Digital Marketing Project Summaries

Publication Date: February 24, 2022
Current as of:

This page showcases the level of diversity in both design and approach across these digital marketing projects. Over the two-year project period, each project must conduct at least three digital marketing interventions. Examples of planned interventions include launching social media campaigns, placing digital advertisements, and initiating two-way communication with parents using text messaging and live chats. To learn more about digital marketing, refer to the Glossary of Terms and Tools used in Digital Marketing (PDF).

These projects will further child support program objectives by making parents aware of how child support services may benefit their family. Each project must have an evaluation plan, and grantees are encouraged to use the Learn-Innovate-Improve model. OCSE looks forward to sharing effective approaches developed and tested through these projects with the broader child support community. To learn more, take a look at this video  that provides lessons learned from each project.  

For more information, contact the Division of Program Innovation at OCSE.DPI@acf.hhs.gov.

Child Support Report Articles


California — Del Norte, Imperial, and Merced Counties
California Department of Child Support Services

Reaching the Unassisted — Digital Outreach to Non-TANF Prospects

This project will focus on creating digital outreach to single parents not likely to be referred through Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in Del Norte, Imperial, and Merced Counties. The participating counties have very different populations, allowing this project to test, evaluate, and refine what works best with diverse groups of unassisted single parents of minor children. 

Contact: Nicole Darracq | 916-464-6827 | Nicole.Darracq@dcss.ca.gov

Video: Del Norte, Imperial and Merced Counties Digital Marketing Video

Website: CA DCSS Digital Marketing Website

Child Support Report Articles

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes how California's Department of Child Support Services (DCSS) used expert-led webinars to gather customer data and social media, display, and search advertising to increase enrollment of non-TANF parents in the child support program. 

Key Takeaways

  • Search advertising was the highest performer throughout the grant program
  • Ads received unexpected engagement from male-focused websites
  • The Spanish-speaking community was highly engaged with all digital content
  • Influencer marketing proved to be successful among a hard-to-reach population
  • Identified two distinct outreach targets — current case participants and prospective case participants
  • Lack of trust in government negatively impacted information-gathering attempts

Download California DCSS' final brief  (PDF)


Digital Marketing Campaigns to Improve Awareness to Underserved Populations

The goal of this digital marketing project is to increase public awareness of child support services to underserved families in Orange County. Orange County's Department of Child Support Services (OC CSS) will continue digital marketing efforts to target English- and Spanish-speaking single parents who don't have a child support case and are not receiving welfare. They will launch a social media campaign on several platforms including Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. The social media campaign will focus on opening a child support case and increase awareness of child support services. The digital marketing effort will also include website and mobile app advertisements that follow the online behavior of target demographics. OC CSS will expand their Pandora and iHeart radio marketing from seven target zip codes to all of Orange County.

Contact: Jolie Sheppick | 714-347-4929 | JSheppick@css.ocgov.com 

Video: Orange County Digital Marketing Video

Website: CA DCSS Digital Marketing Website

Child Support Report Articles

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes how Orange County used online radio, social media, display (websites and mobile apps), and direct email advertising to increase awareness of the child support program in the county.

Key Takeaways

  • Digital strategies allowed more flexibility than traditional marketing with similar reach.
  • Surveys showed that new and current customers rely heavily on the OC CSS website for information. This showed that strategies to bring customers to our website as well as continued website analysis and improvement were important.
  • Targeted direct email marketing results in a high volume of engagement from potential and current customers.
  • Increase advertising on platforms that are resulting in engagements and actions, not just a large amount of traffic to landing pages.
  • When testing messaging, messaging and image combinations perform differently on different platforms. Investing in several platforms at once and then narrowing down to the best performing platforms and messages will make a campaign more effective.
  • Messaging that spoke to tangible, seasonal needs (i.e. back to school supplies or clothes) and/or acknowledged parents’ perception of the child support process as cumbersome (i.e. “you’re not alone” or “don’t do it by yourself”) seemed to be the most effective at gaining interest and driving engagement.

Download California Orange County's final brief (PDF)


California — Sacramento County
California Department of Child Support Services 

Digital Outreach and Media Engagement (DOME) Project

The DOME project will focus on custodial parents who do not currently have a child support case; receive non-TANF public assistance benefits; and have not initiated a child support case by either voluntary or mandatory means. Based on U.S. Census Bureau data, potentially one out of every three families in Sacramento County could use child support services. The Department of Child Support Services will test the hypothesis that an increase in digital outreach, communication, and engagement to the target audience will result in an increase of new applications for child support services.

Contact: Alix Haik-Bruno | 916-875-7315 | haik-brunoa@saccounty.net

Video: Sacramento County Digital Marketing Video

Website: CA DCSS Digital Marketing Website

Child Support Report Article

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief shares lessons learned from Sacramento County’s four digital media interventions to increase child support enrollments.

