Fall Recruitment 2017

Between the months of July and October, Girl Scouts puts a heavier emphasis on recruiting new members since it’s back-to-school and it is when most new troops are formed and existing troops return after the summer.

The strategy for 2017 was to keep momentum going after our new program launch and give parents even more reasons Girl Scouts is right for their daughters. We did this by:

1) Developing and executing a Facebook ad strategy targeting both moms of K-5 and existing members and their lookalikes.

2) Creating customizable tools, including messaging, graphics, videos, etc., to our 112 councils to ensure our Movement was speaking in one strong voice.

3) Using our new program announcement and Case for Girl Scouts messaging to create compelling content that drove traffic to Girl Scouts’ sites and most importantly, our Join page. This content was customized and enhanced for each social platform, the Girl Scout blog, and our Facebook ads.

Platforms: GSUSA Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Audience: Moms of non-Girl Scouts
Results: Since membership is handled at the local level, it was impossible to track true conversions of our Facebook ads. The only thing we could track, outside of clicks, was if someone entered their zip code on our landing page and was transferred to their local council’s join page. We hope in the future, now that the majority of our councils are on Salesforce, we can track our social efforts even further.

We learned that combining our messaging—our proven history of success with our new program offerings and brand message—garnered the best results. Our average CPC was $7-8 (the industry average was $13).

These learnings later informed our future recruitment efforts and was shared with our 112 councils to help them better recruit new members at the local level.

My Responsibilities

  • Led campaign strategy from start to finish.

  • Content creation: Facebook ad creative, social toolkits for both national and 112 councils, graphics, web assets, and blogs.

  • Community management: finding and sharing stories that aligned with campaign goals.

  • Aligned with PR partners on strategy and execution.

  • Reported and presented campaign results—both to national executives and 112 council leaders.

  • Monitored day-to-day social and Facebook ad performance—adjusted when needed.