That time we increased traffic by 70%

The Problem: Outdoor Industry Association’s (OIA) website was a 12-year old, custom-built Content Management System (CMS). The website had incredible limitations for marketing and was written in a very corporate tone. It did not tell the story of all the work the organization is doing for the outdoor industry nor did it reflect the energy of the audience.

Solution: I recommended changing OIA’s digital marketing strategy to a content-driven strategy, building a new CMS that enabled intelligent marketing technology, and taking the approach of “showing” the work and value of membership vs telling. Additionally, the tone of written content, multimedia, social marketing, and email marketing was adjusted to fit the passionate outdoor-junkie audience most likely to take action and convert.

The project kicked off in 2014 and launched in early 2015. The project included:

  • Building out the new site on WordPress
  • Migrating and updating old relevant content and data
  • Integrating Salesforce for membership activities
  • Integrating Pardot for enhanced user tracking, lead generation, and automated marketing opportunities
  • Producing a significant amount* of content for launch and an editorial content calendar to continue and maintain fresh stories (*by “significant” I mean a TON)
  • Curating photography and videos throughout the website

Before and After Launch: 2014 to 2017

  • 95% increase in users
  • 98% increase in new users
  • 72% increase in sessions
  • 42% in pageviews
  • 107% increase in new users from search
  • 917% increase in social acquisitions
  • 259% increase from email