Blackboard Professional Education
Generating leads with an interactive assessment
After identifying an unmet need for Blackboard, we created a high-value assessment and ecosystem of content to help educate an audience and convert leads.
- Content creation
- Campaign planning
- Demand strategy
- Demand creative
- Email development
- Offer development
- Social assets
The Situation
Blackboard, the category leader in learning management systems (LMS) for educational markets, also sells its solutions to corporations and governments. While the Blackboard LMS is considered best in class in the education space, it is not well-known in the professional arena, despite the ability of an LMS to educate and train employees online, on any device. Complicating matters, a majority of companies and government agencies already have a solution in place.
The Challenge
The Professional Education marketing team needed to drive leads, but Blackboard’s lack of awareness in the category put it at a distinct disadvantage. They first needed to engage the audience in a meaningful way, and tell the Blackboard story. How could Blackboard break through the clutter to build a compelling case? We started, as we always do, with the buyer.
The Approach
By conducting interviews with customers and subject matter experts, we identified the insight that led our strategy: By assessing the potential benefits of what a world-class LMS could provide, buyers would be curious to discover how they might best achieve them. The result was an integrated campaign, anchored by a gated interactive eBook with factoids and best practices, and a 20-question assessment with personalized recommendations.
The Result
In addition to the eBook, we supported this effort with an ecosystem of content, including an infographic, social media posts, emails, online advertisements, and blog posts. The bottom line: The campaign was a resounding success. Though the initial goal was to generate 200 leads over the life of the campaign, the eBook generated more than 400 leads in one month, greatly exceeding Blackboard’s expectations.
