Since 2005, the Authentic Bartending School of Maryland, a licensed private career school by the Maryland Higher Education Commission, has been providing bartending classes for students at all skill levels. In order to attract prospective students and employers, they sought a website redesign that would exude freshness and appeal. Additionally, they aimed to develop a renewed brand strategy that would incorporate inbound marketing and content marketing techniques to achieve their business objectives, which include:
- Increasing the number of leads
- Boosting class enrollment figures
- Outperforming their local “new-to-market” competitors in search engine results
- Enhancing job placement rates
The Authentic Bartending School of Maryland takes pride in offering the finest and most comprehensive bartending and hospitality education in the Maryland-DC-Northern Virginia metropolitan area. It was crucial for them to ensure that their online presence accurately reflected this distinction.
The primary obstacle faced by the Authentic Bartending School of Maryland was the lack of internal resources and capacity to create and implement a comprehensive digital marketing strategy that covered all the necessary components for a successful integrated digital marketing campaign. Furthermore, their current website was built using Flash technology, which hindered their visibility in search results, limiting their desired online presence. Although the school maintained a presence on multiple social media platforms, community members were not actively interacting with the brand’s pages.
Aiden Marketing played a crucial role in the development and launch of a digital marketing strategy for the Authentic Bartending School of Maryland. Our team began by creating Buyer Personas, which became the foundation for all our marketing efforts. This included developing a value proposition, crafting compelling copy, and creating high-quality content that would attract and engage prospects, current students, and employers. We also implemented social media marketing and management strategies to effectively reach our target audience on the appropriate channels. Additionally, we provided custom graphic design services, developed promotional marketing materials, and redesigned and developed the school’s website.
One of our key achievements was the creation of a content-rich website that supported prospective students in their online search and enrollment process. This involved designing an visually-appealing website, optimizing it for search engines with relevant keywords and phrases, and developing various types of content such as videos, ebooks, and whitepapers. We also incorporated assets like blogs, social media integration, landing pages, and call-to-action buttons to enhance the website’s visibility and generate qualified leads and student enrollments.
Furthermore, we integrated and configured an online course enrollment application into the website, allowing prospects to seamlessly enroll in classes and make online deposits. We also implemented a comprehensive job listing portal for employers and graduates of the Authentic Bartending School of Maryland. Additionally, we created a students-only portal that provided access to important documents for enrolled students.
Marketing Strategy, Buyer Personal Development, Branding, Website Redesign, Inbound Marketing, Social Media Management
Educational Content
We developed an e-book to speak to the “college student who is looking to earn extra money” buyer persona for the Authentic Bartender School of Maryland to inform prospects, to guide them to make better “buying decisions” on becoming a professional bartender, and to convert prospects into high-quality leads.
Trust Building Content
We developed and designed a “Job Search Guide for Bartending” whitepaper filled with specific and applicable advise and tips to further establish Authentic Bartending School of Maryland as a trusted resource that not only cared about training students, but also cared about helping them to find jobs in the professional bartending field.
Social Media Management Services
We produced custom graphic designs for content marketing on Authentic Bartending School of Maryland’s “owned” social media networks. We will not only composed the copy for online social media messaging; we also created visually appealing multi-media content that brought results of exponential growth in reach and engagement of conversations by their online communities, along with lead generation and conversions. Our team also effectively monitored the online reputation of the school and responded to all mentions of its name.
Community Contributed Content
We coordinated the participation of Authentic Bartending School of Maryland’s management team and students (their customers) in the production of user-generated content which serves to be instrumental in building brand loyalty and an actively engaged online community. Creating short videos allowed the school to effectively illustrate the proof of results from the bartending classes and provided them with another form of measurable content marketing.
