Implementing a marketing campaign for an unprecedented virtual event
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced organizations to rethink their events, Maryville University decided to make their highly popular homecoming event virtual.
Integrity’s partnership with Maryville University started a year prior when we were charged with creating and executing an email marketing strategy that would better engage alumni from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. The program was such a success — with email engagement increasing by 33% — that they immediately turned to Integrity for assistance with their first-ever virtual homecoming.
Pain Points
Maryville’s Alumni Relations team already had a sophisticated marketing program (which included email marketing) to reach alumni. Their primary challenge was connecting with alumni who graduated in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. They wanted to better engage this demographic and encourage them to get involved in the Maryville community and consider charitable giving.
In addition, the team wanted assistance with leveraging their campus-wide email platform, Pardot by Salesforce.
Services Provided
Integrity’s digital marketing team partnered with Maryville to audit their current 70s, 80s and -90s email marketing strategy, content and template designs. We also conducted a discovery to better understand this audience and the tactics Maryville had been employing.
Our team then structured a new email marketing strategy and cadence to reach the audience in new ways, from sharing alumni stories to highlighting current research and requesting user-submitted content. The web design team also created a suite of modern and responsive email templates that utilized UI/UX best practices. Each step of the way, we gathered and evaluated the campaigns’ analytics in order to strengthen our campaign or pivot when necessary.
In the end Integrity increased Maryville’s previously engaged alumni audience by 33%.
