GIRL SCOUTS OF CENTRAL & SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY
MARKETING AND OUTREACH
Introduction
The Girl Scouts of Central & Southern New Jersey (GSCSNJ) provides a range of programming and activities to girls in grades K-12, focused on four main pillars: Entrepreneurship, STEM, Outdoors, and Life Skills. Girls earn badges, learn necessary skills, and gain real-life experience through the programs provided.
Objective
Octo was hired to create outreach surrounding GSCSNJ programs in order to increase membership, retain current members & volunteers, and create awareness around everything the council has to offer. Our work aims to inform specific target audiences of the incentives of joining GSCSNJ and the positive impact it has on girls of all ages.
Challenges
As a council that is part of a national organization, GSCSNJ must follow guidelines provided by GSUSA (the national council). Through all of our work, we make sure to adhere to the guidelines provided and ensure our marketing efforts enhance these initiatives. As a marketing partner specifically for GSCSNJ, though, we also provide additional ideas and tactics to increase council-specific awareness based on our in-depth marketing experience. Our work requires a balance of the two in order to successfully reach and exceed our goals.
Methodology
Octo began our ongoing relationship with GSCSNJ with the creation of their Summer Camp brochure and outreach surrounding Summer Camp, which is a lead generating program that attracts new members. From there, we developed our work into full-service marketing, providing all of the collateral needed for outreach efforts. Our work spans across both print and digital collateral to include:
- Stationary, flyers, ads, postcards and signage
- Email campaigns
- Website updates
- Annual appeals and annual report
- Social media graphics and toolkit development
- Event sponsorship packages
- Public relations efforts
Additionally, Octo works with members of the council’s individual departments to ensure we are fulfilling marketing needs for all departments. We attend Girl Scout webinars to stay up to date on everything occurring within the national organization. We implement strategies, as needed, to ensure our work is successful and on-brand.
Results
As the Girl Scouts of Central & Southern New Jersey is an ongoing client of ours, we are continually assessing and measuring the performance of our outreach efforts.
Successes we’ve seen over the past few years include:
- Increases in membership
- Higher retention during the pandemic (as compared with other councils)
- Early registration for camp programs
- High order numbers for the annual Cookie Program
Throughout the years we’ve worked together, Octo has identified areas in New Jersey that contain high densities of households with Girl Scout-aged girls (Grades K-12) and developed materials that create awareness in these areas, which enables the successes such as the ones previously listed.
