Case study · Marketing automation inside a strategic framework
How a data-driven social media strategy reversed the trajectory of a digital content program
- 14,415Instagram account views in 90 days
- 81.9%Of views from non-followers
- 33.7%Increase in LinkedIn impressions
- 50%+Year-over-year growth in applications
A strong program with weak visibility. A disciplined, data-informed content strategy turned real program activity into discoverable stories, and applications grew by more than half.
The challenge
Ontario colleges faced sustained enrolment pressure from demographic change, competition and shifting views of college value, and prospective students increasingly judged programs by their digital presence. The Digital Content Creation and Strategy program had a solid curriculum and strong graduate outcomes, but its awareness stayed inside the college and its social channels reached few people beyond existing followers.
The approach
- Audited the program against comparable Ontario programs in Semrush and found competitors won on deliberate digital management, not better programs.
- Identified uncaptured keyword opportunities and content formats competitors used that the program did not.
- Centralised scheduling, monitoring and reporting for Instagram and LinkedIn in Hootsuite so performance data could guide decisions in near real time.
- Replaced promotion with proof: two Networking Nights and three Remote Podcast Events each became multi-week content arcs with previews, live coverage, clips and follow-up.
- Measured everything over a 90-day window and adjusted cadence and formats against KPIs.
The results
- Students learned from the strategy as a live example of data-informed content practice.
- Student work showcases drove engagement among prospective students at the consideration stage.
Tools and methods
- Semrush
- Hootsuite
- Riverside
