Completed
- Brand Strategy
- Design
- Digital Ads
- Marketing
- Marketing Campaign
- SEO
- Social Media
- Strategy
The Client
Premier Media Group is a media powerhouse with six publications covering business, leisure, travel, and lifestyle across the Pacific Northwest. They came to M about their Northwest Travel & Life Magazine, an online and print publication with trip planning, tips, and outdoor inspiration for adventures across Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, and British Columbia.
The Challenge
Northwest Travel & Life Magazine experienced a significant decline in website traffic following a migration to a new CMS platform. This decline impacted their organic visibility and ad revenue, critical to their digital publication’s income stream. The key challenge was not only to restore traffic but also to demonstrate how paid advertising could increase page views and engagement, ultimately boosting their ad revenue.
The Solution
M Agency partnered with Premier Media Group to implement a comprehensive digital strategy focused on three key areas: paid advertising, organic optimization, and engagement optimization. Our goal was to increase website traffic, improve user experience, and ultimately drive engagement.
Paid Advertising Campaign
To quickly inject traffic and gather valuable insights, we launched a multi-faceted paid advertising campaign targeting three distinct audiences:
- Local Travelers: Promoted individual articles focused on popular travel destinations within the Northwest.
- Potential Visitors: Targeted individuals interested in exploring the Northwest with ads highlighting inspiring travel experiences.
- Out-of-State Travelers: Reached travelers from other states with ads showcasing the allure of the Northwest.
We employed an A/B testing methodology of three concepts to refine ad copy, visuals, and targeting parameters, with the goal of optimizing performance over time.
Experiential Design + Messaging
Our design approach highlighted the effectiveness of focusing on specific audiences. For example, ads centered around vineyards and wineries performed exceptionally well by targeting users with interests in wine and enotourism (aka wine tourism).
Similarly, ads promoting camping trips resonated with users passionate about outdoor activities like hiking and fishing. Over time, we observed that younger audiences were less engaged, so we refined our focus to appeal more to millennial and older demographics.
The language used was personal and experience-driven, such as “Your Next Weekend Getaway” and “Your Road Trip Itinerary.” This targeted strategy resulted in stronger engagement and more effective ad performance, showcasing the power of tailored messaging.
Best Performing Ads
Among the three initial concepts, the combination of visuals showcasing iconic landmarks and lifestyle photos of people enjoying experiences proved to be the most effective. This approach resonated particularly well with the audience, driving them towards specific articles on the Northwest Travel Magazine site. The testing phase revealed that users preferred engaging with content that offered both a visual and experiential glimpse into Northwest destinations.
By focusing on the emotional connection between the audience and the destination, we were able to drive significant traffic to the website.
Organic Optimization Efforts
Simultaneously, we tackled organic optimization head-on. We put together a multifaceted strategy to improve the website’s visibility in search engine results. Key initiatives included:
- Technical SEO Audit: We conducted a thorough analysis of the website’s technical infrastructure, identifying issues such as broken links, slow loading times, and duplicate content.
- On-Page Optimization: We optimized existing content with relevant meta descriptions and tags to enhance search engine visibility.
- Content Strategy: We developed a SEO guide focused on creating high-quality, informative, and engaging content for their writers and editors to work from.
Engagement Optimization
Understanding user behavior was crucial. We implemented scroll depth and dwell time analysis to determine how engaged readers were with the content they were landing on. The results were encouraging – nearly half of the new viewers dove into the content, scrolling through a significant portion of the article. This confirmed we were attracting the right audience, not just inflated numbers from bots.
User Journeys
To enhance user experience and encourage deeper engagement, we analyzed website content performance and made recommendations for improvements, such as adding interactive elements or multimedia content.
The Results
Our efforts paid off significantly. Over two months, page views increased by 90%, and the scroll and dwell times showed that the majority of new visitors were highly engaged with the content.
The average click-through rate (CTR) for the paid social campaigns was 3.08%, with some CTRs reaching as high as 8.15%, indicating strong engagement. These results not only stabilized the site’s performance but also set the stage for future growth and revenue opportunities for Northwest Travel & Life Magazine.
