Columbus Museum of Art expands digital footprint with Feathr

In larger nonprofits, digital marketing may be the full-time work of a team of ten. But for small or mid-sized nonprofits, digital marketing may be one person’s full-time job. And full-time is likely an understatement.

This is the case for the Columbus Museum of Art (CMA). Amber Wacker is the team’s design and digital communications manager. And she has help from her director, a designer, and a few external vendors. But at the end of the day, she’s the one writing emails and launching ads — while overseeing a website rebuild!

She says, “I’m one of three marketing humans at the Columbus Museum of Art. And I do all things digital. That includes social, emails, the website, digital ads, and then some more. We’re doing a lot right now. We’re currently rebuilding our website right in the middle of the exhibition season.”

It takes a special type of person to switch gears so many times a day. But with the right process and the right platform, Amber is seeing the progress she’s been working so hard to achieve.

Getting the most bang for their buck

The marketing team at CMA has partnered for a long time with an agency that works with them on media buys.

“They do radio ads — all of our print stuff,” Amber says. “And they’re great at that. But with the digital ads, they weren’t able to pinpoint where they were placing them. And they were really expensive. And on top of that, we weren’t seeing exactly how they were performing.”

She says, “That's the big draw with Feathr. Our agency wasn’t built primarily around digital advertising and detailed reporting. But Feathr has all that.”
 
For a small nonprofit, it’s critical to maximize the return on investment — because there aren’t unlimited dollars to spend. And this is why it was a no-brainer for Amber to make the leap.

She says, “Our agency still does our media buys. But we recently moved all the digital ads in-house with Feathr.” 

“In Feathr, I’m the one creating campaigns, so I have full control of the timeline and budget. And the retargeting campaigns I ran have been the most effective digital ad campaigns in our museum’s history.”

She says, “So it's been extremely exciting and we've definitely pulled back some spend from print because you don't know how many eyeballs are on it. And especially if you have a smaller budget like us, digital is just the best bang for your buck.”

Putting the wonder back in Wonderball

So many nonprofits have an event like Wonderball every year. The year feels like it’s making sense — and then all of a sudden — there are a million and one things to do to get ready for that big night.

Amber says, “Wonderball is our biggest fundraiser. So we sell about 1,700 tickets, and it's more of a young, fun event. So I think that one in particular works really well for retargeting campaigns.” 

Example of one of CMA's ads

And because Wonderball is such an important day for CMA, Amber starts early, finding new audiences to invite to that special night.

She says, “It's incredible using the Affinity Campaigns in Feathr to find people interested in arts, culture, and entertainment. But then I add geographic filters on top. Columbus is a growing city, and now in Feathr, we can find these people who are interested in the arts that are close enough to visit.” 

And those aren’t even all her options. Amber often adds additional layers, filtering for specific neighborhoods within the city, or even by income brackets.

“And I mean, I can’t do that on Facebook,” Amber says. “So Affinity Campaigns have become one of my favorite ways to find new audiences around Columbus.”

Building on the early wins

With all these new people interested in what CMA is up to, Amber now switches focus to one of her most important groups: people who have shared their emails.

Amber says, “For Wonderball, we did more emails out of Feathr. And because Feathr’s built-in email designer is more technical, we were able to do a lot more customization.”

And those tests further cemented Amber’s plans of bringing all of CMA’s email marketing activities onto Feathr.

She says, “We're in the process of moving from Campaign Monitor to Feathr email because we've been limited by the amount of email addresses that we can send to — it’s capped around 50,000. So that's been really challenging for us as it's a constant battle of having to clean and sort our current lists, and take people out that should be in.”

It all starts with the right kind of person

No amount of software or money or strategy alone can overcome the impossible odds many small and medium nonprofits face. It takes having a team that can smile at a challenge.

Amber isn’t the type of person to let a good opportunity pass her by. And she isn’t the type to sit and wait and hope for the best. More and more, she’s carving a better path forward for CMA and the community who get to share in their beautiful work.

She says, “My background isn’t in marketing, but with the tools I have in Feathr, I feel more confident in what I can do in a digital world. And it helps me see the roadmap for all my campaigns and shows me where they all connect.”

It’s certainly a lot to rebuild a website, write a new series of email drip campaigns, and launch an upcoming ad campaign. But because she’s committed to constantly learning and pushing CMA forward — and because she feels like she’s working with the right tools — it’s all possible!