1. Group 5 Content Marketing Proposal
Kayla Morgan
Chelsea Nejbauer
Gunnar Smith
Megan Thompson
Table of Contents

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Executive Summary………………………………………………………………. 2
Part I
Client Profile ……………………………………………………………………... 3
Content Marketing Goals…………………………………………………………. 4
Audience Persona & Editorial Mission Statement………………………………... 6
Part II
Competition Analysis……………………………………………………………... 8
Content Audit……………………………………………………………………... 9
Part III
Content Themes………………………………………………………………….... 11
Content Types……………………………………………………………………... 13
Content Platforms………………………………………………………………… 14
Part IV
Content Sourcing and Distribution……………………………………………….... 15
Editorial Calendar
September………………………………………………………………… 16
October………………………………………………………………...…. 17
Part V
Measurement……………………………………………………………………….. 18
Budget…………………………………………………………………………….... 20
Resources…………………………………………………………………………... 21
Executive Summary:
The West Chester University Communication Studies Department is home to about 500
undergraduate and graduate students. Although it is one of the most popular programs at the
university, the major is predominantly white and female students. The goal of this campaign is to

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become the number one thought leader for all Communication Studies Departments nationwide.
The department is in competition with other departments in the school, and other forms of
content that students interact with. The department has some content in place that can be
reformatted and updated to be redistributed in the campaign (as shown in the Content Audit
section).
Our proposal will draw on helpful themes, advising students on what they can do with a
Communication Studies degree, important skills to know, and news happening in the department.
These themes will come in the form of articles, infographics, blog posts, videos and interviews.
While content will be promoted and distributed through our blog, facebook, twitter, and youtube,
all content will lead back to the primary platform on the department’s website domain. We also
discuss how content will be sourced, distributed and promoted, and provide an editorial calendar
as an example schedule for designated content to be released.
Client Profile:
The Communication Studies Department at West Chester University currently serves 471
undergraduate students and 27 graduate students (19 on the main campus, and 8 on the
Philadelphia campus). Of all of these students, 69% are female and 81% are white (Fall 2015
Headcount by Academic, 2015). The department currently lists 46 undergraduate courses and 22
graduate courses. The department lists its mission as: helping students become better

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communicators, educating students through the study of communication, challenging the
intellect, stretching the imagination, developing the talents of each student, teaching theory and
performance are essential for student development, valuing strong teaching, continuous scholarly
growth, and service, growing teachers as scholars, advising students through an impressive array
of co-curricular projects and activities, and respecting diversity in communication
("Communication Studies," n.d.).
Content Marketing Goals:
The main goal of the Communication Studies Department’s content is to increase our
reputation in the state system. In order to accomplish this goal we must be the most sought out
major at the university. We can increase our chances by giving the students hands on experience
with subject matter, and suggesting what students can do with their degree after graduation.
Doing this will help students in the program learn more before graduation, know what they are
going to do after graduation and how to apply the skills they have learned.
Our objectives are:

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1. Hands on experience
a. Producing content geared to help students develop actionable skills
i. Reasoning: Giving students access to clear skill development will
help them understand how to apply learned skills effectively; it
will also increase out of class learning.
ii. Performance indicator: After having produced 5 skill articles
(getting up to 50-75 shares on the articles from university
students), the readers will then have the opportunity to rate on a
scale from 1-5 how helpful the article was. To measure the success
of the articles, the department should be getting ratings of 3.5-5’s.
b. Posting internship opportunities
i. Reasoning: It will help students gain skills outside of the
classroom, with a guarantee on the experience being applicable to
the Communication Studies Department’s major requirements.
ii. Performance indicator: The department will work with companies
or organizations offering the internships and monitor the number
of applications being submitted. The number of applications at first
must be at least 20% of the number of views the posting received.
Internship applications will increase over the next year as our
content and popularity grows.
2. Post-graduation knowledge
a. Producing alumni interviews, answering student created interview
questions

