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TAPPI earns 201 new members with a 6.4x return on ad spend

TECHNICAL ASSOCIATION OF THE PULP & PAPER INDUSTRY

2 min read
Feb 10, 2021

$4.6k


Ad spend

643%


Return on ad spend

201


New members

THE CHALLENGE

In hopes of growing and engaging their audience, TAPPI tried adding retargeting to their digital marketing mix. Unfortunately, they had a bad experience with another provider. Despite their frustration, disappointment and skepticism, they decided to give retargeting another try with Feathr.

THE SOLUTION

Near the end of 2019, TAPPI began using Feathr Ads to promote their events. Following the success of several event registration campaigns, they set their sights on using retargeting to find new members. To date, TAPPI has acquired 201 new members with a 6.4x return on ad spend.


When Destiny Gardner began her role as senior digital marketing specialist at the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), she was asked to try retargeting to grow, nurture and convert their digital audience.

However, after spending six months with another retargeting provider, she and her team were less than thrilled. “The tracking and results of those campaigns were dismal,” said Gardner. After growing increasingly frustrated with that provider, their team decided to give Feathr Ads a try. 

According to TAPPI’s director of marketing, Simona Witherspoon Marcellus, their initial focus was to promote events and reach people outside of their existing database. “We’ve been marketing to some of the same people for years, so we were experiencing list fatigue. Our market is pretty niche, so the universe size is limited,” she said. More than anything, they wanted to reach new prospects and let them know about all of the benefits of joining TAPPI. “We have so many great resources, but we’re one of the best kept secrets in our industry. We didn’t want to be a secret anymore!” she said. 

“Once we saw the success of our event campaigns, we decided to move some of our membership marketing campaigns to Feathr. The Feathr team was amazing in doing most of the heavy lifting in executing the campaigns. What really stood out for us was the level of customer service and support and the detailed analytics. We know exactly how many people are viewing our ads, how many we’re converting, which messages are converting the most members, and how many people we’re reaching who were not in our database. Not to mention, the ROI has been really good,” said Marcellus.

Finding new members in the COVID-19 era

When asked about the challenge of growing membership during these uncertain times, TAPPI’s marketers are looking on the bright side. “Feathr has been helping us push renewals and signups while people are out of the office and not as easy to reach. Most people are online these days so that’s the best way to reach them. If they miss us in their inbox, our hope is [that] they’ll find us on weatherchannel.com,” Gardner said. 

For Marcellus, “Digital marketing is even more important now because most of our personal and professional lives are centered around a device (e.g. laptop, tablet, smartphone).” Between working remotely and doing most of her shopping online, Marcellus not only knows her UPS delivery drivers by name, she knows she’s not alone. “That’s the thing. We’re conducting life online now, so Feathr has helped us meet our members (and potential members) where they are — online. While I’m shopping for snow boots (that I don’t need because I live in Atlanta), I might see a banner ad for a course I need to take for work. I’ll probably still buy the boots… but I’ll also sign up for the course because it’s convenient. That’s how a Feathr campaign can start to change the game for associations,” she added.

TAPPI-2Ads

Ads from TAPPI's 2020 membership campaign on weatherchannel.com

 
“The support we receive from our Feathr account and campaigns managers has been golden and an integral part as to why our campaigns have been successful.”
Destiny Gardner

SENIOR DIGITAL MARKETING SPECIALIST, TAPPI

tappi-logo

ABOUT

TAPPI is the world's largest association of professionals in the pulp, paper, packaging and converting industries.

HEADQUARTERS

Atlanta, Georgia

MEMBERSHIP

6,000+ members

USE CASE

Membership growth

PRODUCTS USED

Feathr Ads


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