Case study

trail life logo

Improving communications

Trail Life USA was looking for a solution that would enable them to communicate information to its 27,500 members and register people through an automated email platform that would be more intuitive and engaging. The ability to communicate information was essential for the company in order to stay connected with its members. Trail Life was using several disparate platforms; Shopify for the eCommerce store and Constant Contact for email. Jumping back and forth from one platform to the next meant having data and reporting in several places. Life Trail USA was looking for a single solution to accomplish all of their communications needs.

The numbers

hiking icon

700

Troops

receipt icon

4,351

Orders Placed

shopping icon

34,533

Products Sold

email icon

554,022

Campaign Emails

Company profile

Trail Life USA is an outdoor adventure program for boys whose parents seek a faith-based place that emphasizes character development, leadership, and moral purity, and who aspire their boys to live in accordance with the values expressed in the program’s Oath and Creed. The vision is to be the premier national character development organization for young men which produces Godly and responsible husbands, fathers, and citizens.

The challenge

The question for David Abernathy, National Technology Coordinator Trail Life USA, was how to bring all their marketing and sales processes into a single, central place. With different providers for their online store and email campaigns, constantly switching platform became tedious and repetitive. With over 27,500 members, communication became an issue and there was no organization internally and for end-users.

Another issue for Trail Life USA was how to find a solution to register people more quickly and efficiently. Without automation, registration was difficult to manage. Sales was unable to keep track of registrants and all the processes that were happening in this category. Instead of using paper to update customer data, Trail Life needed a digital solution. Although we were dealing with several issues, one problem was that we were having was switching back and forth from one program to the next. We were using one program for email, one for the store.

quotes

It became difficult to integrate all of our data together so that we could have reports and metrics gathered in order to make smarter decisions on a higher level.

David Abernathy, Trial Life National Solutions Coordinator

Another issue Trail Life was dealing with was keeping track of inventory in their eCommerce store. Keeping track of which products were out of stock required to continuously track this data in spreadsheets instead of working with automatic notifications.

Ultimately, Configio was selected because of its ability to manage processes from a single platform, keep all data and reporting in one place, manage the store and communicate more seamlessly with registrants via email.

The solution

With Configio, Trail Life automated their entire marketing processes using the solution. With a team of 14 staff, internal processes became manageable eliminating the need for paper as all processes were automated. The eCommerce store became a powerful engine for various processes and communications with users, and helped the team become a more mature organization. With data and reporting in one place, Trail Life was now able to improve campaigns and interact and engage with members on a more mature level.

email icon

Email Communication

With Configio, Trail Life was able to get rid of all the tedious, repetitive tasks of communicating with their registrants. Configio’s email platform created a central hub from which to disseminate information to its members. Communication became quick and seamless and Trail Life was able to increase engagement while delivering targeted messages to its users. Out of 78 total campaigns, and 554,022 sent emails, communications were excellent; Trail Life was able to achieve a bounce rate of 2.11% and only 0.38% opt-outs.

store icon

ECommerce Store

Configio enabled Trail Life to keep track of all their products in their eCommerce store. Whenever items went out of stock, the team got immediate notifications. This enabled the marketing department to ensure that there was a seamless shopping experience for buyers. With over 150 products, it became impossible to tell when Trail Life was running out of stock. The entire process was automated with Configio. Furthermore, the store made it quick and easy for users to register for programs. Trail Life gained a more intuitive way for audiences to enroll online and also Configio implemented their Single-Sign-On which really enhanced users experience.

grad cap icon

Learning Management

Another unanticipated benefit of using Configio was Trail Life’s ease of providing online learning for their members. Since the LMS was available to Trail Life as a customer they simply created relevant training courses and made them available to their learners. Since starting Trail Life has created 73 unique courses with 138,144 enrollments across their total membership of 27,500.

chart icon

Data and Reporting

With a complete integration of all marketing processes, Trail Life was now able to gain a bigger picture of all their processes. Data and metrics were accessible through Configio and there was no need to jump from one platform to the next.

The results

quotations

As a team of 14, managing our internal processes was something we drastically improved thanks to Configio. Since October 2015 when we implemented the platform, our success on all levels has dramatically increased.

David Abernathy, Trail Life National Solutions Coordinator