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i. Reasoning: This will allow students access to the answers to
questions that they actually have. The questions and answers will
also vary with each alumni interviewed. It will also give students
an idea of the different paths they can take.
ii. Performance indicator: The number of questions submitted will
indicate the level of interest. Each interview should at least have 2
questions from students submitted and have up to 5 questions
selected to keep the interview short and easy to recap.
b. Hosting alumni/professional meet and greets
i. Reasoning: This will help students make real world connections
and open-endedly pick the people’s brain.
ii. Performance indicator: There should be two yearly events, with
attendance beginning at 20-50 students and increasing after that.
Audience Persona:
Giving that 69% of undergraduate and graduate enrollment is female and 81% is white,
the natural audience for the content of the Communication Studies Department is white females.
That being said, Kristen a 20 year old, white female is our ideal audience member. Kristen
comes from a middle-class family, her mother went to college and her father went to trade
school, and she has two younger siblings in high school. She chose West Chester because of its
location and cost, and was accepted to the university as undeclared. After taking the Mass
Communication class, she decided to become a Communication Studies major. Kristen lives in
an apartment with 3 other girls two blocks off of campus. She is an average technology user,
frequently visiting websites that contain content she likes to read about (celebrity news, current

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events, fact compilations, and friend’s posts). Kristen owns a laptop and a smartphone, mainly
using her laptop for school work, longer reading, and watching videos. She plays games
connected to social networks, and browses her social networks on her phone. Kristen also does
light reading on her phone and checks her email frequently.
On an average day Kristen goes to class, watches TV, goes to work, and completes
homework. After graduation she is interested in pursuing marketing or public relations, but does
not know where to start when it comes to finding an internship or a job in her desired field. She
is very interested in finding out what she can accomplish with her major, and she also likes to see
what other people have done with their Communication Studies degree.
The Communication Studies Department, through content marketing can help Kristen by
giving her information about what she can do with her major, showing her what skills will be
helpful for her to have, tell her about opportunities that she can take advantage of, and giving her
access to internship opportunities.
When it comes to education, Kristen is not aware of all that West Chester’s
Communication Studies Department can offer her. Because of this she isn’t engaged
completely. Through content marketing in the Communication Studies Department, we can
provide Kristen with information about clubs that would be beneficial to her studies and
resume. Also, we can personally inform her if any internship opportunities arise to show
Kristen that the department cares about her success outside of classes.
Editorial Mission Statement:
Our mission is to help current students gain real-life skills and help students find an after
graduation path that will lead them to accomplish their career goals.

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Competition Analysis:
The main competition for the Communication Studies Department is other departments
or entities here at West Chester providing other forms of content competing for our audience’s
attention. Many students have additional majors or minors, resulting in other departments
competing for their focus as well. Also many students belong to clubs or some other type of
extra-curricular activity. These groups are also competing for the attention of our audience.
Many of these entities may produce their own material that is going to be similar to the type of
content the Communication Studies Department will produce.
To compare department content, we observed the content that is available under the
website domain for West Chester’s Department of Education. One positive feature that the
Education department has that the Communication Department does not is a social media live
stream. The feature allows visitors to view social media accounts right on the department’s
home page without clicking away. If the Communication Department’s website implemented
this feature, the social media accounts would increase in followers. The Education Department’s

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website also embeds a video on their home page of current Education majors personally
explaining why they chose the major based on their personality and interests.
Content Audit:
Currently the Communication Studies department has a decent amount of content in
place. Most of it is in written form such as, articles, newsletters and blogs. The content can be
repurposed, updated and redistributed.
Student spotlight Student spotlight is a Facebook post that is
semi-weekly highlighting a high achieving
student in the department. If done more
regularly could become an honor to be the
student spotlight.
Alum spotlight Also a Facebook post that is usually weekly
highlighting successful alum from WCU.
Needs to be done more regularly and could
also be an honor to be the alum-spotlight.
Why Choose WC Is a single video posted on the Facebook
page. Could still be used or updated for the
time. Maybe re-tooled to be short clips of
single people saying why they chose WCU.
Com Internship Fair Is hosted on the West Chester domain, and
shared over their social media accounts. It
is in the form -of a newsletter, and could be
a useful way to distribute information about
events like this

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Message From The Chair This is a monthly “article” posted on the
main website where the chair of the
department and the importance of the
communication studies major. It is only on
the website.
Alumni News Is a newsletter that goes out once a
semester to people on the email list. It is
also hosted on the alumni site.
The WCU Quad Is an external website that links back to the
communication studies page. This is the
online version of the campus newspaper,
which also has videos and such.
What I Did With My Communication
Studies Degree
Is profiles of alumni and short summary of
what they did with their degree.
All of these elements are in line with the mission statement of the Communication
Studies Department. Although almost all published content needs to be updated, some of the
content is years old and should not be kept on the website past its expiration date. The
performance of these posts needs to be boosted too. None of the Facebook posts have a clear call
to action, and with them the performance could be significantly increased.

