Case Study: Wisconsin Association of Family and Children's Services
Sector: Nonprofit
Project: Social Media Management, Website Content Strategy, Communications Support
With a goal of increasing brand awareness, Wisconsin Association of Family & Children’s Agencies sought a partner with expertise in digital marketing for associations. In less than a year, our collaboration with WAFCA resulted in a dramatic boost in monthly social media impressions (5K to 65K), improved SEO on their website, and increased team confidence in their digital marketing knowledge.
The Challenge
Wisconsin Association of Family & Children’s Agencies (WAFCA) is the united voice for more than 50 member agencies in Wisconsin that operate in the behavioral health and human services sector. With its focus on advocacy and public policy, industry best practices, and collaboration, WAFCA wanted to explore how digital marketing for associations could be used to boost their brand awareness and online presence to attract and engage members.
WAFCA approached Sarah Best Strategy with the goal of not only strengthening their social media presence and website content, but also boosting the confidence of their in-house team around digital marketing skills. They sought a combination of structured social media management and flexible digital marketing support options that could address their most pressing questions and concerns as the team expanded their digital marketing expertise.
Primary goals for our collaboration included:
- Growing and attracting membership
- Positioning WAFCA as a knowledge source
- Sparking action through advocacy
- Boosting registrations for continuing education trainings
- Elevating the good work of WAFCA member organizations
The Idea
Our first step was providing ongoing, retainer-based Social Media Management services for WAFCA’s Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts to grow followers and track engagement.
On a monthly basis, we collaborated with the WAFCA team using our FEEL THINK DO content model to craft weekly content. This framework provided a more balanced approach to its social media strategy by creating content aligned with each stage along their audience's membership journey.
WAFCA’s top posts often included FEEL content that highlighted (and, most importantly, tagged) its members:
On a monthly basis, we collaborated with the WAFCA team using our FEEL THINK DO content model to craft weekly content. This framework provided a more balanced approach to its social media strategy by creating content aligned with each stage along their audience's membership journey.
WAFCA’s top posts often included FEEL content that highlighted (and, most importantly, tagged) its members:
THINK content illustrated the power of WAFCA’s network and resources:
For an advocacy organization, DO content remained an essential component of WAFCA’s strategy to rally its members and followers to action:
Concurrent with our structured social media management, we also set aside several hours each month for flexible digital marketing support. The WAFCA team requested help adding Search Engine Optimization (SEO) keywords on primary pages of their website to improve the organization’s visibility. We also provided a website content strategy review and implemented key messaging, as well as training on graphics, tracking social media metrics, and leveraging LinkedIn.
The Results
Over the first six months of our collaboration, we:
- Saw a 1000% increase in awareness via impressions tracked on Facebook and Twitter, with engagements resulting in an even higher increase.
- Established a strong paid advertising plan that put social media posts in front of targeted potential members.
- Provided the WAFCA team with a content planning blueprint and time-efficient process for developing monthly social media posts, with a focus on balancing between awareness, decision-making, and action.
- Increased the team’s confidence and reduced their stress levels by empowering them with the tools and training to continue to hone and strengthen WAFCA’s digital marketing strategies.
"Upon meeting Sarah, we were immediately impressed with the quality of the questions she asked and the clarity of her strategic approach to assessing our needs. Her clear vision echoes throughout her high quality team. Our SBS team was top notch and provided the perfect blend of structure and support to help us experiment and explore where social media could best fit within our association’s broader communication objectives. Our objectives included a website analysis and messaging development which were easily integrated into the portfolio of work supported by the SBS team. They gave us the footing to move forward with confidence, identifying the right communication tools to amplify the work of our association and, more importantly, our members."