Key Takeaways

  • Use advertising platforms that allow more precise audience targeting. 
  • Build campaigns where the instructions are clear and actionable.
  • Design a digital media strategy and platforms that align with your goals.
  • Establish a consistent brand and align across all platforms.
  • Develop long-term communication strategies and allocate resources to support them.

Download California Sacramento's final brief (PDF)


California — San Diego County
California Department of Child Support Services

Digital Media Engagement for Spanish Speakers

San Diego's Department of Child Support Services will use digital marketing to increase participation in the child support program among the Spanish-speaking population. They will create social media-based advertisements and videos targeting specific audiences by age, gender, parental status, and language preferences.

Contact: Kendrik Eaton | 858-650-6578 | Kendrik.Eaton@sdcounty.ca.gov 

Video: San Diego County Digital Marketing Video

Website: CA DCSS Digital Marketing Website

Child Support Report Article

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes San Diego’s use of social media marketing, email marketing, and live chat to increase engagement and child support enrollments among Spanish parents. 

Key Takeaways

  • Centralizing all digital marketing efforts, channels, and findings is the key to obtaining granular data to develop speedy solutions for the underlying issues.
  • Child support customers are still embracing traditional forms of communications such as face-to-face conversations and telephone calls. Integrating online marketing with offline activities is critical to understanding performance of current and future campaigns for optimization.
  • Digital marketing generates large traffic to the website and is highly effective in increasing public awareness of child support programs.
  • Online email and social media campaigns generate large amount of traffic to the website but keeping visitors on the website and make them perform a desired action is challenging.
  • Choosing effective landing pages and redesigning the website to create a simpler, easier to navigate site can lower the bounce rate.

Download California San Diego's final brief (PDF)


Digital Marketing Interventions to Enrich Families

This project will focus on retooling outreach efforts using of digital marketing interventions.

Contact: Sara Quetone | 918-453-5444 | sara-quetone@cherokee.org

Video: Cherokee Nation Digital Marketing Video

Child Support Report Articles

Interventions

Final Brief

This final brief describes how Cherokee Nation’s Office of Child Support Services used its newly designed website, video public service announcements, and text messaging to increase applications.

Key Takeaways

  • Website views increased 378% from Intervention One through Intervention Three, suggesting the new website increased awareness of the child support program.
  • Incoming applications increased during each intervention, also suggesting an increased awareness of the program.
  • Customer contacts increased from 9,290 in Intervention One to 9,533 during Intervention Three, suggesting an increase in customer engagement, but not necessarily a direct result of the interventions.
  • Outreach & effective communication are important and programs should constantly update materials so they are relevant.
  • The key to using the most effective social media platforms is to determine which works best for the program and which are being use by the targeted population. 

Download Cherokee Nation's final brief (PDF)


Colorado Digital Marketing Project

The project will test the effectiveness of digital marketing at increasing child support applications. Colorado's Division of Child Support Services (CO DCSS) will use the outcomes of the planned interventions to identify the most effective techniques for outreach and inform future use of digital media. CO DCSS will also expand its capacity and expertise in digital marketing. The interventions will provide valuable information on how to best serve families and reach new populations that are not aware of the services offered by CO DCSS.

Contact: Sabrina Montoya | 303-866-3183 | sabrina.montoya@state.co.us

Video: Colorado Digital Marketing Video

Child Support Report Articles

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief shares results of Colorado’s three interventions to increase voluntary child support enrollment.

Key Takeaways

  • Straightforward, informative content resonates most with parents. 
  • Website redesign and search engine optimization increased engagement. 
  • Facebook sponsored advertising reached a wide audience, but only brief website visits.
  • Online advertising prompted more application-related activity on the website. 
  • Paid search advertising performed substantially better than any other type. 
  • DCSS’ digital presence was enhanced by the launch online applications.

Download Colorado's final brief (PDF)


Digital Marketing Outreach

Building on previous outreach and public awareness efforts, Indiana's Digital Marketing Outreach project tested the efficacy of digital marketing to raise awareness about and engage eligible families in the Indiana child support program. The goal was to reach and serve more families, which would increase the child support caseload.

Contact: Charity Gillis | 317-234-0161 | Charity.Gillis@dcs.IN.gov

Video: Indiana Digital Marketing Video

Website: Indiana Digital Marketing Website

Child Support Report Articles

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes how Indiana’s Child Support Bureau used website updates, chat, texting, and digital marketing to increase awareness and the number of families served by its child support program.