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Content Themes:
We want to remain consistent with our department’s brand by sticking to a few themes
that make our department unique and advertising our strengths to the audience. Since current
students already know that the Communication Studies major exists, we must make them aware
of the benefits we can offer them. Benefits include the broad career options, helpful faculty, and
department affiliated internship program. We need to educate current students about our
specialties in order to allow them to move through the engagement cycle.
One theme we will focus on is the different clubs the university offers that relate to
communications. Featuring clubs and organizations will give students the chance to be informed
about a club that they may not have known existed on campus. “The customer’s content
engagement journey is part science…It’s moving them from not knowing who you are (or even
exist) to raving fans or “advocates’ who will love what you do and will share your content with a
passion” (Bullas, 2014). Once current students are aware of the clubs, we can begin to educate
them on how a club can be beneficial to them. Organizations allow students to be involved,
improve their skills, and are a perfect addition to a resume. This is an important aspect to helping
students be aware of the benefits that being a Communication Studies major can offer them. The
content will introduce clubs and support organizations in a compelling way.

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On the current Communication Studies Department’s website they have a section that is
called “What I Did With My Communications Degree.” The information is very useful and can
provide students with ideas for internships and also features many success stories. This is a great
topic to continue to focus on but also needs improvement in the content. Including more details
and displaying the content in a more appealing way can promote this theme more effectively.
Another theme on the website is spotlights for Communication Studies students and
faculty. Spotlights would allow students the ability to get to know certain professors and a
provides them with a brief overview of their accomplishments. Featuring students can allow
current students to view their friends, and even relate to them if they have similar interests.
Building relationships with students and professors can be beneficial in gaining internships and
deciding on classes. Viewing another student’s accomplishments can create motivation and
excitement.

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Content Types:
It would be best to display our content in the form of blog posts, infographics, videos and
e-newsletters. E-newsletters will be sent at the beginning of each month to keep the audience
updated. Students should always know about events taking place on campus as well as
department news. A newsletter can “be a good vehicle for promoting other content”
(Pulizzi,165). Not only can the newsletter provide updates, but it can also serve as a gateway for
access to other content types and platforms. Infographics can be used to show trends within the
department as well as accomplishments too. When industry trends are displayed in charts with
simple graphics they are more appealing to their audience.
“What I Did With My Communications Degree” would be best featured in blog format
and written from the alumni. “The blog offers an easy way to present brief chunks of frequently
refreshed web content” (Pulizzi 159). Since the content will be regularly posted, a short blog
content type is the best fit. This will allow the posts to be more personal and appealing. A blog
layout post would also be beneficial to use when posting current student and faculty spotlights.
We would keep the theme consistent for every post. The blog layout would allow us to make lists
using bullet points and keep the posts less formal.

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Content Platform:
The content for the Communication Studies Department will be housed on many different
platforms. The main communication website will stand as a hub that will link to our different
content platforms. The website will feature basic information students will need to know about
the major and relate to topics on the more serious side of the major. Serious subjects include the
broad career options, helpful faculty advising, and the department affiliated internship program.
Other forms of content will be shown on the Communication Studies Department’s own blog.
Featuring our own blog relates to the communication field and will set us apart from other
majors. The blog will consist of expanding on current student and faculty spotlights. The blog is
useful in displaying our exciting content and stays clear of overcrowding our department's
website. A blog provides the option to grow as our content increases. The blog can feature
categories to keep it organized and even provide our audience the option to share the
information.
Our social media platforms will be used excessively. We will start by increasing
communication and posts on our most popular social media platforms: Twitter and Facebook.
It’s important we improve the two platforms and post quality content before taking on the many
other social media platforms. Social media will be used to mainly promote our department and to
promote the content that is available on our blog.
Content Sourcing and Distribution:

