Project + Goals
After its 2019 launch, online-only community college Calbright approached Solid Digital, in need of a fresh website design. On their journey to increase enrollment and partnerships, they knew they needed to add credibility and boost accessibility at every point in the user journey—so that they could improve more lives through free adult education.
After the website was launched, Calbright immediately continued its engagement with Solid Digital, utilizing their Digital Growth Marketing program. The goal?
To advance Calbright in the state of California by growing enrollment, nurturing economic opportunities for our students and building the fundamental components of the college to foster long-term sustainability and student success.
Results
After 11 months of working with Solid Digital’s team in the Digital Growth Marketing program, Calbright more than doubled its digital value, starting with 11.12 in May 2022 and ending with 25.4 in April 2023. This proprietary scoring system, developed by Solid Digital, accounts for targets set up at the start of the engagement, including:
- Number of pieces of content published each month
- Number of monthly organic website visitors
- Number of keywords ranking in the top 20
- Number of online conversions
Incredibly, Calbright was able to exceed its conversion goal of 1,400, instead hitting 7,670 conversions—and they kept up with their content production goal as well, creating 10 new pieces of content every month.
Calbright’s team was passionate about their programs for adult learners, and the way it could improve lives. The slow but steady growth averaged out to 1.3 Digital Value points month-over-month. And clearly, it didn’t all happen overnight.
Process
Calbright has only just begun, and the idea of free online community college is a new one. As a new school with a new idea—that just recently received accredited status—enrollment is growing quickly as they target adult learners looking for new career options. Calbright’s programs prepare students for a specific certification (e.g. Comp TIA Certification). After testing for the certification, Calbright staff also assists them in finding a new job or paid internship. Through Calbright, adults can change career paths on their own timeline.
Knowing the team was dedicated to Calbright’s career-focused, flexible adult education helped Solid Digital steer them toward a strategy that would work for them. Within the Digital Growth Marketing program framework, Solid Digital’s team listened to concerns, collected data, and worked through a strategy based on best practices, guiding Calbright to appropriate, yet aggressive goals for content, conversions, and engagement.
Approach
Calbright started with Digital Growth Marketing immediately after their website redesign with Solid Digital. The new website was such a vast improvement, that maintaining momentum was vital.
First, they gave Calbright’s content writer a 10-piece content goal for each month. Additionally, Solid Digital taught him how to utilize SEO to outline his content plan with keywords that ranked in the top 20. This helped drive visibility through SERPs ranking.
Solid Digital also supported their team with a recommendation (after comparison research) to switch to using HubSpot CRM. Through HubSpot, Calbright can track applicants’ progress, create and send automated emails and newsletters, and communicate easily with current students. Solid Digital’s comparison research revealed that HubSpot was the best option to help them improve their efficiency and increase their impact with their resources. With this knowledge, Calbright’s marketing team confidently went to the board to make this request. This switch to HubSpot, in part, helped drive engagement.
The restructuring of the website during the redesign, gave Calbright a good starting point for higher organic traffic. Solid Digital recommended adding more student success stories and focused blogs and improving the readability of program pages with bullet points and a list of potential careers. In addition to steering Calbright toward helpful content, Solid Digital also placed a banner and a CTA to sign up for their regular virtual info sessions. When both teams recognized that many of the virtual session attendees converted to applicants, they knew the pathway had to be obvious. These marketing moves helped with conversions and ultimately enrollments.
Utilizing Digital Growth Marketing, all three of these metrics (visibility, engagement, conversion) are essential to business growth. And with Solid Digital’s strategy, Calbright’s marketing activities have a clear purpose—helping change lives of adult students, through creating pathways to a new career.
In Action
Today, Solid Digital performs quarterly audits on the website, bringing in team members from their development, design, and SEO teams to keep the site in good working order. Often marketing teams rely on reactive measures—but Solid Digital works proactively instead to improve site efficiencies and maintain and boost site performance. Even Calbright’s blog traffic is up 98% year-over-year.
Solid Digital has also introduced the use of A/B testing on the site, and reiterates based on what’s working and what’s not. Maintaining the focus on all things digital, working together, Solid and Calbright have created a strategic path allowing them to keep their focus as they bring opportunity to working parents, service industry workers, and other adults looking for career pivot possibilities.
Since July 2021, Calbright has experienced 497% growth in enrollment. They’re adding 3 new programs for growing fields. They’ve become the innovators of free online state-funded schooling, and their updated About Us page and refashioned email templates are certainly going to help them make the grade.
