HubSpot Technology and a Modern Strategy Leads to 194% Pipeline Increase

Fueling Passion while Feeding the Pipeline

The Company

From the White House to the workforce, organizations are calling for digital literacy in the classroom. By 2020, it is estimated that nearly 80% of jobs will require some level of technology proficiency, yet 58% of those currently entering the workforce have low skills in solving problems with technology. Many students across the nation are not being exposed to the digital education they need to be successful later in life. In fact, a whopping 70% of elementary school teachers feel their students are “not well prepared” with respect to having the necessary technology skills to be successful in online tests. While teachers are passionate about preparing their students for their future paths, there is a global challenge with access to the tools necessary to set our young generation up for success.

Learning.com’s mission is to bridge this gap. From keyboarding and word processing, to coding and computational thinking, Learning.com provides teachers with customizable lesson plans so that students can learn at their own pace. Learning.com’s digital content tools help districts build and share custom digital curriculum to meet their instructional goals, facilitate personalized learning, and offer equal access to technology for students around the nation.

The Challenge

Learning.com was looking to not only reach new audiences, but be more effective at selling to their current audiences. With aggressive pipeline goals, a time-strapped marketing team, and no internal technical marketing automation expertise, Learning.com needed help introducing tools and strategies that would enable them to efficiently and effectively scale and meet growth goals.

Identifying these challenges as a competitive disadvantage, they partnered with Mambo Media who recommended a HubSpot implementation and comprehensive strategy in an effort to:

• Achieve marketing and sales alignment and establish one uniform platform to aggregate and leverage their customer data
• Build and meet aggressive pipeline goals
• Offer customers a better, more personalized user experience
• Increase efficiencies for their internal marketing department so they could be more effective with targeted efforts
• Allow for better communication and accountability between marketing and sales

The Solution

Mambo’s proposed Strategic Marketing Program had the goal of developing a long‐term plan for Learning.com’s marketing and sales team to establish effective lead generation and top‐line growth. The program was comprised of both strategic research and planning, as well as tactical campaign development and execution in HubSpot to support systems integration and optimize the Lead to Sales Process:

HubSpot Initialization

During our initial evaluation, Mambo recognized that not only was Learning.com’s technology lacking with unclean data and integration issues, but their approach to sales was quite traditional. In order to elevate the company to modern best practices, our work required large-scale transformational change and the recommendation for HubSpot implementation. From lead generation to lead scoring to moving leads down the funnel to create readiness for sales we needed to move quickly and strategically!

Nurture Strategy

Mambo built an actionable plan and workflow schematic for effective lead generation that incorporated data from previous campaigns, and integrated best-practice data for the education vertical.

Best-in-Class Templates

Mambo built and designed forms and email templates, created landing page templates, and performed overall website optimization for lead generation including: branded design, custom imagery, strong calls to action, video embeds, social share icons and supplementary resources.

Channel Optimization, Analytics & Tracking

By establishing custom UTM tracking through HubSpot we were able to gauge the efficacy of all channels involved. Mambo helped the Learning.com team to optimize current channels to ensure best practice and achieve the highest ROI across various platforms. An ROI Modeler was built to enable Learning.com to strategically budget and set goals for each source based on maximum results. With these items in place we were ready to launch our first campign in HubSpot!

The Campaign: Building Business While Fostering a Brighter Future

After the foundational work was in place and their inbound strategy was solidified, Mambo collaborated with Learning.com to launch their first integrated campaign in HubSpot. Learning.com envisioned creating a nationwide Code-a-Thon contest to drive trials and new product awareness with teachers, as well as to provide the opportunity for students to have equal access to digital literacy tools to better prepare them for their future.

The campaign encouraged teachers to sign up their classrooms for an engaging competition centered around teaching students to code. Students, from all backgrounds across the country, were given free access to Learning.com’s curriculum during the campaign that trained and tested them on coding. The winning school with the highest scores received a free subscription to Learning.com solution EasyCode for one year.

Campaign Goals:

• Register 500 classrooms and 50,000 students
• Build pipeline in a slow quarter
• Support a new White House initiative, outlined by President Obama, to give every student the opportunity to learn computer science, called “Computer Science for All”

Campaign Elements:

• Email pilot program in HubSpot for teachers with unique email templates, including initial announcement to promote the campaign, talk about the gamification, and guide teachers to the landing page to submit a form for participation
• Follow-up email with embedded video to provide contest participants with details on how to engage, as well as supplementary educational content
• Auto-responder email to each contest with login information to access Learning.com’s platform to participate in the contest
• Reminder emails as the campaign got closer, with additional thought leadership resources for educators

• LinkedIn paid text ads and sponsored posts promoting the Code-a-Thon Campaign targeted at Principals, Superintendents, and Curriculum Directors
• Facebook boosted posts promoting Code-a-Thon Campaign targeting Teachers in classroom K-8
• Organic social media posts managed by the Learning.com team promoting the campaign, encouraging teacher engagement, and sharing information about the contest
• Promote a press release that mentioned Learning.com’s Code-a-Thon as a campaign in support of Obama’s “Computer Science for All” initiative

The Results

In addition to boosting pipeline during a typically quiet quarter, Learning.com received international news coverage, increased social media engagement, received key coverage in a press release that was distributed by the White House, and exceeded ALL expectations!

Surpassing Our Goals:

• 10,464 landing page views & 2000 submissions
• 908 new contacts & 18 customers
• 16 press pick-ups; 3 million circulation
• 194% increase in pipeline over prior year
• 1,690 returning & new teacher participants – 238% over goal
• 256,000 student participants from a variety of socio-economic backgrounds – 412% over goal

The Impact

The Code-a-Thon campaign acted as a pilot program to the efficacy of HubSpot nurture campaigns. Due to its wild success, Learning.com validated the creation of additional evergreen nurture campaigns to support moving prospects through the sales funnel.

Additionally, Learning.com was able to learn a lot from the marketing automation tool about:

• Optimizing subject lines & key message development by persona
• Identifying top lead sources for maximum ROI
• Campaign strategy & best practices
• Optimal target audiences for paid Facebook & LinkedIn campaigns
• How to leverage and set up email automation and best in class schematics for future campaigns

Together, Mambo Media and Learning.com were able to leverage the power of HubSpot to facilitate an important campaign that provided students from all diversities and backgrounds free access to digital literacy tools. This campaign helped to move the needle forward on providing digital equality, accessibly, and equity to all students.