College Foundation of North Carolina Success Story

Data Driven Marketing Success

Planning, applying, and paying for college is more complicated than ever. Through statewide school ambassadors and the CFNC.com website, the College Foundation of North Carolina has enabled more than one million NC families to send their children to a North Carolina university.

Success
by the Numbers

The Challenge

When We Started:

The CFNC.org website was a treasure trove of great content. However, an antiquated website platform and navigational strategy led to a sub-par user experience, poor organic SEO success, stagnant visitor growth and more.

CFNC had predominantly been utilizing billboard and print media advertising. A more non-traditional media approach was needed to reach more rural and urban families across the state via online media and streaming media outlets.

CFNC had been invisible in statewide news media for years. They should be the thought leaders’ reporters turn to about all topics related to planning, applying, and paying for college.

CFNC was behind in the use of social media to reach, educate and create brand engagement with North Carolina parents and teens. They also lacked a data driven content marketing strategy to guide all content development including video production.

How We Helped

919 Insights:

Using our exclusive data analytics platform, we identified the exact topics driving families to the CFNC.org website and social media platforms, what content was actually being viewed (or ignored), and what topics led people to open an account or send in college applications.

This intelligence was based on uncovering the actual online behaviors of thousands of daily website visitors to cfnc.org and to competitive websites like commonapp.org.

Paid Advertising:

Based on the 919 Insights findings, 919 created and produced all broadcast, digital and native advertising and negotiated and placed all media in house.
Earned Media: (Public Relations)

919 quickly established the CFNC team as local, statewide, and national thought leaders via sustained free broadcast, online and print media coverage.

Social Media:

919 accelerated both audience growth and engagement with North Carolina parents and teens across a roster of social media platforms – organic and paid content.

Owned Media:

A full roster of website content was needed to fully maximize the recommendations from the 919 Insights analysis.

Given video is the most consumer online content, CFNC needed to develop a library of videos for parents, students, college admissions, school counselors and more.