Key Takeaways

  • Using words like “Enrollment Form” and “Enroll” instead of “Application” or “Apply” may result in more requests for child support services.
  • Technical and agency terms (e.g., IV-D instead of child support services) may deter people from engaging with the child support program.
  • Changing a few words on a web page may result in better engagement than making a wholesale change to the website and it is less expensive.
  • Texting can be an effective way to reach potential and current child support customers. 
  • Digital Marketing ads work — the ads increased awareness and drove traffic to the enrollment form which translated into increased enrollment form downloads and new cases. Also, taglines matter more than images or calls to action.

Download Indiana's final brief  (PDF)


Lac Courte Oreilles Tribal Child Support Program
Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin

Digital Media Outreach Program

Lac Courte Oreilles' Tribal Child Support Program (LCO-CSP) will design and test three marketing interventions aimed at improving two-way communication and parent participation. This project will fundamentally change and improve the way LCO-CSP approaches digital marketing and communication by bringing current and potential participants to one consolidated digital location. These interventions will make program information available at participants’ fingertips and broaden lines of communication with program staff.

Contact: Sue Smith | 715-634-8934 ext. 295 | Sue.Smith@lco-nsn.gov

Video: Lac Courte Oreille Digital Marketing Video

Child Support Report Article

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes Lac Courte Oreilles’ redesigned website and search engine optimization (SEO), Facebook-sponsored advertising, and gas pump advertising used to increase enrollment.

Key Takeaways

  • Blog posts and employment opportunities drove viewers to the website and enhanced its SEO.
  • Facebook advertising prompted engagement and referred users to the website.
  • The initial promotion to win a gift card by registering for the portal was successful at enrolling customers, but not subsequent promotions.
  • Advertising on gas pumps was a unique strategy that prompted many views among tribal members.

Download Lac Courte Oreilles' final brief (PDF)


Learn/Innovate/Improve Strategies for Technology and Engagement (LISTEN)

The LISTEN project will develop digital marketing interventions for parents not currently served by the child support program. Using the Learn-Innovate-Improve methodology, Michigan's Office of Child Support will be able to evaluate their interventions throughout the project period and make changes or tweaks to improve the interventions.

The objectives of the LISTEN project are to increase the number of new child support cases that are not the result of a public assistance referral by 5% over the course of the project; and to increase and improve customer engagement with Michigan’s child support program.

Contact: Amy Price | 517-241-1655 | PriceA1@michigan.gov

Video: Michigan Digital Marketing Video

Website: Michigan Digital Marketing Website

Child Support Report Article

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes how Michigan tested three messaging strategies to increase the proportion of non-referral online child support applications.

Key Takeaways

  • Users did not show a clear preference for one of the three messaging strategies above the others.
  • Mobile ads proved to be the largest and most cost-effective source of ad impressions. However, users from mobile were less likely to click through to the portal or download information.
  • Users who came to the dedicated landing page through Google paid search ads were more likely to click through to the portal, which was the goal.
  • Further research is necessary, particularly on messaging and the preferred channels for the target audience.

Download Michigan's final brief (PDF)


Using Digital Marketing to Increase Participation in the Child Support Program

This project will target both current program participants and non-participants. Minnesota expects to change program perceptions and increase participant applications by finding solutions that offer education, build awareness, and provide program information. Minnesota's Child Support Division will partner with 12 pilot counties to get a representative sample of geography, population demographics, and caseload size to implement and support the goals of the grant.

Contact: Bruce Erickson | 651-431-4466 | bruce.t.erickson@state.mn.us

Child Support Report Article

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes Minnesota Child Support Division’s use of market research to better understand public awareness and parent perspectives of the program; increase the number of nonpublic assistance applications; and improve communications with participants through texting.

Key Takeaways

  • 35% of survey respondents were not aware of Minnesota’s child support program or services.
  • Minimal marketing efforts, like paid search ads, can raise awareness and increase applications.
  • Text messaging resulted in a positive experience and better program outcomes for participants.

Download Minnesota's final brief (PDF)


Using Digital Marketing to Increase Participation in the Child Support Program-Child Support Connect Project

Texas' Office of the Attorney General-Child Support Division (OAG-CSD) seeks to increase online applications for child support services and improve engagement with parents through two-way, real-time digital communication and a targeted digital outreach campaign. OAG-CSD will build on recent parent engagement and website improvement efforts, including mobile-friendly web initiatives. When applying the Learn-Innovate-Improve model, OAG-CSD will leverage their experience with testing interventions under the Behavioral Interventions for Child Support Services demonstration grant.

Contact: Justin Reed | 512-460-6178 | Justin.Reed@oag.texas.gov

Video: Texas Digital Marketing Video

Child Support Report Article

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes how Texas used live chat, video ads, and chat bots to increase applications.

