Case Study
Marketing an institutional product to the buyers who matter most
Company
Okapi Educational Publishing
Tenure
October 2022 – Present
Digital Marketing Specialist → Marketing Manager
Audience
K-12 administrators, curriculum directors, literacy coordinators, district buyers
Who is Okapi?
Okapi sells literacy curriculum products to K-12 schools and districts — an institutional B2B environment with long consideration cycles, layered stakeholders, and complex purchasing processes governed by budgets and school boards. The buyers are not individual consumers. They are curriculum directors, literacy coaches, and district administrators evaluating long-term instructional investments with measurable academic outcomes attached.
My Role
My role was to translate a nuanced, research-backed product into clear value propositions that resonated with professional decision-makers across digital, email, web, and physical conference touchpoints — and to build the systems, assets, and campaigns that moved those buyers through a deliberate consideration journey.
The Challenge
Literacy curriculum is a crowded, academically-charged space. Okapi's products are grounded in the Science of Reading — a research framework with significant nuance — and communicating that credibly to time-strapped school administrators required both strategic clarity and visual precision.
At the same time, the buying process involves multiple decision-makers: teachers who influence, curriculum leads who evaluate, and district administrators who approve. Each audience needed messaging and materials calibrated to their specific concerns and vocabulary.
3+
Distinct buyer personas addressed across every campaign — teachers, curriculum directors, and district administrators
Multi-channel
Campaigns running across email, web, paid, social, and live conference environments simultaneously
Long cycle
Institutional purchasing decisions that span months, requiring sustained nurture across touchpoints
Design Approach
Every asset I produced was built around one question: what does a curriculum director need to see, read, or feel to take the next step? That meant prioritizing clarity over cleverness, credibility over flash, and outcome-focused language over product feature lists.
Web & Digital
- Designed and optimized campaign landing pages aligned to specific product launches and audience segments
- Applied UX improvements and analytics-backed decisions to increase web conversion and engagement
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to ensure messaging consistency across all digital properties
- Implemented marketing automation workflows to support lead nurture at scale
Campaign & Brand
- Led go-to-market design for new product launches — from announcement to post-launch follow-up
- Produced multi-channel email campaigns (email, SMS, push) targeting segmented institutional audiences
- Designed print collateral, digital ads, and conference visuals for national literacy events
- Maintained visual consistency and brand quality across a high-volume asset library
Assets built for institutional audiences
Each piece below was designed to serve a specific role in the institutional buyer journey — from awareness at conferences to conversion via targeted email campaigns and product-focused digital ads.
Conference & Print Advertising
Designed for curriculum directors and literacy coordinators at national education conferences — where institutional buying decisions begin. Messaging anchored to research credibility and classroom outcomes.
Campaign Social — Awareness
Top-of-funnel social content designed to drive awareness among teachers and literacy leads who influence district purchasing decisions.
Product Launch Creative
Campaign visual for a new curriculum collection launch — communicating scope, sequence, and grade-level coverage to evaluating administrators.
Resource-Focused Messaging
Content targeting classroom teachers — the practitioner audience that influences and advocates for curriculum decisions within their schools.
Magazine Ad — Bilingual Market
Print ad targeting bilingual education coordinators through specialist trade publications. A distinct buyer segment requiring tailored positioning.
Product Packaging
Physical product labels — part of a cohesive brand system that carries visual standards from digital into tangible classroom materials.
Outcomes
Marketing an institutional product requires measuring success differently than consumer campaigns. The metrics that matter are pipeline quality, campaign engagement among the right decision-makers, and the ability to sustain brand presence across a long consideration window.
Go-to-Market Execution
Led design and campaign strategy for multiple product launches — driving alignment across marketing, product, and sales teams and delivering cohesive creative from announcement through post-launch follow-up.
Multi-Channel Campaign Performance
Developed and executed campaigns across email, SMS, push, paid, and social channels. Leveraged segmentation and lifecycle data to reach the right buyer personas at each stage of the consideration journey.
Web & Conversion Optimization
Applied UX improvements and Google Analytics insights to optimize website performance — improving on-site engagement and supporting conversion goals tied to institutional lead generation.
AI-Enhanced Workflow Efficiency
Implemented AI-powered content generation and marketing automation using Claude, Klaviyo, and Zapier — reducing manual production time by up to 80% while maintaining brand quality and consistency at scale.
Skills Applied
What I owned end-to-end
Campaign Design & Art Direction
Concepted and produced visual creative across digital, print, email, and conference environments, maintaining a cohesive brand voice for a professional institutional audience
Web Strategy & UX
Informed and supported website optimization using data analytics, with a focus on engagement and conversion for institutional buyers
Go-to-Market Planning
Designed launch campaigns that bridged product, marketing, and sales — translating complex curriculum features into buyer-facing narratives
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Partnered with publishers, external vendors, design teams, and leadership to align creative output with business strategy
Marketing Automation & AI
Built and managed automated marketing workflows, integrating AI tools to increase output quality and operational efficiency
Conference & Event Marketing
Designed and produced physical and digital materials for national literacy conferences — Okapi's primary live sales environment
Brand Governance
Maintained visual standards and quality control across a high-volume, multi-channel asset library