Which marketing channels will best suit your strategy?

Ombuds will use the PESO model for its promotional efforts. Using these four media types together will help our company establish authority and become the number one thought leader in this industry.

Paid – Social media advertising, Search engine marketing

Earned – Industry publications, press mentions, customer reviews

Shared – Social media

Owned – SEO/Website, social media, email marketing, content marketing, video marketing

How will your project utilize these channels?

Now that we identified the four media types we will use and the channels that fall within these categories, let’s look at how they align with our buyer’s journey.

Awareness

Not every university’s buyer’s journey is a linear process. However, most decision-making teams at universities begin their journey in the awareness stage. For decision-makers unaware of Ombuds and how we can help solve pain points, we will use the following channels:

• Website/Blogs – publish SEO-optimized blog posts that address questions our target audience is asking. Providing searchers with informational content will help establish Ombuds as an authority and build trust with potential customers
• Social media – use LinkedIn (paid and organic) to promote top-of-funnel content
• Email marketing – use HubSpot to promote top-of-funnel content in our bi-weekly newsletter

 

Consideration

Since decision-makers in this stage are committed to researching and understanding all the available solutions for solving their problem, we will use the following channels to help decision-makers choose the best solution for them:

• Website – will be home to all the marketing collateral that is created from our content marketing efforts
• Content marketing – will focus on creating middle-of-the-funnel content such as webinars, whitepapers, guides, case studies, and survey data
• Social media – use LinkedIn (paid and organic) to promote middle-of-the-funnel content assets
• Email marketing – use HubSpot to create automated drip campaigns to push potential customers further down the funnel
• Search engine marketing – run search ads to promote middle-of-the-funnel content assets

Conversion

Now that decision-makers are ready to select a vendor, we want to have resources available for them to ensure we can meet their needs. We will use the following channels:

• Website – will be home to bottom of the funnel marketing collateral
• Content marketing – will focus on creating bottom-of-the-funnel content such as customer success stories and a comparison/spec sheet
• Social media – use LinkedIn (paid and organic) to promote bottom-of-the-funnel content assets as well as demos and free consultations
• Email marketing – include bottom-of-the-funnel content assets as part of the automated drip campaign
• Live chat/chatbots – use HubSpot for either live chat or chatbots to answer questions, book a live demo or free consultation, and direct potential customers to the appropriate resources

Provide detail behind your selection and why this is innovative in the marketplace

Through competitive research, Ombuds has found that companies in this space provide little to no information or resources pre- and post-sale.

The primary channel we want to focus on to dominate this niche is content marketing. While it’s not necessarily innovative, we do see a large opportunity with content marketing to surface or address problems our target audience is experiencing. Our goal is to be visible with the right content, in the right place, and at the right time.

While some competitors may address questions or concerns at the top of the funnel, Ombuds plans to use a full-funnel approach since not every buying journey is linear. Because our product has a higher price tag associated with it, we expect our target audience to spend most of their time in the middle of the funnel researching vendors. Creating valuable content assets for this stage such as webinars, whitepapers, guides, and industry data will help us stand out from the competition and demonstrate our expertise.

We will also offer and promote live and recorded demonstrations and be available for free consultations. We want decision-makers to feel confident in our product and understand the value and improvements it can bring to their university.

Since Ombuds operates in the B2B space, we have identified LinkedIn, search engine marketing, and SEO to be the best channels to reach our audience on. We also believe email marketing is another channel we can use to nurture leads and offer content we feel they would find valuable based on where they are in their buying journey.

Another opportunity content marketing can address is post-sale support. Creating a knowledge base with training videos and how-to guides will help universities implement the software to their liking. We will also have troubleshooting videos and documentation available as a first line of defense. Depending on the issue, universities may be able to resolve their issue before contacting Ombuds customer service team. 

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Since Ombuds is the newest company to enter this space, we anticipate that Temple will have some concerns partnering with us.

Unlike our competitors, Ombuds has a robust marketing strategy to help the company grow year over year. Sales are forecasted to grow by 5% at the close of 2023 and 8% at the close of 2024.

Our strategy consists of three main pillars:

1. An “always on” content marketing strategy targeted to EOC and Title IX roles at colleges and universities. We use content marketing to create various types of content that’s credible and trustworthy for every stage of the marketing funnel.
2. A series of campaign activations to make students aware of Ombuds and get them engaged. We partner with universities and several non-profit organizations, like Take Back the Night, to host in-person or virtual events to create awareness around Ombuds and create a sense of community.
3. And we use multiple marketing channels to reach our B2B and B2C prospects where they are.

Expanding upon our multi-channel experience, these are the channels that we have found to be the most successful with our two core audiences.

To determine the success of each marketing channel and initiative, our data analytics team sets and measures key performance indicators monthly. These monthly check-ins are also used as an opportunity to identify areas of improvement to outperform competitors.

If Temple decides to partner with us, our marketing operations team will work with university administration to create the right messaging for students and staff and determine the best placement for this messaging.

As mentioned earlier, 58% of Temple students don’t know how to report an issue and 64% don’t think their issue will be resolved quickly or fairly. These statistics are concerning and can impact future enrollment at the university. A partner like Ombuds is committed to lowering these numbers and helps students feel confident they know what to do if an issue needs to be reported.

Some areas where Ombuds can be introduced to students include:

• Orientation
• In course syllabi
• TU portal
• Temple’s website
• Email communications
• Through ongoing communications about the features and use of the tool so it’s not forgotten