McBride Marketing Solutions

Marketing Portfolio

Roanoke Valley Gives Big Day (March 2016)

Client was small, local non-profit participating in a regional online day of giving. It was a first time event that not been tried in the local area before. The objective was to make the most of the event and raise as much money as possible. No specific dollar goal was set since there was no way to gauge the outcome in advance.

Challenges

The client had existing social media presence, but a poorly kept email database.

There was no budget given to build a campaign.

Limited timeframe.

The organization had little in the way of digital support to offer. (No graphic designer, no video software, no graphics software, even limited access to editing their own website, etc.)

Many of the well-known donors support several local nonprofits. Therefore organizations usually seen as partners or friends were the competition for this one day. (Even though the event was not technically a competition.)

It was an online only event, and the organization wasn't very active online. There was a significant lack of tech-savvy and understanding among the staff and donor audience.

Spencer's Story

Strategy

The organization had not focused on sharing their story, or making an emotional appeal to donors, in a very long time. Many people in the database knew very little about the organization they supposedly supported. It was decided to take a story-telling approach, and find a new way to share the more personal side of the organization online.

A family under the care of the non-profit was identified. I visited the family in their home and interviewed them on camera for a YouTube video, and took pictures of them, to share what the organization does for the family, and what the family's needs were.

The YouTube video was then shared across all social platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.). Where and when possible I sponsored or boosted the posts to ensure maximum visibility.

Following the style of the popular blog and Facebook page, "Humans of New York," I set up a week-long series of social media posts about the family and their medical struggles.

A test email was sent out to the database counting down to the day of giving. It was found that the database was in worse condition than expected. I worked to clean it up and make sure it was safe before sending out a second mass email. The second email was sent the day of the event, and included the YouTube video of the family.

Result

The organization raised $8,223 in one day, coming in 7th place in the region. The 7th place ranking is notable because all of the organizations that raised more money were membership groups with (most likely) massive databases, and therefore, a larger donor pool. (This included a local private school and Habitat for Humanity.)

This was more money raised in one day than had been raised in the entire previous month.

Also of note is that almost 50% of the donors that day were first time donors, implying that the storytelling method worked. We reached a new audience and it paid off.

Many of the donations stated that they were made in honor of the little boy in the video. Again, proof that the video worked.

Altogether $50 was spent in supplies and for boosted posts online, for a $165:1 return on investment.

The Saratov Approach (January 2014)

Client was an independent, niche film distributor. Objective was to raise awareness of the film and attract an audience nationwide.

Client hired McBride Marketing to plan and promote a local premiere of the film.

Challenges-

The film had little to no name recognition.

No budget was provided by the client to promote the event.

Limited time frame (less than two weeks) to execute.

Strategy-

Using personal resources, connections, email lists, and social media, created a grassroots and word-of-mouth campaign to spread the word to target demographics.

Invited the director of the film, plus one person the film was about, to a Q&A session after the film.

Booked a local theater in a key area to increase probability of attendance.

Result-

Sold out the 400 person theater.

Created successful word-of-mouth campaign.

Groundswell demand for the film resulted in national theater chain picking up the film for month-long distribution in local area.

Client hired McBride Marketing one year later to assist with the release of another film (Freetown).

Meridian Magazine (January 2012- July 2013)

Client is a well-established online magazine for Mormons. Client hired McBride Marketing to take over the daily publication, editing, and marketing of the site.

Challenges-

Client had a daily email list of 300,000, but only had a daily readership of 10,000. Stagnant website meant stagnant and dropping revenue. With no budget, they needed to breathe new life into the site, increase readership, and therefore revenue.

Large but limited target audience due to niche content.

Strategy-

In order to revitalize the site, McBride Marketing reached out to established and popular bloggers, and invited them to contribute new articles. Also reached out and invited subject matter experts and celebrities to contribute content.

Additionally, created new, simple services on the site. For instance, instead of just running a book review, we began to include links to the books on Amazon. (This was opposite of previous method of never linking to anything off-site. Client believed outward links were bad for SEO purposes, and wanted to keep readers on-site.) Also began to link back to related previous content on the site. And implemented SEO campaign behind the scenes.

Improved and emphasized existing social media efforts.

Results-

In 2011, client had witnessed a steady decline in the number of users. In 2012-2013, I increased the number of new users by 30%, and improved the amount of referral traffic by 7%.

By including more images in each article, and including social media buttons on each page, increased overall referral traffic by 7%. Specifically improved traffic from Pinterest by 8,760%.