Case Study
Fractional CMO CASE STUDY
Search Institute
The Situation
Search Institute had a problem most organizations would kill to have — genuinely groundbreaking research. Their 1990s Developmental Assets® framework had earned global acclaim, millions of survey respondents across 30+ countries, and a loyal following of educators, youth workers, and researchers.
Colin Powell, Former U.S. Secretary of State, had even called Search Institute “an American Treasure”. But this non-profit was sitting on something even bigger: new research on Developmental Relationships — the powerful bonds between kids and the adults in their lives. The problem? Nobody knew about it yet. Their email list was small. Engagement was low. And “Developmental Relationships” wasn’t even a searchable term.
That’s where I came in.
What I Did
First, I found their on-ramp. “Developmental Assets®” was already driving serious search traffic, so we built a lead magnet around it…a download that people wanted. Email subscriptions skyrocketed.
From there, I built a full marketing funnel: automations to keep the Assets revenue stream humming, segmentation based on click behavior and organization type (schools, nonprofits, government), and targeted campaigns that showed each audience exactly how the research solved their daily problems.
Then we layered in the bigger strategy:
- Video to bring Developmental Relationships to life in real schools and communities
- Webinars with researchers speaking directly to practitioners — and doubling as list-builders
- Google Search ads targeting problem-based searches; social ads driving traffic to lead magnets
- PR outreach that landed coverage in CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Time, the New York Times, Education Week, and more
- A TEDx Talk for the CEO to introduce Developmental Relationships to a much wider stage
- A brand-new family program (Keep Connected) with its own website and national campaign
- SEO built from scratch around a term that didn’t exist yet
The Results
- Email list grew by 1,200%
- Developmental Relationships grew to more than 50% of total sales revenue
- Search Institute now holds the #1 spot on Google for Developmental Relationships — a term they essentially created
- Media coverage in some of the biggest outlets in the world
The Takeaway
This project reminded me why I love this work. The Trail to the Sale™ framework doesn’t care if you’re for-profit or nonprofit — it works.
When I started, “Developmental Relationships” returned virtually zero search results. Today, it’s a widely-recognized term in the youth development world — and Search Institute owns the top spot on Google for it. We didn’t just optimize for a search term. We created one.
Search Institute had the research. We gave it the reach.
Ready to build something your competitors can’t copy? If you’re sitting on great work that the world hasn’t found yet, let’s fix that. Book a free discovery call →