Connecting with a Small Target Audience
Challenge
When the problem you’re solving is huge, but the audience is niche, and budget is limited, what do you do?
That was the situation for Franklin Center (formerly Academy of Whole Learning). Serving neurodiverse individuals ages 4 to 28, they had grown rapidly since their founding in 2003. But they were still a “best-kept” secret — which isn’t helpful for parents desperately looking for alternatives for their child.
Solutions
Working with the head of development, who was also leading marketing, we built a strategy around “problem aware/solution aware” caregivers. Meaning, if they were looking for a new school, for mental and behavioral therapy, or for post-secondary options, we wanted them to know about Franklin Center.
To accomplish that on a smaller budget, we chose search engine marketing as the largest marketing spend, and then built up strong foundations around that: a new website, comprehensive collateral, and ongoing story-telling both through blogs and social media.
Results
Inquiries have increased steadily increased for tours, while metrics for social and the website continue to climb.
Messages Matter role
Marketing plans; content strategy & creation; fractional senior leadership.
“Tara proved her worth quickly and we hired her for several more one off projects before finally hiring her as our interim marketing director during a time of transition for our organization. I highly recommend Tara for your marketing needs. She ensures that every project she works on is of the highest quality and she always delivers. Truly couldn’t recommend her enough.”