RECRUITMENT: BRAND AWARENESS  

Earlham College has been changing lives for nearly two decades, yet doesn’t have the brand recognition to back it up.

Earlham is a college that has had many voices. For many years, marketing was at the bottom of the college’s priority list as they relied mostly on word-of-mouth marketing. Once the college began to take marketing more seriously, they went through multiple brands in the span of a few years and lacked a distinctive voice. This brand awareness campaign works to create a voice for the college and establish Earlham College as a known name with prospective students and among their competitors. To successfully embody the modest and Quaker-based culture of Earlham yet create brand awareness, a blend of clever humor, humble confidence, and storytelling were used.

As a Quaker school, simplicity is one of the values of the college. This value is embodied throughout this work, going back to our “anti-marketing” roots. The work is simple, clean, and straightforward, without any marketing gimmicks or fancy language. It is bringing the essence of Earlham to the spotlight and letting all of its unique quirks speak for themselves. And it is bringing that essence to students no matter where they might find themselves, at home looking through mail, at a college fair, or even right in their pocket.

DONOR ENGAGEMENT + INSTITUTIONAL ADVANCEMENT

Whether Earlham’s donors are looking to create an annual scholarship, give to a special program or cause, or help with the day-to-day operations of the College, each have a similar motivation: sparking good in future generations.

As a non-profit, donors and community partners are crucial to Earlham’s viability as an institution. More importantly, they are also an integral and active part of the community on campus. While community internship partners and alumni donors have different goals in mind when working with Earlham, we have found that they have similar motivations: to change the life of a student (or students) on campus and to contribute to a cause they feel passionate about.

In today’s world, giving to an institution as a whole isn’t on the top of our donors’ minds. But if they can further social justice by sponsoring a scholarship or watch a student grow through their donor-funded internship, they feel much more motivated to contribute. In addition, when we bring together those parts into a message about our community and the people that make it up, it leads to amazing things. In 2020, this strategy lead Earlham College to a record-breaking Earlham Day, overshooting their donor goal by 117% and raising over 1.3 million dollars. The following pieces reflect solicitations, alumni engagement pieces, homecoming work, and Earlham Day materials, all of which aim to foster long-term relationships and increase donations.

DIGITAL MARKETING

Prior to 2020, Earlham’s web presence resembled one from the early 2000’s. In order to resonate with the prospective students and donors this presence was completely revamped, from a new website design and SEO campaign to social media strategy and content development.

Another aspect of Earlham’s rebrand was a complete overhaul of its digital strategy. This included a complete refresh of their website which resulted in a redesign in line with the brand guidelines, both visually and contextually, alignment with ADA accessibility standards, and a betterment of the user experience. Through this redesign, Earlham has seen a decrease in bounce rate and an increased amount of time on page. In addition, it carries over the brand from print collateral to the online world, where previously there was a large gap. This website is also completely SEO optimized, allowing Earlham to move into the organized digital space and run campaigns where students are online: social media. 

In regards to social media, this case study will focus on Instagram. This platform has been completely rethought, resulting in a 75% boost in engagement, a gain of ~1,000 followers and an additional 5-10+ followers per week (starting from a base of approximately only 3,000 with little follower change), and a notable decrease in negative social media comments and discussions. More importantly, this strategy has refocused the account to be one of user-generated and relatable content, providing resources for students, social campaigns, and fun, authentic moments. This is a large break from the original strategy, which was largely event-focused and impersonal. You can view the account here.