When the Time Came, They Took the First Step

St. Paul UCC in Barrington, IL was doing many things right. They were posting regularly on Facebook. They were boosting events to get people to come to different services. They were active with multiple groups and community involvement. But they felt like they weren't yet in the 21st century and growth would be difficult.
The Foundations We Knew Were Needed
Our Designed Process To Increase Engagement
  • Who are their current members?
  • Why did they start attending?
  • Why do they keep attending?
  • What types of Christian Education are they involved in?
  • What are their education preferences?
  • What missions are they involved in?
  • What would they like to see added?
  • What social media is being utilized?
  • What are the baseline stats for all marketing endeavors?
  1. Design a strategic survey reaching out to current members
  2. Analyze the survey results to discover patterns
  3. Build the typical customer avatar/buyer persona profile
  4. Pull data from Facebook (their #1 platform)
  5. Cross reference key metrics from the survey with Facebook posts' engagement
  6. Filter out outliers from common keywords
  7. Create professional video aligned to new data points
  8. Step back and let St. Paul do their own marketing with new direction

Increasing the Engagement 

*These stats compare 2 separate posts on Facebook only. Numbers were taken 40 hours after organic post.
*Youtube views come from St. Paul's website. Not the #1 outbound focus.
Defined Target Market: Women 46-60 looking for a progressive, welcoming, inclusive, community
Passive statistics not worth worrying about:
323 Page likes to 325 (+.006%)
312 Followers to 313 (+.003%)
Video Views: 1,640 (FB counts a view as watching for only 3 seconds)
10-Second Video Views: 690 (watched at least 10 seconds)
Average Video Watch Time: 15 seconds (this includes all autoplays)
Autoplayed Video: 95% of all viewers (we want to attract clicks)
Hitting the Right Market:
View Totals: 81% Women
Total Minutes Viewed: 797
Women 45-54: +5.6% higher than average viewing time
Women 55-64: +5.9% higher than average viewing time
Secondary 65+: +11% higher than average viewing time

Clicked to View Video: 5% (active viewers - these numbers matter)
Viewing Marker 1: 5.24% total watched the video in its entirety
*Meaning .24% higher than the total number of those who clicked to watch. We got passive autoplay viewers to watch the entire video.
Viewing Marker 2: 10% watched until CTA
*Double the number of those who clicked to watch. We got just as many (or more) passive autoplay viewers to watch until at least the Call-To-Action
Backstory:  NewCastle Home Loans spoke to multiple marketing companies, as well as independent contractors to get someone to tell their story in a way setting them apart from competitors.
​"We had some sub-par attempts at "Our Story" before. We liked Emblem's approach to marketing compared to just hiring a standard marketing agency. Since the focus was about what our actual story is rather than what the rest of the industry is doing, it made the decision to go with Emblem easy." - Stephen Schumacher (Marketing Strategy Manager, NewCastle Home Loan)
The Original Story
The Foundations We Knew Were Needed
  • Create a story that doesn't sound like everyone else in the industry
  • Target a very specific market: first time homebuyers (millennial couples planning on starting a family)
  • Explain their unique process without industry jargon
  • Align their marketing direction to the L.I.F.E. Messaging Model
  • Use keywords without muting the story's impact
  • Induce sensory influence

Increasing the Engagement 

"There was a clear understanding of what our goal was and our audience. Even if we hadn’t made updates to the first draft, it was very on point. When we did provide feedback, our notes were taken perfectly. To have something this high quality in only two drafts really says something. I’ve worked with writers before where we might have had 6+ drafts before getting to where we needed to. The big seller for us was that the angle of the story was not what we anticipated. In a very regulated industry, this story stood out, sounds sincere, and is vastly different than what our competitors are doing. The angle really grew on our team the more we read it and defined the voice we wanted in our marketing materials. We loved that it was outside the box and feel it sets us apart."

- Stephen Schumacher
Marketing Strategy Manager, ​NewCastle Home Loans 
Backstory:  Sycamore, IL has hosted their annual car show for 19 years and we were hired to bring them a more professional edge for promoting their 20th anniversary next year. They've had videos in the past but after looking over existing footage, we wanted to focus primarily on driving interest to next year's show - not just recapping. We covered both photos and video in order to give us more marketing options for the future.
The Foundations We Knew Were Needed
The Final Product
  • Attract car enthusiasts and families
  • Showcase best of class while highlighting as many different cars and motorcycles as possible
  • Cover special events and/or big names that may be appearing
  • Drive traffic to next year's event
  • Enhance the energy and ambiance of being there in person
  • Provide an upbeat feel while not taking away from the 50's & 60's energy
 "WOW!  Jam packed with cars, motorcycles, people and even the airplanes!  Going to link this up on the Facebook Page with a hearty shout out to you all to go with it.  Thank you for a perfect product!  You guys have a standing invite to drop in on us any time you would like."

- Mike Tritle
Sycamore Car Show Chairman