Just several weeks before the I-5 bridge collapse and trending on twitter, I had met with Skagit County Chamber Executive Director’s Association (SCCEDA).  This group heads up Skagit County’s only destination marketing organization (DMO), while also each directing their town’s chamber of commerce.  We were meeting to go over Skagit Marketing’s proposal for an updated DMO website for Skagit County.  They gave me the go ahead to get started on the project.  Seven years ago I created the website as a volunteer project.  The site was outdated and lacking many new updated features including a dynamic content management system and a SEO strategy.

After the bridge collapse, launching the website ASAP became critical as Washington state Governor Inslee directed $150,000 in marketing funds to Skagit County.  Skagit County leaders including SCCEDA made a wise decision to invest this money in content marketing with the new website as the vehicle.  Starting this week, for the first time ever, the website and social media sites will have a paid marketing point person posting on facebook, updating twitter, updating a county-wide calendar and providing Skagit Marketing with content for the new blog.  A commercial was filmed last weekend which will be integrated into the new website and social media sites.

VisitSkagitValley.com is a work in progress because of the speed it had to be launched.  But isn’t that the case of the dynamic and content rich websites of today?   Trending on twitter was just the beginning.

Content Marketing and Organic Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a valuable investment for destination marketing organizations.  Skagit Marketing loves working on LoveLaConner.com - a successful destination marketing website.

Google “weekend getaway washington state” and check out the first two non-paid results.  The Love La Conner website is on Search Engine Result Page (SERP) #1 AND has the #1 non-paid listing for this keyword phrase.  If you do a Google image search for the exact same keyword phrase, Love La Conner images are the first two image results.

These results (and many more) are because of Skagit Marketing’s content marketing approach.  Skagit Marketing believes that relevant and robust content are the building blocks for successful organic search engine optimization (SEO) work.  We first develop a content marketing SEO strategy. In a perfect world we build the strategy in from the very beginning of website redesign.  However, we have been successful at revamping content and integrating new content into websites too.

We  work closely with our clients to implement the strategy while evolving as we go along.  Our most successful stories come from clients who fully embrace this approach and integrate our work into their marketing campaigns.  This approach saves our clients thousands of dollars that would have been spent on paid advertising.  And, this investment keeps giving the La Conner Chamber of Commerce an excellent return on their investment – doubling the amount of website visits.  However, the real winners are the end-user.  Potential visitors to La Conner now have more relevant content that matches exactly what they are searching.

The categories at the Solitude Blog range from Wild Fish Conservancy to Fly Fishing Techniques.  The project evolves as we fish along and learn more about what the online community is interested in.

 One example of how Skagit Marketing uses Google analytics for insights into the mind of the Solitude Reels online community, is to analyze what keywords bring the community to the Solitude Reels website.   At Solitude Reels they take great pride in the design and precision machining of their product. All parts used in their fly reels have been designed for increased functionality and strength.  These parts, all twenty of them, are machined and assembled in their CNC (computer numeric control) machine shop located in Skagit Valley.  Solitude Reels is proud to say “Made in the USA” and their online community is searching for “made in the USA” too.  Our latest post focused on this key feature and was spawned by our research – Made in USA Reels.

The La Conner Chamber of Commerce hired Skagit Marketing to implement an organic SEO marketing strategy for the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.  They also purchased a banner ad which cost more than the organic SEO marketing work.

Our first order of business was to make it to Search Engine Result Page (SERP) #1 for several related keyword phrases.  The La Conner Chamber of Commerce website – www.lovelaconner.com – was around SERP 5, 6 or plus 10 on the targeted keyword phrases.  Skagit Marketing implemented the organic SEO marketing strategy by writing new content and optimizing the content along with other back-end strategies.  As seen above, Skagit Marketing moved www.lovelaconner.com to SERP #1 for the keyword phrase “tulip festival” and all of the other targeted keyword phrases.

The results?  In April the Love La Conner website overall had 30,444 visits – that is DOUBLE the amount of visits for same time last year.  The main Skagit Valley Tulip Festival page we targeted had 14,392 pageviews in the month of April with 10,231 ENTRANCES.  Those entrances are from SERP snippets like the one you see above going directly to this page.  Compare that to the 1,399 referrals from the banner ad.  Where do you think you should invest your marketing dollars?

