Accomplishments
Every great marketing campaign starts with a well defined goal. The campaign must then be crafted around this goal and adjusted in real time to maximize its success. Finally, every campaign must be analyzed, with results driving decisions for future marketing efforts. Below you will find some real-world examples of my marketing successes in action.
The Learn to Dive Campaign
Scuba Diving International (SDI) provides scuba training and certifications around the world. As such, it has a unique company structure. It functions as a B2C organization, marketing to potential divers, instructors, and those who wish to further their skills. But, it also operates as a B2B organization, advertising to dive centers, dive shops, travel resorts, etc. Ultimately, when someone decides they want to dive, it will usually be when they are traveling and on vacation, and they usually search out local training centers. SDI wanted to capitalize on this.
The LEARN TO DIVE CAMPAIGN was born.
Two goals were created:
- Help the businesses under us market themselves and Open Water Scuba Diver course, improving customer acquisition.
- Create an additional tool our sales team could use to differentiate our brand from our competitors.
The plan:
Create an easy-to-follow marketing campaign for those businesses to use, with all of the knowledge, tools, and other resources necessary to make it a success, regardless of the dive center’s marketing capabilities.
My role:
- Create the campaign playbook, outlining the entire project, solidifying its goals, and assigning roles and deadlines.
- Presenting the playbook to company executives, department leaders, marketing staff, and international offices.
- Ensure the Learn to Dive campaign was targeted based on the most likely person to take the Open Water Scuba Diver course.
- Craft all copy for the campaign, including:
- Newsletters, a landing page, video scripts, and banners informing dive centers of this new tool.
- Detailed instructions for dive centers implementing the campaign.
- Social media posts, a mock landing page, and an email funnel for the dive centers to use.
- Alongside our Director of Marketing, design all web pages to be used in the campaign.
- Organize the folder containing all resources for the campaign.
- Translate all campaign materials into 14 other languages.
- Track campaign progress and provide reports to the Director of Marketing and executive team.
- Train sales leaders on presenting the campaign to current and potential dive centers.
Results
Goal 1: Help the businesses under us market themselves and our courses, improving customer acquisition.
- Within two months, more than 1000 businesses from around the world checked out the Learn to Dive landing page.
- 63% of those businesses downloaded the Learn to Dive resources and implemented the campaign.
- Through surveys and reports from our business development team, it was determined that those companies who utilized the campaign improved their Open Water Scuba Diver acquisition by over 16% via digital channels..
Goal 2: Create an additional tool our sales team could use to separate us from our competitors.
Our business development staff was fully trained on the Learn to Dive campaign and how dive centers could use it to improve their business. They received glowing reviews for the project from our current dive centers and were happy to bring it to the table when meeting with potential clients. Ultimately, the campaign was met with universal praise. Our sales team noted that it played a fundamental role in onboarding new businesses, with most commenting on how the offering was truly unique and showed just how much SDI cared about our dive centers and their success. With this new tool they exceeded their goal of a 14% growth in total dive centers in 2021.
EMC Rebranding Initiative
Emergency Medical Consultants (EMC) has been providing emergency medical training for over 30 years. As a training agency, it targets businesses whose employees need advanced medical training as well as those individuals who want to learn CPR, phlebotomy, and other basic courses for work or personal education. When I was brought onto the team, I was met with an outdated website, marketing materials loaded with old clipart and a mishmash of fonts, and a lack of any advanced technical tools. I knew it was time to make some updates and breath new life into EMC’s marketing.
The goals:
- Modernize EMC’s marketing tools and tactics.
- Increase our social media presence.
- Increase website views and conversions.
The plan:
First, EMC needed a complete brand overhaul — A logo would be created, a unified color scheme implemented, HD photos used in place of clipart, the website rebuilt from the ground up. — Then, all of these new materials needed to be sent out regularly and with intention. They would be targeted and designed to drive the customer forward.
My role:
- Present plan to company president and other department heads for approval.
- Create new logo, choose a color scheme, select unified fonts, etc.
- Rebuild the website on WordPress using modern web design techniques.
- Update all flyers sent to hospitals and EMS crews.
- Design newsletters for past and potential customers.
- Implement tools for analytics and automation.
- Use these new materials and tools to send targeted newsletters:
- Informing students of upcoming courses.
- Reminding students when their certifications were going to expire.
- Informing students about other courses of interest.
- Asking students to fill out surveys.
- Regularly share relevant and engaging content on social media.
Results
Goal 1: Modernize EMC’s marketing techniques and tools.
Every single component of EMC’s marketing was updated to be more visually appealing and easy to understand, with effective CTAs guiding the customer to where they want to go. The new website was fully integrated with Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel, both of which we used to drive future decisions and actions. Funnels were created in the CRM (Training Center Manager) and emails were automated. Website contact forms and Facebook messages were automated as well.
Goal 2: Increase our social media presence.
- High quality content was posted to Facebook regularly.
- Social media views increased by over 300%.
- Posts received ten times as many interactions.
Goal 3: Increase website views and conversions.
- Average daily website visitors tripled in two years.
- The bounce rate lowered by 22%.
- Average time spent on the site increased from 2 to 5 minutes.
- Online registrations increased by 351%.
Additional Accomplishments
The Great CPR Song List
Wrote one public blog post for First Response Training International – The Great CPR Song List. With a focus on content quality and SEO, it is far and away the most visited page on the First Response site.
Marketing Resource Center
Created an extensive and easy to use Marketing Resource Center for International Training’s instructors – A one-stop-shop for marketing knowledge and resources, used by hundreds of dive shops and instructors daily.
#DiveStrong
The pandemic hit the dive industry exceptionally hard. To bring the industry together, we created the #DiveStrong campaign, with a goal of unifying the major training organizations, divers, instructors, and all others in the industry feeling the effects of the shutdowns. #DiveStrong was the number one trending hashtag in the industry for over two months.
Death of Flex
International Training’s entire digital backend needed to be moved to a new system. After several external technology groups failed to adequately move the website over, we decided the best option was to do so manually. Thousands of pages with an assortment of content and code. I was the primary person responsible for the front-end website. The transition was flawless. After going live, zero issues were reported.
International Training’s Growth
%
More Instructors
%
More Dive Centers
%
More Students
Michael A. Villafranco
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