Case Study: BBBS Lonestar & Regan Digital Studio
Using Digital Advertising to Increase Mentorship in Your Community
CHALLENGE
Big Brothers Big Sister of Lonestar faced several challenges that were impacting their growth and market presence, including:
- Increase Mentors in all of Houston, Dallas and Greater Tarrant areas.
- Necessity to increase male mentors of color to match with Littles in need of a Big
BBBS and RDS recognized the need for a comprehensive and innovative marketing strategy to overcome these hurdles and elevate their brand to a new level of success as past marketing initiatives have been found harder to reach a large user base and generate a cost-effective increase in mentors or “matches” (when a child is matched with a mentor).
OBJECTIVE
The goal was clear: to develop a strategy that would:
- Increase both inquiries and applications in the Houston/Dallas/Tarrant market with efficient CPL (Cost per Lead) through utilizing digital marketing channels.
- Drive quality leads to each individual BBBS agency (Houston/Dallas/Tarrant) based on each agency’s needs in terms of Demographics and Geographics.
Their vision goes far beyond personal influence; they aspire to inspire, engage, and uplift entire communities across Connecticut. Their efforts are directed toward a future where young individuals realize their fullest potential, families flourish, schools excel, and communities prosper in strength.
SOLUTION & SERVICES
Creative Design – RDS designed ads that appeal to people in each specific market using geographic elements in each ad. For example, ads in Dallas contained Dallas sports team (i.e. Mavericks) and other events in Dallas. Ads were also designed to cater to the specific audience we were targeting for each agency. If an agency needed more Big Brothers, RDS designed ads that contained Male Bigs with “Big Brother” messaging to increase the likelihood of males to inquire about the programs.
Landing Page Design – RDS assisted in landing page design to help educate the users being driven to the site through digital marketing ads about what the expectations are when signing up to mentor as well as information about the programs and the enrollment process so that each inquiry knows what they are getting themselves into when committing to mentoring.
Digital Marketing Campaigns:
Leveraging a combination of Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Marketing, RDS built campaigns designed to drive traffic and brand awareness through upper funnel marketing channels as well as campaigns to drive conversions while ensuring low Cost Per Lead.
- Meta (Facebook and Instagram) campaigns were used to target users interested in volunteering, as well as prospecting users unfamiliar with BBBS who may be in the target demographic, in the area or are alike people who have volunteered before.
- Google ads campaigns were used to target lower funnel users who were searching for “Big Brothers Big Sisters” brand or who were searching for “Volunteer” or “Mentoring” opportunities in those targeted areas. This allows RDS to capture users who have heard of the brand from upper/mid funnel channels (Meta) and have higher intent to convert.
RESULTS
Our strategy yielded impressive results since launching campaigns in 2024, including:
- BBBS Lonestar has seen a 200% increase YoY in 2024 for Applications and Inquiries proving Digital Marketings impact on quantity and quality leads.
- Since the launch of Digital Advertising campaigns in August-December:
- BBBS Lonestar achieved a 111% increase YoY in inquiries and a 40% increase in applications
- BBBS Dallas achieved a 84% increase in inquiries and a 20% increase in applications
- BBBS Houston achieved a 135% increase in inquiries and a 73% increase in applications
- BBBS Tarrant achieved a 113% increase in inquiries and a 25% increase in applications
- BBBS Lonestar achieved a 111% increase YoY in inquiries and a 40% increase in applications
The results demonstrated the effectiveness of our integrated marketing approach and the strong partnership between BBBS and RDS.