I recently received an email from client and owner of  The Language Exchange Inc, Jaye Stover,  passing on a comment she received regarding her newly designed, organized, enhanced content filled website – “I visited your website, which breaths with activity and zest!”  Where does this zest come from you may ask?  It comes from an exchange of content within a content marketing strategy between Skagit Marketing, Jaye, her project management team and the interpreters.

The first step in updating The Language Exchange website was moving the website to WordPress.  Wordpress has an excellent content management system which is essential in incorporating a content marketing and organic search engine optimization  strategy.  The second step was to re-write and re-organize all of the current content to flow for the end-users which in this case are people looking for interpreters and/or translations as well as interpreters looking for resources and workshops.  As we worked on this second step, we also made sure we were working alongside our organic search engine optimization strategy as well.

We now all work together to exchange ideas and content for the website to keep it fresh and engaging.  Skagit Marketing then works with the content to align to the content marketing strategy while optimizing the content for search engines.  The first day of every month is an exciting day for Skagit Marketing and The Language Exchange Inc.  This is when we have fun with Google Analytics to show quantitatively how our work pays off.

Think of your content marketing strategy as a potluck.  People can bring different expertise and content to the table.  Don’t get worried about having to throw the dinner party all by yourself (or providing all of the content for your website), think potluck!

Skagit Marketing assisted Crescent Moon Yoga in getting their website up and running along with SEO and content marketing training. Owner Jennifer McFarland updates the website regularly with events, happenings and the monthly schedule.

Congratulations!

Cascadia Best of Skagit Edition

 
When taking on a content marketing project I like to have one BIG goal.  lovelaconner.com = bulls-eye.

The big goal:  Take a site that had 80,000 annual visits to over 100,000 annual visits.

What is even more exciting is all of the other goals were surpassed as well.  Lovelaconner.com had a whopping 45% pageview increase!

2011 VS 2012
Visits:  82,290 VS 102,830
Pageviews:  222,670 VS 323 793

Visits Increase:  25%
Pageviews Increase:  45%

These goals were achieved by integrating creative content marketing and the technical aspects of SEO (search engine optimization).   We have even bigger goals for 2013.

The goal for the client, the La Conner Chamber of Commerce, was to drive more traffic to the website to increase hotel bookings and to increase sales for the businesses of La Conner.  The Washington State department of revenue shows sales for the second quarter of 2012 to be at the highest level since 2009 reports Go Skagit.

We love content marketing, and we Love La Conner too.

Have you noticed lately how Google Places listings take up much of the 1^st page of a local search?  Have you moved to the second page of Google Places listings because of more competition and paid ads on page 1?   

Yes it’s time – you need to use some elbow grease to get your Google Places listing where you want it – page 1.   

1:  Claim your business on Google Places and complete your profile as close to 100% as you can get.  Edit and enhance your listing on a regular basis. 

2:  Create a Google + account and start working with this social media site. 

3:  Be consistent with your business listing on other local websites and make sure all of these are an exact match to your Google Places listing.  For example, your local chamber of commerce, local bloggers, local businesses, Yahoo Local, Angie’s List, Yelp, Bing Local, City Search,  Supermedia, InfoUSA, YP.com, Insider Pages, Localeze, Local.com, Kudzu, Merchant Circle, etc (the list does goes on). 

4:  Have your clients and customers leave reviews for your business at Yahoo Local, Google Places, Yelp, etc. 

5:  If all of this seems overwhelming, exhausting or you just don’t have the resources or elbow grease; hire Skagit Marketing to do all of the above.  Furthermore, if you want to increase your rank for your important keyword phrases, hire us to: 

• Install an excellent SEO plug-in and Google Analytics code into your website
• Set up a Google Analytics account, create a custom dashboard and schedule monthly reports
• Implement keyword analysis & strategy
• Optimize your website with the targeted keyword phrases
• Most importantly if you don’t already have it – create content that is relevant and compelling to your website visitors and optimize the content for SEO

Skagit Marketing helps client move from page 2 of Google Places listings to page 1 AND move from page 5 to page 1 for targeted keyword phrase.