Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer
- Social Media
- Copywriting
- Paid Media
Expanding a national nonprofit’s digital footprint through organic, paid, and social media traffic.
The Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer is a nonprofit that raises funds for breast cancer research. Since 1993, it has generated over 37.5 million in contributions.
However, as a team of only two people, the organization could dedicate little time to content creation and managing social media profiles—tactics that could engage their national audience on a consistent basis.
The Vera Bradley Foundation approached Reusser to be a bridge partner. Rather than manage everything indefinitely, Reusser would optimize accounts, write content, manage creative campaigns, and create initiatives until a new team member was hired.
Our approach
We started with a digital discovery. This allowed us to audit the Vera Bradley Foundation website as well as all social media profiles. By establishing strengths and weaknesses, we could develop a roadmap of next steps that would help break the organization’s reliance on direct, regional traffic.
"We are happy to serve as an extension of your team until you’re able to build that team on your own."
The solution
Rather than focus on a single strategy, we took a layered approach. Our goal was to create opportunities for people to discover and interact with the Vera Bradley Foundation through a variety of traffic channels.
First, we created social media content for multiple platforms. In the past, the Vera Bradley Foundation would post often during Breast Cancer Awareness Month only to post occasionally throughout the rest of the year. Regular publication increased engagement. Also, by receiving direct communication access to breast cancer researchers, we were able to write content that truly resonated with the audience.
We also added additional touch points on the website to encourage donations. This included calls-to-action and new pages. By including more of these on-ramps, traffic to the donation page increased.
To increase overall site traffic, we set up a Google Ads Grant account, which provided free search engine advertising each month.
Finally, we built templates that helped acquire sponsors and brand partners. This included creating an ambassador program for the Turn the Town Pink initiative. Ambassadors received a toolkit with graphics, statistics, and prewritten captions, which allowed them to easily post to their own social channels.
"Working with Reusser took our brand and platform to the next level when we lacked the time and resources to get it going ourselves. I am grateful for the effort and attention to detail that their team took on every project, ad, and post. They set us up for success and created a smooth transition so that our team can now continue to reach more people and bring awareness to the importance of breast cancer research."
The results
Our multi-pronged approach led to a variety of benefits across numerous digital channels:
This 1,092% follower increase was a result of big tactics such as creative campaigns, giveaway partnerships, brand partner engagement, and posting consistent and engaging content—along with smaller tactics such as replying to all comments.
By writing new, diverse content, the number of keywords registered by Google skyrocketed.
Visibility outside of Indiana played a large role in this growth, propelling the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer into a national spotlight. Traffic from Los Angeles, San Antonio, Philadelphia, Denver, and other major cities increased by at least 35%.
During Breast Cancer Awareness Month, engagement was higher than more well-known organizations such as The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, Susan G. Komen, and the American Cancer Society.
While this total cannot be fully attributed to Reusser—the Foundation has many donation streams that drive this number—we are extremely proud of the role we were able to play in soliciting donations and acquiring new donors throughout our partnership.
