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Girls on the Run | Baby in The Bluegrass

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Girls on the Run© Case Study - 160k

Updated July 2008

Girls on the Run
Girls on the Run© (GOTR) is a national nonprofit character development and fitness program for girls age eight to thirteen. The program combines training for a 3.1 mile running event with self- esteem enhancing, uplifting workouts. The goals of the programs are to encourage positive emotional, social, mental, spiritual and physical development.

The objective of the program is to reduce the potential display of at-risk activities among its participants. The goal is fewer adolescent pregnancies and eating disorders, less depression and suicide attempts, aswell as fewer substance / alcohol abuse problems and confrontations with the juvenile justice system.

In October of 2007, a group of individuals comprised of a local run shop, a running coach, a youth psychologist and a marketing consultant met to discuss forming a chapter of GOTR in Lexington. Individually, they became familiar about GOTR through the various forms of national media attention the organization received over the years. They were identified through their affiliation with running and interest in the program.

Identifying Need
From this group, three individuals, identified as the Steering Committee, proceeded to complete the extensive application process to form a local chapter. A portion of the application related to identifying need and local interest. To accomplish this task, the Steering Committee chose to create an online survey and distribute through personal email and hard copy invitation. The hard copy invitation was handed-out through a local running store, John’s Run/Walk Shop, and a private school, Seton Catholic School, with 500 students. A second goal of the survey was to create awareness of the program and by using an online survey they could accomplish this task quickly and effectively.

The survey was donated by a local online survey and hosting company, Market Points, Inc. Using their experience and ability to create a custom product, they assisted the Steering Committee in developing a simple questionnaire that included a 3 minute video produced by the national chapter and summarized the GOTR program.

Lisa Wester, a member of the Steering Committee and Strategic Development Director for Inbox Orange used email marketing to develop the online invitation for the survey. Because of SPAM and to ensure the survey was being distributed from a permission-based email list, Lisa only selected local friends, other Steering Committee members and colleagues from her personal email address book that would benefit from the GOTR program.

Upon receipt, the remaining Steering Committee members forwarded the invitation through their personal address book. Even though the survey invitation sent by Lisa was from them, they decided to use their own email address to increase open rates and follow SPAM guidelines.

The survey was launched the middle of January 2008 and was scheduled to run for two weeks. John’s Run Walk Shop donated two $50 gift cards as an incentive to increase participation.

The results were greater than expected. 358 individuals completed the survey with 64% of the respondents interested in learning more about the Girls on the Run Program.

List Building
In March of 2008, the Steering Committee received notice that Lexington was granted a chapter of GOTR. This was wonderful news but a new challenge presented itself, funding and volunteer support to attend the training session to be held the upcoming June. $1,500 was needed within 30 days of being accepted with an additional $13,500 projected for training fees and operating expenses during the first year.

The Steering Committee decided to use Inbox Orange again to reach their audience. Using the email addresses from the survey respondents opting-in to learn more about GOTR, an email using personalization strings was created outlining the funding and volunteers needed to form a chapter of GOTR in Lexington.

The email strategically linked back to the national Girls on the Run website in several paragraphs to provide the recipient with more information about the program. The email was sent on a Wednesday at 8:50 am to reach their targeted audience during the middle of the week and morning when they may be more likely to open an email.

Once again the results were greater than expected. Using Inbox Orange, the Steering Committee experienced a deliverability rate of 97.2%. The email received a 38.6% open-rate with 9.7% unique click-through.

After the initial send, a new member of the Steering Committee provided an additional 55 email addresses from her personal address book. After downloading her list, the email was resent. This time Lisa chose to send the email directly from Inbox Orange but personalize the subject line to read: From (name withheld) – Girls on the Run Update. By placing the Steering Committee member name in the subject line, Lisa hoped to increase open rates and stay within the SPAM guidelines. The Forward to a Friend feature was added to help with list building.

The second send received a 100% deliverability rate and a 23.6% open rate with 7.3 % unique click-through. This email was sent on a Thursday morning at 9:30 am.

The interest for bringing GOTR to Lexington is growing. An employee from John’s Run Walk Shop posted the GOTR information and their needs on a local runner’s blog with the contact information for Bernadette Madigan-Dugan, the local Council Director. This blog initiated several requests to participate, find out more information and pledge donations to help the chapter. These individuals were added to the GOTR email list within Inbox Orange.

Segmentation
Several recipients responded to the two emails sent indicating they were interested in volunteering. In a matter of two days, the Steering Committee grew to 25 individuals from 11. Using the Profile Management features available in the Exact Target Email Marketing program used by Inbox Orange Lisa was able to segment these interested individuals into a separate group.

