepreneurship education and Entrepreneurial Thought and Action® worldwide

BABSON COLLEGE

Consider Evaluate BuyGood Luck? Alumni

TYPICAL HIGHER EDUCATION MARKETING

CONSUMER DECISION JOURNEY

Apply

Engage

Enroll

Register

Sign a contract

Hire

Give

BABSON CONSTITUENCY JOURNEY

BRAND CAMPAIGN AUDIENCES

Target Audience: External influencers at the top of the

awareness funnel (recruiters, parents, media, thought leaders)

Secondary Audiences: Advocates (alumni, faculty,

staff) and Prospectives (students, employees)

THE CAMPAIGN: THE CAUSE

In doing so:

• Generate more corporate

relationships.

• Create greater attention with

academic institutions, foundations

and grants organizations, and the

policy community.

• Expand Babson’s application base, in

turn expanding and enhancing our

student and alumni base.

• Augment pride and engage

our community.

Increase brand awareness, engagement, and adoption for Babson, the educator

for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™.

BRAND CAMPAIGN: REDEFINING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

2750+definitions

ENGAGEMENT HUB / define.babson.edu / CROWDSOURCED

REIMAGINE THAT CONTENT!

THE NEED: CONTENT MARKETING IS

THE SHIZNIT

DCH

<INSERT COLLEGE> NOW

<INSERT COLLEGE> TODAY

INSPIRATION FROM OTHER INDUSTRIES

“Even the most technical subject has to have a

human story behind it. We’ve been able to

convince the management that the content

shouldn’t be about John Deere equipment.”

David JonesPublication ManagerJohn Deere

FOCUS ON THE FARMER, NOT THE EQUIPMENT

In doing so:

• Augment pride and engage

our community.

• Expand Babson’s application

base, in turn expanding and

enhancing our student and

alumni base.

• Generate more corporate

relationships.

• Create greater attention with

academic institutions, foundations

and grants organizations, and the

policy community.

Increase brand awareness, engagement, and adoption for Babson, the educator

for Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™.

BRAND CAMPAIGN GOAL & OBJECTIVES

Entrepreneurship of All Kinds™

INSTITUTIONAL STRATEGY = CONTENT STRATEGY

BUILDING EAK.ORG

• Goal: To shine a spotlight on entrepreneurial leaders, organizations, and ideas that are

making an impact in organizations of all types and sizes and society-at-large.

• How do you resource it?

– IT, Marketing or External?

• First “marketing” development project with internal resources

• Developed internally on WordPress

– Writing – contract or hire?

• Both

– Managing editor – existing or new role?

• New

GETTING STARTED

• Hired as Managing Editor & Brand Journalist

– Started Jan. 2 2013, 11 weeks before site launch

• EAK in progress, but not finished

– Stories to write

– Web development to complete and test

– Images to find and lay out

• Role and site were new for everyone

• Ever-changing responsibilities

– Bridge to PR

EAK.ORG: LAUNCH AND LEARN

STORYTELLING ON EAK

Babson is a busy place…

• Lloyd Blankfein: Goldman Sachs

Chairman & CEO on campus for Babson Investment Banking Conference

• Gail Simmons: Top Chef judge and Food

& Wine editor is an entrepreneur in

residence, providing ongoing mentoring and guest appearances

• Faculty consistently publish bestselling

books like Worthless, Impossible, and Stupid

…with a specific point of view:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Goal for EAK

Tell stories that are filtered

through a broadly defined

entrepreneurship lens

EAK GOES LIVE

• Launched March 2013

– 12 articles

– Pre mobile-friendly

• Focus Group with SmartBrief (April 2013)

– Chance to listen and learn with our target audience

– Surveyed attendees about first impressions and new ideas

– Served as a soft launch to some external users

• Sponsored Posts in Local Media (May 2013)

– Boston.com and BostInno ran teasers of EAK stories

– Linked readers back to EAK from external sites

– Launched responsive version of site

ROLLOUT TO CAMPUS COMMUNITY

• Presidential Support

– Important to have an internal cheerleader

– Opportunity for key supporters to get in on the ground floor (trustees,

cabinet members, social media ambassadors, etc.)