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Content Sourcing Distribution &
Promotion
Career/Internship Fair Dr. K. Sawyer (internship chair),
faculty members from the career
development center on campus,
companies who will be attending
the fair
Facebook,
Twitter, Website,
External company
links
Student Profiles/
Success Stories
Clubs, current students, alumni,
professors
YouTube,
Facebook,
Website, Other
WCU clubs
media platforms
Interview/Resume Skills Career development center, Dr.
K. Sawyer, student organizations
(PRSSA, Students in
Communications), internal
sources
Articles on
external sites,
YouTube,
Website, WCU
club platforms
Major Relevant Clubs WCU student organizations and
clubs
Twitter, Other
WCU clubs
media platforms
Professor Resources Students and Professors in the
department, internal
Website, external
blogs (if the
professor has one)
Class
Descriptions/Expectatio
ns
Previous students that have taken
the course, professors who have
taught/currently teach the course
Website
Updates and Events Hosting clubs, professors in/out
of the department, relevant
external companies
Facebook,
Twitter, Email,
Website, external
links
Industry Trends Outsourcing in relevant
industries, Career Development
Center, department clubs
External links,
Twitter,
Facebook, Email

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Measurement:

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We have implemented a variety of different measurement methods to test the
effectiveness of our content marketing campaign. For each goal that was set at the beginning of
the campaign, there are several objectives that follow. Below we have listed and described each
measurement method and how it directly relates to the objectives in order to test the
effectiveness of our goals.
Method 1: Sharing Metrics
Sharing methods can be one of the most useful tools in measuring the impact our clients
content has on its audience. Things such as likes, shares, tweets, forwards and inbound links
allow content to be easily distributed. Pulizzi says that sharing metrics answers the question: “Is
the content working, how often is it shared with others?” (Pulizzi, 289). This method will
especially be beneficial when dealing with our objective of producing content geared to help
students develop actionable skills. After posting articles based on this objective we will have
ability to view how many times the article has been shared, showing the client how effective
each article was from the eyes of the audience.
Method 2: Lead Generation Metrics
By measuring lead generation metrics, we are able to get a better understanding of what
content, consumed by the audience, is generating a lead. These can be anything from form
completions and downloads to subscriptions to blogs and email chains. This measurement
method will be used to track the effectiveness of the following objectives; posting internship
opportunities and producing alumni interviews, answering frequent questions students may have.
Our client will work with businesses that attend the internship/job fairs, monitoring the amount
of applications submitted by students. The client will also track the amount of questions
submitted by students for the alumni interviews. Lastly, lead generation metrics will help with

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tracking the effectiveness of our main objective, making the communication studies major the
most sought after major at West Chester University.
Budget:
The multiple social media platforms the university will be utilizing are free forms of
advertising. The opportunity to use the different platforms will help us drive traffic to our content
and avoid the heavy costs of advertising. Much of our content will be free of charge because it is

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created by current students, alumni, and professors. Our blog will be created and maintained by a
talented student.
As a university, we have access to many beneficial resources as well as faculty and staff
that are willing to create content for the department. We can use our budget to pay for Google
Analytics which will allow us track the communication department's progress. This can provide
us with user demographics as well as what visitors are looking at on our site. This would be
useful because we can set our own budget and only are charged when our advertising works,
meaning when someone clicks an ad to visit our website.
References
Bullas, Jeff. "4 Simple Steps to Content Marketing Success - Jeffbullas's Blog." Jeffbullass Blog
4 Simple Steps to Content Marketing Success Comments. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
<http://www.jeffbullas.com/2014/07/01/4-simple-steps-to-content-marketing-success/>.
Communication studies. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2016, from West Chester
University Communication Studies website: http://communication.wcupa.edu/mission

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Fall 2015 headcount by academic planned demographics [Microsoft Excel]. (2015,
September). Retrieved from
http://www.wcupa.edu/infoservices/oir/e_university_enrollment.asp
Pulizzi, Joe. Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the
Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less. McGraw-Hill, 2014. Print.