Background

In 2020, I worked as the Media and Communications Manager at CivicPlus. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government technology SaaS company identified an opportunity to grow its customer base and the number of solutions per customer by marketing to its local government customers the urgent need to move their analog, paper-based processes and workflows online. We called this market need the online imperative, as suddenly government staff were working from home, public meetings were occurring over Zoom,  and residents could not go into municipal offices to conduct transactions.

At this time, our leaders coined the phrase, civic experience and desired to position CIvicPlus as uniquely capable of helping local governments create positive civic experiences through our integrated technology solutions.

Strategy

Our marketing leaders and executive leadership team charged me with creating a thought leadership content strategy that would democratize the phrase civic experience, make it part of our customer and prospects’ lexicon, and make it the cornerstone of our marketing messaging. To accomplish this, I ideated and executed a multi-channel integrated marketing campaign that would last several years, and that incorporated the following elements:

Branding

• To align our corporate identity with the concept of our technology creating civic experiences, I pitched a new tagline to our executives—one that was emotive, concise, and memorable and implied that local governments could use our technology to support all their operations. As a result, we changed the company’s tagline from “THE Integrated Technology Platform for Local Government “to “Powering and Empowering Local Government.”

Event Marketing

• I concepted a new industry award competition. CivicPlus now annually holds the Civic Experience Award competition to recognize local governments doing innovative things that improve residents’ lives and better serve their communities. This competition has garnered annual opportunities for social media promotions, video content, case studies, news, and PR coverage. 

Thought Leadership Content

• To support the Marketing department’s lead generation engine, I ideated and collaborated with subject matter experts, our designers, and writers on a portfolio of persona and product-specific, top-, middle-, and bottom-of-funnel, SEO-optimized digital content, including blogs, webinars, case studies, and gated content such as eBooks, white papers, and fact sheets. Please see some examples here:
  • Webinar: Enhancing Resident Engagement with Impactful Civic Experiences
  • SEO-optimized Website Content: THE Modern Civic Experience 
  • Blog: How Parks and Rec Is Leveling Up the Civic Experience
  • White Paper: Optimizing Civic Experiences
  • Case Study: Fayetteville, AR, Feels the Benefits of an Integrated, Civic Experience Platform from CivicPlus

Paid Media Content

In collaboration with the corporate marketing manager, we strategized and requested a $100,000 marketing budget to support a paid media plan, which included promoting and executing the Civic Experience awards and other paid advertising, search engine marketing, and other paid digital and print advertising content. Here are some placement examples:

• Sponsored webinar with tier-one industry publication GovTech: Improving Government by Focusing on the Civic Experience
• GovTech microsite
• Technology Magazine video content: CivicPlus Helps Governments Provide Exceptional Experiences
• CIO Review: CivicPlus: Fostering Positive Civic Experiences

Earned Media

In collaboration with subject matter experts, the corporate marketing manager, and a third-party public relations agency, we created and executed an earned media thought leadership strategy, which resulted in several articles being placed in tier-one and tier-two publications, including the following:

• Technology Magazine: CivicPlus helps governments provide exceptional experiences 

Sales Enablement

• In collaboration with regional sales VPs and product marketing managers, we created sales enablement slides for sales team members to include at the beginning of their sales presentations to explain the company’s civic experience value proposition
• In collaboration with the business development manager, we created civic experience value proposition language to be included in all proposal requests (RFP)

Results

What started as a marketing campaign and content marketing strategy to respond to our audiences’ needs during the pandemic became the foundation of CivicPlus’ identity and marketing messaging for three years. Some notable achievements include:

• Moving from third to second place in media share of voice
• Year-over-year civic experience application growth of an average of 10%
• Achievements of marketing leads and sales revenue goals in 2021, 2022, and 2023
• In addition, I was selected as a CivicPlus President’s Club winner in 2020 for outstanding company contributions