Franklin College is a liberal arts and sciences college of 1000 students, located 20 minutes south of Indianapolis. It offers 50+ undergraduate majors and two masters’ degree programs.
At Franklin College, a small team of three handles the marketing needs of this busy college. “I routinely receive 100-150 emails a day with requests for marketing materials from departments across the college,” says Ann Smith, Director of Marketing. “With such a high volume – and before we had FunctionFox – I barely had time to read the emails, let alone organize and delegate the work involved in each project”.
Realizing that something had to change, she began to consider her options. “I had been self-employed for many years and had talked to the FunctionFox team when I was evaluating the product as a freelancer.”
The marketing team found that it took about a month to become familiar with the many features available, but that it was worth the effort. “We were pleased that many of FunctionFox’s new features were designed specifically for In-House teams. It was great to know they understood our challenges and had built a product that would help us overcome them. FunctionFox has given us a way to cope with the incoming stream of new work, and to better access project knowledge, as well as helping us strategize marketing and evolve our brand.”
Smith feels they have a much deeper understanding of their projects than they used to. “The information we collect with every project helps us make better decisions based on real quantitative data, plan for the future, work smarter, and keep everything on track. We completed more than 500 projects this year, and over that time have also experienced increased respect for our role within our organization. FunctionFox helps us look professional, reduces errors, and enables us to stay on top of our workflow.”
The team now spends just a few minutes a day entering new projects into the system, and about an hour every two weeks to review all open jobs. They feel FunctionFox has evolved them from a reactive organization to a strategically proactive one.
Smith has become somewhat of an ambassador for FunctionFox. “I consistently recommend FunctionFox to my colleagues in higher education, “she says, “I know from experience that other tools have less functionality, are too complex or too costly. FunctionFox is perfect for In-House marketing teams. What we didn’t expect was the free support and training we received, and the capable interactions with customer service. We’ve experienced responsive support and are more than happy with the on-going improvements we’ve seen in FunctionFox since we began to use it.”
The best part? “I’m not afraid to open my email program anymore because I know we can handle whatever comes at us easily and professionally,” says Smith.
For more information about Franklin College, go to www.franklincollege.edu/, For more information about FunctionFox, go to www.functionfox.com/.