Case Study: Fragmented Technology and No Marketing Strategy Does Not Produce Results

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Our client, a 50-year-old membership organization had a small group of members with intense brand loyalty. These members would describe their relationship to the organization as “I owe my whole professional life to them”. There was a bigger group that expressed the sentiment “we know we can depend on you for only this”. These members would come and go based on when they needed one specific service that this organization was really good at.  

While they had some members who were very loyal, they needed a couple of quick wins to reinforce trust with and expand that loyalty. They had an audacious goal to prove to sponsors and members that they were current and relevant in a post-COVID world. The initial win was to get 5,000 people registered for their annual conference in only six weeks. Unfortunately, no marketing had been done. No speakers were confirmed. On top of that, promises had been made to the sponsors.

The second quick win was the launch of their online learning platform. The release of this was supposed to align with the event, but due to delay after delay, there was a two-month gap between release and the event. There had been no “it’s coming” marketing done. Most of the membership didn’t know that an online learning platform was being created until the annual conference. And, to make matters worse, it was being launched at the end of 2021 and online learning platforms were simply no longer exciting.

The CEO and COO hired Omicle to accomplish these two goals and to conduct our Be Ready to Scale® Audit. We quickly discovered a disconnect in operations across the organization and a fragmented technology setup. Different teams were using different tools and what organization-wide tools they did have didn’t have the capabilities that the organization needed. Simple tasks that should’ve required one person a few minutes required 3-5 people and took hours to complete. This created unnecessary bottlenecks in accomplishing tasks.

Among all of this confusion and dysfunction, we not only met the conference registration goal, but we also exceeded it. Next, we focused on the Be Ready to Scale® Audit as well as developing a launch strategy for the online learning platform.

With the online learning platform, Omicle recommended that they do a soft launch first for just existing members since there were still a lot of bugs in the platform that could negatively impact the adoption rate over the long term. Then, as members adopted, and began regularly using the platform, and the bugs had been fixed, we could then roll it out to the wider market. This was important because the organization only had about one percent of its market. If rolled out correctly, they could capture a larger percentage and have it be profitable as well.

At the time, there were only annual membership dues which while affordable, discouraging entry into the wider market since most members preferred to come-and-go and wished to avoid a yearlong commitment. Omicle developed a new pricing structure to generate more revenue while accommodating the different needs of their market. We kept the annual membership dues as an option and then also created two shorter-term membership options that were still very reasonably priced and were actually more profitable than the annual option.

The Be Ready to Scale® Audit revealed what the organization needed to do to reposition itself to demonstrate its relevance in the market for both sponsors and members. Probably the biggest shock discovered was that all of the organization’s trademarks had expired. Plus, because the organization used an alternative spelling to a common word, there was often confusion in online and social searches and more had to be paid in advertising dollars to make up for it. Omicle recommended changing the primary domain to be more user and SEO-friendly and was in alignment with their new WOW statement.

Omicle facilitated a branding committee that was put together to help gather buy-in from staff, members, and sponsors. We created a new WOW statement for the organization and targeted positioning statements for their specific markets. This gave everyone an easy, shorthand way to introduce the organization to their respective target audience, and infused them with new, lively energy.

Since all of their marketing technology was either out-of-date or didn’t align with their current and growing needs, Omicle researched, suggested, implemented, and helped train staff on new platforms that were easier to use and had the features they needed to support a growing membership.

Sometimes it's about rebranding or brand messaging. Sometimes it’s about operations or pricing. Sometimes it’s about client experience. If your target audience doesn’t “get” how you can help them or it isn’t easy for them to do business with you, then they will simply do business with your competition. Omicle gave them a roadmap to clearly communicate the value that they provide and helped put new processes and systems in place so they could scale.

Omicle delivers brand clarity, marketing strategy, and operational efficiency to prepare leaders to scale their business. If you are ready to scale your business, contact us today to get started.

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