Mar 23, 2023
Leadership Network was founded in 1984 by cable-TV pioneer Bob Buford. Since then, the brand has been equipping church leaders with innovative processes, tools, and research.
What they needed
Leadership Network was looking for digital transformation to engage the rapidly digitized ministry world. In order to do that, they needed:
- a model to connect all their various individual offerings
- to create and promote new digitized offerings such as online masterclasses
- a better strategy for engaging their email database and online community
The leadership in unison with the board decided that they needed a better marketing plan to fulfill these goals. At that point, 40 Parables was already a marketing agency for Leadership Network, so we were blessed with the privilege of building a marketing plan for them.
Ron Edmondson
CEO
What I loved most about 40 Parables was how they tried to understand who we are and our unique needs as a customer to customize their work with us.
I really felt they cared as much about our success as we did. It was like having another team member.
How we served
We audited their programs and devised a marketing strategy for them. We then created a full-fledged marketing plan that showcased how all their offerings would tie in together as one cohesive unit.
Positioning
A 3-step positioning exercise was conducted to bring clarity around the identity and purpose of the brand as well as the target market it serves.
First, we defined Leadership Network as a brand – why it exists, how it fulfills its purpose, and what it does to realize its purpose.
Next, we identified the problems, ordered them by priority, and suggested potential solutions for each problem. Lastly, we identified the target user segments that would benefit from the solutions.
Buyer profile & buyer journey
We created a buyer profile of a typical target user that provided a snapshot of their motivation, personality, digital engagement behavior, etc.
We then brought all their offerings together in a single image and mapped out a typical buyer journey that the user would take over the course of their engagement with the brand.
Acquisition & metrics
We detailed out different modes of acquisition – including content creation, search optimization, and paid traffic – to reach and attract new leads into the Leadership Network funnel.
Nurture sequence
We charted out multiple email funnels and sequences, which detailed various phases of the user’s engagement with the brand and its different products such as Accelerators, Leader Groups, and masterclasses.
What was achieved
A comprehensive marketing system was built for the brand to include all its offerings and to detail how they would be promoted to the Leadership Network community. It included email automation sequences, landing pages for each individual program, and online promotion for new customer acquisition that synced with the marketing plan.
5,000+ people signed up for NINES 2019, the brand’s online conference. These registrants, in turn, referred and brought 1,000+ new users to the conference, which was the largest lead generation activity for the year. We built a custom landing page and created an email automation sequence for the conference.
A program mix was created to bring cohesion to everything that the brand offered church leaders. This was shown in a single image – something that was never done before.
A year later, Leadership Network was acquired by Exponential in 2020.