It was time to determine how each Steering Committee member would participate in the impending local chapter. On Friday of that same week, an email was sent to the segmented group with a simple two-question survey using the Inbox Orange Survey feature to confirm their interest of participation on the Steering Committee, to identify volunteer interest and update their user profile. The email received a 100% deliverability rate, 52% open rate and 24% unique click- through to update their profile.

Inbox Orange has the ability to export the survey results and provide the GOTR Steering Committee a report summarizing participation interest for each committee member. Using the information, Inbox Orange has re-segmented this group into sub-committees to send only relative information depending on their volunteer interest in the future.

Applying Multiple Channel Marketing

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Conclusion

As of July 2008, Girls on the Run ® Lexington is an official chapter. Through the multiple channel marketing strategy implemented, they raised over $7,500 to attend the national training in Charlotte, NC this past June. They will hold their first session at two locations in the fall of 2008.

They will continue with the multiple channel marketing strategy to increase awareness on a local level and to seek sponsorship as they move forward to offer this amazing program to the Lexington community.

Resources
For more information about Inbox Orange, contact Lisa Wester at 859-552-5528, or Bill Powell at 859-271-0701.

For more information about Girls on the Run® Lexington, visit www.gotrlexington.org or contact Bernadette Madigan-Dugan.

For more information about Market Points, Inc., an online survey and hosting company, visit www.marketpointsinc.com.

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Baby In The Bluegrass

 

Building A List, One Baby Step At a Time

 

Baby in the Bluegrass is Central Kentucky's pregnancy resource guide to inform expectant parents of local baby-related products and services.   The publication released the first edition in 2007 and is distributed through local OB/GYN offices and midwives and promoted through maternity fairs, and web link exchanges in Lexington, KY. The website www.babyinthebluegrass.com is updated daily and features a new mother each month, stories from local experienced mothers, a calendar of local events relating to maternity, a community forum and blog and local retail specials, etc.

 

Because the publication is annual, the publishers & creative staff needed an avenue to drive visitors to their website to keep them engaged. Coming from the advertising world, they explored email marketing, specifically Inbox Orange utilizing the Exact Target email marketing software, as an option and have been thankful ever since.

The creative staff titled their monthly e-newsletter, Pregnant Pause. The e-newsletter is a snapshot of what can be found on their website.

 

Jackie Powell, Publisher, adds “The email program has definitely been useful in promoting our website, and the website promotes the book… It’s also nice to be in touch with our advertisers, and offer them a value-added service with promotion through our email campaign.”

 

Jackie and her staff used the survey feature in one of their past issues of Pregnant Pause to select their 2008 cover model. According to her, “The results of the survey were not at all what we expected, so I was impressed with the market research capabilities and plan to utilize surveys more in the future."

 

List Growth
 
Baby in the Bluegrass (BBG) has been publishing Pregnant Pause each month since March of 2008. During that time, they have seen increased engagement with their website. Their subscriber list has grown 450% through participation in local maternity fairs with a booth and a viral campaign of adding the Forward-to-a-Friend feature to their e-newsletter each month.

 

In August, the 2008 edition of Baby in the Bluegrass was ready for distribution. As part of their multiple-channel marketing strategy, the publishers secured a booth at the upcoming Central Baptist Maternity Fair. Their strategy included an appearance on a local morning news show the Tuesday before the maternity fair. Baby’s Room, a local advertiser, joined them on air to promote the giveaway contest.

To register-to-win the Chicco Car Seat donated by Baby’s Room, participants were asked to logon to the Baby in the Bluegrass website. Registration also meant subscription to Pregnant Pause. The BBG staff received a total number of 50 new subscribers just from the broadcast alone.

 

During the broadcast, the BBG staff promoted distribution of the FREE Baby in the Bluegrass books that upcoming Saturday at the Central Baptist Maternity Fair to drive people to their booth.

 

This maternity fair produced larger success for collecting emails than previous fairs. A laptop was made available for easy and immediate registration. The only requirement was providing an email address.

The response was tremendous. Several new subscribers commented, “Wow, that was so easy!”   THE ONLY NEGATIVE drawback the BBG staff discovered was when the winner was chosen. Because first / last name were not required, delay of notifying the winner occurred and limited personalization of future emails. The BBG staff will guide subscribers to update their profile in future emails to capture that data.

 

Prior to the maternity fair, the BBG staff sent out their August issue of Pregnant Pause inviting their subscriber list to register for the car seat and to announce distribution of the 2008 issue of BBG at the Central Baptist Maternity Fair.

 

The result, Pregnant Pause has received 266 new subscribers. Because of this growth, BBG has received numerous phone calls about book distribution including two new outlets - THE NEST and BLUEGRASS Mental Health/Mental Retardation.  Both are counseling centers that guide expecting parents.  

 

For more information about Baby in the Bluegrass, visit their website at www.babyinthebluegrass.com or contact Jackie Powell or Michelle Lowe at 859-271-0701.

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