• Campus Communication Channels

– Branded social media accounts

– Newsletters (Alumni, Parents, Students)

– Homepage feature

– Magazine ads

• Outreach to Define

Entrepreneurship registrants

What is EAK?

What’s in it for me?

Big Names

on Campus

Faculty

Thought

Leadership

Annual

Institutional

Events

Alumni

News and

Stories

Timely

Community,

National, &

World News

Contributions

from Guest

Writers

BEYOND BABSON

• Diversity of sources from other universities, startups, & industry

• For every Babson quote, balance with external example– Pitches from PR reps; Introductions through Babson network; Other schools

• Extends reach beyond Babson’s campus

Sources By The Numbers

Babson Alumni: 14

Babson Faculty/Staff: 28

Babson Friend/Guest: 21

External Quotes: 24

Guest Authors: 2

BUILDING A STORY PIPELINE: ME

• Mine the events calendar for campus speakers

• Collaborate with campus centers and organizations

• List the platform on PR databases to receive pitches and ideas

• Maintain an ongoing, shared list

• Hire freelancers

• Regular Account Manager Meetings

– e.g. Social Innovation Institute, Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial

Leadership, Center for Investments and Finance, Executive Education

• Marketing Strategy Meetings

– Marketing Council, Social Media Council/Steering Committee, Agency

Meeting, Lifecycle Marketing Meeting, Editorial Meeting,

• Big Picture Approach to Marketing Promotion

– EAK is just one slice of the pie

– Opportunity to extend the shelf life or reimagine the story

– Events, research, programs are marketed in other channels too

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS: TEAM

EAK.ORG: RESULTS TO DATE

MOST POPULAR STORIES

5. Investing in Women: A Conversation with Tory Burch

4. Mentors: An Entrepreneur’s Most Valuable Player

3. Hanging in the Balance with Sophia Chang

2. Accounting for Entrepreneurship Inside

1. How an Alpine Adventure Inspired a Business

EAK.ORG WEB TRAFFIC

Boston Globe Content Sponsorship

EAK.ORG TIME ON SITE

Introduced to alumni, faculty, staff

TRAFFIC SOURCES

Top Referrers1. Boston.com

2. Babson.edu

3. Facebook

4. Twitter

5. Student portal

Facebook

Twitter

Disqus

LinkedIn

Misc.

Social Sharing

Top Sources1. Direct (50%)

2. Boston.com (16%)

3. Google/Organic (11%)

4. Babson.edu (9%)

5. Facebook (2%)

IMPACT ON

COLLEGE GOALS

• 1,014 new user sessions driven to WWW

– 3.78 pages per visit (29% higher than average)

– 5:37 time on site (118% higher than average)

• Goal Conversions

– 7 MBA inquiries

– 3 Executive Education Inquiries

– 2 Undergraduate Inquiries

WHAT’S NEW AND NEXT?

YEAR TWO

• About 50 Articles– Insights from Google Analytics and past

performance help direct new stories

• Advertising (BizEd, Content sponsorships, etc.)

• Building Subscriber Database Define Campaign outreach, faculty/staff, current /

prospective students, alumni, interviewees

• Quarterly EAK Newsletter

• Celebrating Entrepreneurship of All

Kinds – Boston event – Partnerships with local sponsors (Chamber of

Commerce, Citizens Banks)

– Bring the concept of EAK to life

SHOW, DON’T TELL

Is there a catchphrase or tagline in your boilerplate or

mission statement that needs less tell and more show?

Use it as your hook for cause marketing

REASONS FOR SUCCESS / LESSONS LEARNED

• Show, Don’t Tell

• Position Differently

• Presidential / Senior

Leadership Buy-in

• Team-Building

• Community Passion

– Use Your Advocates

• Use Your Network and Their Networks

– Quote 10 people, who will share with 10 people, who will

share with 10 people, etc.

THE CAUSE, NOT THE COLLEGE EXPANDING CONTENT MARKETING

BEYOND THE BRAND

#CONFABEDU

SLIDESHARE.NET/GBEGIN

ELIZABETH ATWATER / @ELIZATWATER

MANAGING EDITOR AND BRAND JOURNALIST / BABSON COLLEGE

GENE BEGIN / @GBEGIN

SENIOR DIRECTOR OF INTEGRATED MARKETING / BABSON COLLEGE