We would like to express our gratitude to Daniliants Ventures for participating in our volunteer project Let's Shake Hands, which helps Ukrainian children get free knowledge regardless of their location. Daniliants Ventures is our irreplaceable and main marketing partner and supporter in the development and implementation of the website, promoting the project, and encouraging new users to our platform. Therefore, given that this is a volunteer project, we would like to thank the entire Daniliants Ventures team for helping us in realizing such an incredible mission and lending a helping hand to Ukrainian children in difficult times when they desperately need it. Thank you!
Especially in these times, society needs good deeds. And that’s the reason why this case is especially close to our hearts. It is a meaningful and socially important project in which Daniliants Ventures have had the honor to participate.
We started a volunteer-based collaboration with a startup called Let's Shake Hands in April 2022. Our duty has involved all things digital marketing: creating and implementing a comprehensive marketing strategy and action plan to spread the word about the importance of helping others. In the project, the work has been done in parallel with an international outsourcing company, Iccuracy , which has been responsible for the technical implementation.
Let's Shake Hands is a free platform that connects voluntary tutors and Ukrainian children with each other. The purpose is to help Ukrainian children and young people get educational support with school subjects, learn a new language, or integrate into their new country of residence.
The whole project was initiated by the son of a Ukrainian family who has been studying in the UK for several years but his heart and soul ache for his peers from Ukraine. So he wanted to support and help other Ukrainian children - those who stayed in Ukraine and those who now live as refugees - during the difficult times
Testing the Platform's Market Fit
It all began with testing the market fit. The first step was to create an MVP (Minimum Viable Product). The MVP version included a website and Telegram Bot . We were responsible for the design and implementation of the website and logo, and the bot was technically realized by Iccuracy .
After the technical implementation, we produced content in three different languages (English, Ukrainian and Russian) for both the website and Telegram Bot. To make sure that all Ukrainian children have access to the platform and entire service, it has always been free of charge.
Telegram Bot Was Used to Connect Tutors and Children
The purpose of the Telegram Bot was to serve as a tool connecting voluntary tutors and children. With the bot, both children and tutors can register as users. Telegram Bot is a small program that is hosted on a server that uses the Telegram API.
Telegram bot works with all Telegram Messenger-compatible operating systems, devices, and browsers. Anyone with technical coding knowledge can create Telegram Bots with tailored functions and characteristics.
As the bot is connected to Telegram’s server, when a user sends a message to the bot, Telegram receives the message's information in a machine-readable format. Thus, the user can request functions and communicate with the bot using a simple user interface in Telegram.
That’s it for the technical side that sounds, by the way, much more complicated than it is. The key was that the Telegram Bot fit perfectly into the MVP version, as it was quickly put to use for testing the service.
Significant Demand for the Service
The MVP was used to validate whether there's a demand for the service. And the answer was YES, there is.
It was immediately clear that the service was in a class by itself and it was welcomed with open arms. A huge number of children have registered for the service, and a considerable number of mentors have joined as well. Registration took place through the Telegram Bot, with the child signing up for the class that required assistance.
In the MVP phase, it was noticed that the service is certainly in demand. As soon as the market fit was confirmed, we began scaling up marketing.
Scaling the Marketing of the Service
Next, it was time to scale the marketing. We created a marketing strategy for the service to attract bot users and increase brand awareness. The strategy was put into practice using an action plan, which we will review in more detail next.
First, we created social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram for which we still produce creatives on a weekly basis. We have also contributed to social media design as we planned the visual identity for Instagram feed, shown below.
To enable the measurability of marketing activities, we brought Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity, Google Search Console, and Facebook Pixel into play, and set up conversion tracking.
The marketing plan consisted of several means and channels: paid advertising on social media, Google Ads, influencer marketing, promoting on Telegram, peer-to-peer communication, launched competitions and PR (including volunteer centers, ministries of education, universities, patronage organizations in England, Ukrainian schools, European consulates, etc.).
In addition to paid traffic, efforts were also made to increase the site's organic user base with the help of search engine optimization. To maximize the success of the ads and the visibility, the landing page was optimized to be more search engine friendly.
