Website Design, Development & Support
The current PlayCleanGo.org website was not mobile friendly and did not utilize a content management system. The site did not have a blog or photo gallery capabilities to share the great work they were doing and was very difficult for staff to manage the content.
For the new website, we create a responsive design that works on any type of device or platform to improve the overall user experience. The new website is flexible and scalable for the future and built using Drupal, a well-supported and highly secure open-source CMS platform. The PlayCleanGo personnel are now able to easily maintain and update the website by using a login portal that allows for a variety of browsers and platforms including phones and tablet devices.
Interactive Map
A great feature we designed and developed for the new website was an interactive map. PlayCleanGo has signed up more than 500 partners. The objectives of the partner program are to be fun and to encourage recreation; be user-friendly and accessible; accommodate a variety of audiences and media outlets, and be compatible with the Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers brand and other partner brands. The interactive map shows their location and contact information of all the partners, including links to their websites. Searches can be filtered by Company Name, State/Province, and Organization Type. There's also an option to toggle between map and list views.
Marketing Audit & Strategy
PlayCleanGo looked to Nighthawk Marketing to perform a marketing audit of past year's efforts to gain a better understanding of gaps and opportunities. This information would be used to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for the next multi-year cycle. Throughout the marketing audit process, we conducted periodic meetings with key internal stakeholders to gather important background information and perspectives. The process covered six important phases:
- Identified Goals & Objectives. We wanted to clearly identify and understand the overall goals and objectives of the program. This involved drilling down and focusing specifically on the marketing and outreach components of the strategy and understanding the efforts involved in implementing tasks in the refreshed marketing plan.
- Analyzed Past Performance. We closely analyzed all the marketing and outreach efforts pursued up to this point. We identified the strengths and weaknesses in the messaging, which gave us valuable insights when developing the marketing plan. We created an inventory – a long list of recent marketing and outreach efforts including their website (and analytics), social media platforms, email marketing, and other digital outreach, print collateral, TV and radio samples, direct mailers, and evaluated the effectiveness of all these channels. We took stock of tactics, budgets, audience, who managed, and tools for tracking and measurement.
- Researched Target Market Segments. We reached out to select groups within their target market to better understand how they discover, evaluate, decide, and use the program to their benefit. This provided an additional layer of analytics as to what worked and didn’t work, along with what may work better in the future. During this process, we uncovered influencers who had the ability to produce and share content to drive their messaging.
- Researched Peer Organizations. To gain a more complete understanding of their industry and their target market, we evaluated the digital presence of their peers. The peer analysis allowed us to learn their efforts and identify new opportunities for getting this unique story in front of qualified audience members.
- Summarized Findings. After we gathered and analyzed all the information collected above, we sifted through the information at hand, making sure to evaluate each tactic using both qualitative and quantitative data. We leveraged any baseline numbers, checked industry standards, and looked for any data patterns. We considered everything in relation to their program goals and how efficiently the tools, tactics, and campaigns were meeting them.
- Provided Recommendations & Marketing Plan Refresh. The audit ended with a recommended go-forward marketing plan of strategies and tactics that PlayCleanGo could use for their multi-year marketing plan implementation.
Social Media
PlayCleanGo looked to Nighthawk Marketing to develop and manage their social media marketing and advertising campaigns. This included:
- Assessing existing social media business pages, their content, and followers, and providing recommendations to add, modify or delete existing pages to effectively engage audience segments.
- Working with staff to create the needed content and post as appropriate.
- Creating a list of social media business accounts to follow and comment on, and determining the best way to engage different audiences.
- Developing a social media calendar that displays dates, times, copy, and visuals for all platform posts.
- Identifying and assembling a team of Ambassadors or other regular contributors for future social media.
Search Marketing
PlayCleanGo looked to Nighthawk Marketing to develop and manage their search advertising pay-per-click efforts. This included:
- Evaluating existing ads, ad groups, and campaigns for reach, response and demographics.
- Identifying and prioritizing additional content needed and present to MNDNR creative staff.
- Working with staff to create content as needed.
- Providing a user-friendly campaign and ad group structure focusing on our various recreational audiences, and one or more metric report template(s) to facilitate future monitoring and management.
- Providing a monthly report summarizing campaign and ad performance and recommendations for needed adjustments to any aspects of the campaign not meeting expectations.