Key Takeaways

  • The interventions highlighted the need to translate child support information in Spanish.
  • The chat feature provided a new method of communication and enhanced customer interaction.
  • Customer feedback on the application process helped to enhance the customer experience.
  • Sustainable change in customer engagement requires continuous digital outreach.

Download Texas final brief (PDF)


Digital Child Support Marketing Demonstration

Virginia's Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) tested three successive digital marketing interventions to reach parents that could benefit from child support services. Through these interventions, they prompted parents to engage in two-way communication with DCSE and to request and access DCSE services.

Contact: Mariellen Keely | 804-726-7923 | mariellen.keely@dss.virginia.gov

Video: Virginia Digital Marketing Video

Website: Virginia Digital Marketing Website

Child Support Report Article

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes how Virginia’s Division of Child Support Enforcement (DCSE) used its grant funds to respond to three problems: 1) The decline in the number of child support cases in Virginia; 2) The COVID-19 pandemic, which had sudden and far-reaching effects on child support customers and the operational activities of DCSE; and 3) Uncertainty about sustaining digital engagement methods without additional funding.

Key Takeaways

  • Behaviorally informed messaging makes a difference.
  • Partnerships are critical to every part of the process, from planning to evaluation.
  • Search advertising appears to be an effective method of digital advertising, but supporting it with ads on other platforms can improve overall outcomes. 
  • For users to act on digital marketing messaging, they need clear digital endpoints and those endpoints must be designed primarily for mobile users
  • Organic social media is best thought of as a long-term investment in outreach and brand awareness—with video as an important ingredient in developing that awareness—and while negative comments need to be managed, they are manageable

Download Virginia’s final brief (PDF)


Using Digital Marketing to Increase Participation in the Child Support Program

The goal of Washington's Division of Child Support (DCS) was to increase the number of applications from custodial parents not receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. This project modernized communication methods and increased outreach to parents. The project objective was to determine how digital marketing could help DCS reach and serve more families. Interventions focused on digital marketing approaches and partnerships for outreach to families that could benefit from child support services, including two-way digital communication and engagement with parents. DCS anticipated that the planned marketing strategies would increase awareness of and participation in the program. DCS partnered with experienced social research firms to analyze data and evaluate progress toward outcomes.

Contact: Christina Blesi-Hays | 253-476-7674 | Christina.Blesi@dshs.wa.gov 

Video: Washington Digital Marketing Video

Child Support Report Article

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This final brief describes how the Washington's Division of Child Support tested social media, email, and streaming radio in eight counties to increase enrollment in the child support program. 

Key Takeaways

  • Digital marketing elicits responses, shares new information and attracts website interactions from individuals mostly new to child support service
  • Memorable web addresses or durable content (email) promotes engaged, repeat visits, encouraging viewers’ visits on their own initiative.
  • Enrolling in child support is a multistep process and responses to digital marketing could form an important first step and prompt repeat visits to webpage. 
  • Straightforward, informative content on how child support services can help parents provide for their children is useful. 
  • Digital marketing is most effective when advertisements link to accessible, informative and easy to navigate website resources.

Download Washington's final brief (PDF)


Changing the Way Child Support is Viewed in Wyoming

This project expanded on outreach activities already in place and explored digital marketing methods previously out of reach. Additionally, Wyoming's Child Support Program (CSP) used this project to increase collaboration with the Wyoming State Bar by directing education toward private attorneys and making CSP into a referral source for attorneys. The primary objectives of this project were to further educate on the services CSP provides and promote a positive image; enhance partner outreach to ensure citizens are reached and served effectively; and increase the number of new applications, thereby increasing the caseload.

Contact: Kristie Arneson | 307-777-6031 | kristie.arneson@wyo.gov

Video: Wyoming Digital Marketing Video

Website: Wyoming Digital Marketing Webpage

Interventions and Reports

Final Brief

This brief describes Wyoming Child Support Program’s (CSP) efforts to increase eligible customers’ awareness and knowledge of CSP services; improve eligible customer’s attitude toward the CSP; and increase enrollment in the CSP, especially through online applications.

Key Takeaways

  • Large-scale, intensive digital marketing can increase awareness of the CSP.
  • Marketing messages should reflect the social and economic context in which potentially eligible clients live.
  • Effective communication and established work protocols can lead to successful project coordination, implementation, and management of digital marketing interventions.
  • The digital marketing grant allowed the CSP to try marketing approaches outside their usual budget for outreach

Download Wyoming's final brief  (PDF)


Disclaimers:

The products on this page are not OCSE publications; they were produced by Digital Marketing grant recipients or their contractors. The products are in the public domain. Permission to reproduce is not necessary.

The views expressed in these publications do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of OCSE, the Administration for Children and Families, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

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