After a few months since its launch, we conducted a survey among the Telegram Bot users to better understand the audience and improve the Telegram Bot’s functionality.
Digital marketing has the advantage of offering a variety of channels, as we all know. Let's dive into the different marketing measures in greater detail.
Facebook Ads
Aiming to increase traffic to the website, we created two Facebook Ads campaigns for which the following target groups were selected.
Traffic campaign to attract tutors
The ad campaign aimed at potential tutors included two ad groups that were:
Group 1: Practicing tutors, teachers from Ukraine and European countries who are ready to become voluntary tutors for Ukrainian children.
Group 2 - Students from high schools and colleges who are willing to help children adjust to school abroad or just support them.
Examples of the ad creatives can be found below.
Traffic campaign to attract students
This campaign's target audience included parents living in Ukraine or other popular refugee countries in Europe. Below you will find examples of the ad creatives.
Google Ads
In Google ads, we created a Search campaign, a Youtube campaign, and a Performance Max campaign, the last being the latest addition to the Google Ads campaign family.
With the Search campaign, we aimed to attract students by using relevant keywords (English tutoring, other languages tutoring, school subjects).
Additionally, a YouTube campaign was launched to reach and attract tutors using the video platform.
Watch the full video for Let’s Shake Hands Youtube ad here .
As the icing on the cake, we chose the Performance Max campaign to attract students to the service. Using artificial intelligence, Performance Max maximizes conversions by optimizing bids.
With the new campaign type, ads can appear on all platforms managed by Google. This means that the ads will be displayed primarily to people with the highest probability to convert, in this case, to click their way to the website.
Drawing Contest for Ukrainian Children
Together with the founders of the project, we organized a month-long drawing contest for Ukrainian children on Instagram .
To attract participants to the competition, we launched a social media campaign. The campaign's target audience consisted of parents living in Ukraine or elsewhere in Europe (countries with a lot of refugees). The winners and participants received certificates, designed by us.
General Results Achieved Through Marketing
Next, we will present the general results of our marketing efforts. These results are based on data that has been collected since April 2022. The active campaigns were rolling out from April to the beginning of July.
We managed to attract 14076 users to the Telegram Bot. 10,742 of the users are students and 3,334 are mentors.
Of the users, 8,465 completed the registration (7,523 students and 942 mentors). Telegram Bot has 3,332 active users , of which 2,405 are students and 927 are mentors.
The cost of a registered user is 0.45€/user. The conversion rate for attracted users is 23.6%. Registered users, on the other hand, represent a conversion rate of 14.2%.
Although increasing social media followers was not a set goal, advertising also paid off in social media figures. Paid advertising showed a positive development in followers on both Facebook and Instagram. Instagram holds a following of 2,135 persons and the project's Facebook account has currently 1,030 followers.
Another figure worth mentioning is the total website traffic, which consists of 59,743 users.
The Next Phase of The Service
For the service to continue to flourish, a funding round is currently being applied for. The service will likely change in such a way that, with the help of financiers, it will begin to support real teachers in Ukraine, i.e. they would be paid a salary.
The importance of the service now and in the future is indicated by the fact that the Ukrainian Ministry of Education has given recognition to the project. According to them, the service is genuinely innovative and of massive help to Ukrainian children and society.
From Telegram Bot to A Mobile App
The next stage of the service also requires more efficient tools. The Telegram Bot is being changed into a mobile app, which is now under testing. We were in charge of the mobile application's UI/UX design which defines the structure and visual look of the functions and elements in the user interface.
Collaboration Continues
The project has and will always hold a special place in our hearts. Our collaboration with Let’s Shake Hands has been smooth and the results we’ve witnessed are exquisite.
The collaboration between Daniliants Ventures and Let's shake hands continues and we are very proud of the whole project and its importance, especially for children for whom traditional learning in school is difficult or even impossible at the moment.
If you need help with scaling marketing or you want to assure there’s demand for your platform or service, don't hesitate to get in touch . Let's do things together that are meaningful to both your company and the world.
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