Data Visualization Campaign

Objective & KPIs

A couple data points led us to decide to experiment on a data visualization course. For one, our data visualization ads had been outperforming all others in lead generation. Secondly, we had been asked by a client to build out a sort of “crash course” to share our expertise on the subject with their teams.

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So we wanted to test a couple things with this campaign: to see if this could be a lead generation opportunity that would lead to continued work OR if this could be a new revenue model at scale (offering courses based on our expertise).

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KPI: 10 participants to sign up for the course (max 20 to have a 1:1 experience)

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Target Audience

Primary: Data practitioners + team leads at enterprise companies

Secondary: Existing leads we wanted to convert

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Planning

In order to make this campaign work, we first had to develop the data viz course itself. We decided to take a course we had created for a client, make adjustments, and offer it as a virtual, hands-on course. We decided to use Zoom and Teachable as our platforms to share content in a module-based system. Outside of the weekly classes, our design director had the group complete activities to test their knowledge – and held office hours for 1:1 consulting (also giving us insight into their data challenges).

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Once the content was outlined and format decided on, I led my team to build out a campaign plan. After *several* Miro board sessions, our plan included:

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• Outreach to existing clients and leads (worked with CX / Product teams to do the outreach)
• Personalized email campaign & retargeting to existing leads interested in data visualization
• Paid ads via LinkedIn and Google Search
• Organic outreach on LinkedIn to target accounts
• Employee activation (personal invites)
• Referral email follow-up to any participants

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Execution

After launching all the promotional channels we planned, our team’s work shifted to supporting the experience of attendees. That included:

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• Designed course presentations
• Onboarding emails & communication
• Added all course materials to platform
• Created a worksheet for participants to share with their kiddos (this was beginning of the pandemic)
• Packaged leave-behind materials
• Provided ongoing class support

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Results

Our efforts were successful in several ways. The email campaign we sent to existing leads was one of our best performing of all time, with a 17.45% open rate and a 4% click rate. Ultimately, we were just under our goal and had 8 people from brands like Coca-Cola, Alaska Airlines, and ArcBest to participate in our first course. However, it also opened up some great conversations with clients who weren’t as familiar with the data work we were doing (a new position for us, since we were historically a product dev shop). 

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But probably the best results came after the course. We re-used the content we created for the course in a “cheat sheet” we continued to use for two years in lead generation. 

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We also left the landing page up so interested leads could reach out for a custom version of the course. That page captured our initial contact at one of our now (2022) most critical long-term clients – a Fortune 500 hospitality giant.

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We also packaged up an initial data visualization engagement we'd done for a few clients, and the learnings from this course, into a data visualization audit we took to market.