Contextual Marketing Training with Lutheran High School

Contextual marketing takes the content of all a company's communications with someone — on their website, on email, on social media, or on direct communication — and adapts it to be relevant to that person's particular needs or situation, rather than just generic one-size-fits-all content. From the first time a person sees a website, they are being addressed in a context that is specific to them. HubSpot offers a certification for Contextual Marketing. But what happens when an organization wants to go a step beyond a certification? This case study addresses how one organization chose to go beyond a certification and ensure that a certified marketing team helped them to place their content into the particular needs and situation of the visitor.

Lutheran High School logoThe Client: Lutheran High School

An accredited Lutheran high school in Parker, Colorado, Lutheran High School services the greater Denver metro area. They offer courses for students in 8th-12th grades. Lutheran high embraces its Lutheran background while also being a school that accepts students from a wide range of backgrounds with an emphasis on "nurturing academic excellence with an emphasis on Christ"

Lutheran High School had just been through several transitions. The first transition was the merging of two schools, Denver Lutheran High School and Lutheran High School, Parker. With this transition came a new director of marketing and admissions. The new director of marketing and admissions also inherited the task of overseeing a new website. All these changes combined made for a daunting task for them.

The Challenge: Aligning Content with Visitors

When Lutheran High School came to ClearPivot, their new marketing director realized that not only did they have no marketing strategy, they also did not understand their target personas or buyers' journey. They realized that understanding how to implement a contextual marketing platform was key.

The ClearPivot Solution: Contextual Marketing Training

Recognizing the importance of a contextualized marketing strategy, ClearPivot worked with the client to develop a personalized Contextualized Marketing Training. Over a four week period, I personally worked with the staff of Lutheran High School to develop their new site into an effective contextualized marketing tool. Each week we walked the marketing director through different contextual marketing topics tailored to their needs, such as:

  • Developing a Contextual Marketing Strategy: Every company needs a contextual marketing strategy. With Lutheran High School we discussed persona development, buyers journey, and content planning as it directly related to the high school vertical.
  • Segmenting Audiences & Using Lists: Audience segmentation and list building are key parts to a contextual marketing strategy. With Lutheran High School we discussed list segmentation based on time of enrollment, persona, and student classification. We then discussed different school-related uses for email lists that they had not employed before.
  • Smart Content: Smart content allows for forms, calls-to-action and landing pages to be tailored specifically to an audience based on persona type, visitor type, or device. This was Lutheran High's first experience with smart content. Our training covered do's and don'ts of smart content, and then discussing different areas where it would be most effective on the site. 
  • Keyword Planning & Competitor Tools: The keywords and competitor analysis tools are two sections of marketing tools that tend to be underutilized in contextual marketing strategy. We focused our efforts on helping Lutheran High School develop keywords that were directly related to their vertical that they should be tracking. Then we showed them how to use the competitor tools within HubSpot to track what their competitors are doing online.

The Results

As a result of our training, Lutheran High School's marketing team went from feeling overwhelmed and lost to feeling empowered and ready to execute. Hannah Buchholz, their Director of Marketing and Admissions, had this to say:

"Learning how to implement Contextual Marketing has changed the way the Admissions and Marketing Office does it's day to day tasks. Having a full understanding of our buyer personas helps us communicate with families using language that resonates. Segmenting leads allows us to effectively communicate the right messages to the right people. The Smart Content on our website helps guide potential families through the Admissions process. When they see different content each time they visit the site, it's as if they are seeing our site with fresh eyes. This keeps families intrigued while moving them through the funnel. Lastly, the keyword planning tool enables us to create more relevant blogs, content, and landing pages.

Choosing the right high school can be overwhelming for families but with Smart Content we can guide them to the information that will best help with their decision. I am grateful for Seth's time and attention to detail as we worked through the Contextual Marketing topics together. ClearPivot is always great to work with and I appreciate all the resources they provide. The Contextual Marketing training really made a positive difference in the way we work with potential families."