PORTFOLIO : YMCA Los Angeles

Challenge

YMCA-LA is a leanly staffed, highly decentralized not-for-profit organization trying to hold its own in a difficult market. How could the Y better communicate its work to members, donors and prospects despite budget reductions? Primitive Spark helped the Y develop an effective interactive marketing strategy encompassing email, search engine marketing, text communications and social media. The goal: increase the frequency, relevancy and consistency of communications while lowering costs.

Process

• Interviewed executive leadership and branch management about their marketing and relationship management needs and concerns;
• Conducted a site survey to better understand site visitors, their needs and their current usage of Web technologies;
• Selected appropriate platforms and developed pilot programs for email communications, search engine marketing, text message communications and social media outreach.
• Implemented a digital asset management (DAM) system to reduce the time required by design staff to identify appropriate images for multiple marketing and financial programs.

Result

A number of measurable results are already apparent in the first year of YMCA's iMarketing campaign. YMCA has realized a 50% savings in design staff time devoted to asset retrieval, and a 90% decrease in cost per lead vs. direct mail. In addition, active social communities are being formed around new social media and text communications programs, increasing member engagement and satisfaction.

Tags

Communications Strategy, Content Strategy, Social Media, CRM, Marketing Analytics, Search Engine Marketing, Nonprofit, Surveys, Usability, Information Architecture, Technical Strategy, Consumer, Search, Requirements Gathering, Best Practices Research, iMarketing

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