Leagues of Code | Strategic Marketing Plan

Overview

The goal of this proposal was to supply Leagues of Code with a short and long-term strategy that they could then implement in-house to drive traffic to their website and subscriptions to their online coding school.

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Leagues of Code Marketing Strategy

Goals

Current Students: 89 Students

12 Months: Average monthly growth of 20 Students

24 Months: 1000 Active Students | Expand to new markets.

36 Months: 6000 Active Students

Starting Monthly Budget: $7000

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Market, Target Customers, Competitors

As part of our strategy development process, we conducted a deep dive into the marketing the Leagues of Code operates in, the customers they should be targeting, and the competition they have to win market share from.

Market: Western/Central Europe | English or Spanish Speakers

Target Customers:

After an in depth look at Leagues of Code's business model and available marketing we were able to provide them with three customer archetypes to help guide their marketing efforts.

The Caretaker: a parent who understands the trajectory that the modern world is taking towards a tech-driven future. They know that skills in informatics can not only help a child academically but socially as well. They are investing in the well-being of their child.

The Facilitator: interested or actively looking for a way to help boost their teenager's interest in informatics. This comes from an understanding that there are great opportunities both academically and professionally for individuals who possess these skills. They are willing to pay to supply their children with this competitive advantage.

The Instigator: a student who, despite a lack of exposure to informatics in their traditional schooling, has developed an interest in informatics. Their passion and desire for knowledge allow them to confidently ask their parents for their support to enroll in an external educational platform like Leagues of Code.

The goal of these archetypes is to provide Leagues of Code with personas that they can use when they create content, ads, and literature for their product. It is important to make sure that all aspects of your marketing are tailored to your target audience.

Competition

As part of our competitive analysis of Leagues of Code we looked at the businesses that are currently occupying the marketing space they are trying to break into.

We provided them with four key competitors and how Leagues of Code compared to them.

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Marketing Approach (Short Term)

Next, we provided Leagues of Code with short-term marketing tactics that they could use to achieve their goals.

For their product to be successful Leagues of Code had to first get their product in front of potential customers.

Because we had previously provided Target Customers, we opted to give Leagues of Code and overall goal for marketing campaigns for each Target Customer and each stage of the marketing funnel.

We also provided specific channels that Leagues of Code should use at each stage of the marketing funnel to help drive potential customers from Awareness to Consideration and finally to Conversion.

Facebook & Google Awareness Campaign

The goal of the awareness campaign is:

• Bring awareness to LoC as a product.
• Retarget customers who click to the landing page for consideration funnel campaigns.
• Capture emails for consideration email marketing campaigns.

Facebook & Google Consideration Campaign

The goal of the consideration campaign is:

• Use data and social proof to promote factors for each buyer persona.
• Retarget customers who click to the landing page for conversion funnel campaigns.
• Capture emails for conversion email marketing campaigns.

Facebook & Google Conversion Campaign

The goal of the conversion campaign is:

• Promote the "One Month Free Trial".
• Convert clicks to enrollments.

As part of this strategy, we also recommended that Leagues of Code employ the use of landing pages that were tailored to each of the three Target Customers. The use of landing pages increases conversions and helps drive potential customer engagement.

With the $7000/monthly budget that Leagues of Code provided us with, we were able to create potential KPI's that they could use to measure the success of their paid marketing efforts based on industry averages.

We also recommended that Leagues of Code utilize Influencer and Email Marketing to help bolster their Paid Marketing efforts on Facebook and Google. With a little research, we were able to provide Leagues of Code of a potential influencer that met all the right criteria, Toni Garcia.

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Long-Term Growth

As part of our Marketing Strategy for Leagues of Code, we were also asked to provide recommendation that could help stimulate long-term growth for the organization.

We were able to provide Leagues of Code with four recommendations.

Utilize SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

• Optimize Website
• Blog Strategy
• Link Building
• Landing Pages
• A/B Testing For Conversion Optimization

Maximize Retention

Leagues of Code can have an amazing growth marketing strategy but if they can't retain customers they will be essentially paying people to use your product and that is not good.

• Create Immediate Value
• Create Desire For More
• Create A Community
• Build Relationships w/ Students and Parents Quickly

Strategic Flexibility

The key to any good marketing campaign is being agile and flexible. This plan is a road map to guide Leagues of Code for success but it can't see into the future. It will be the job of the people running these campaign to constantly be testing and reevaluating tactics and channels to maximize conversion rates.

Audit of Website

Leagues of Code has a well-rounded website. As the user base and brand reach grows so will the website. Here are some recommendations we made to help optimize Leagues of Code's website.

• Hero video should play on the homepage and not in pop-out.
• Hero title needs to address the product. No indicator of why people should enroll within the current Hero title.
• Add secondary CTA to "Program" Or "Course"  as those are top viewed pages on the site. (Site Analytics)
• Create urgency for enrolling before the start of the next cohort. Now there is no sense of urgency for anything.
• Use the LoC secondary color palette to make the website more vibrant and exciting to draw in students and parents.

Conclusion

By the end of our strategic analysis of Leagues of Code, we came to the following conclusions.

Finally, we were asked to provide Leagues of Code with a recommendation for staff that would need to be hired to implement and maintain the strategy that was provided by StratMark.

We came to the following conclusion.

Marketing Manager

This role will oversee the marketing and brand strategy while assisting the team with the workload. They need to be agile and able to make decisions based on analytical data.

Content Marketing Specialist

Responsible for the creation of landing pages, and SEO content. They will also oversee the email marketing campaigns and assist in creation creative ads.

Paid Marketing Specialist

Responsible for creating and managing all paid ads. Will create the processes that will help drive potential customers down the funnel to conversion with the assistance of the CMS and Marketing Manager.

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