Brief
Crondon Park approached FSE Online in March 2017 keen to overhaul their search marketing strategy. Though the company had a loyal local customer base, it was struggling to attract new business, and its search presence left a lot to be desired.
The two main objectives of the campaign were to increase brochure downloads by increasing organic search exposure and increase the venue’s presence on social media with a view to attracting more interest in the brand.
The company’s social accounts had been largely abandoned at this point, and some processes and technologies within its digital marketing campaign were ineffective and out of date.
The team were also keen to make the content and media on the website more current and user-friendly, and to adapt it to encourage better conversions.
Strategy
It was quickly established that Crondon’s primary goal in organic search was to rank as highly as possible within the Maps search and Local Pack. At the start of the campaign, the company was in positions two to three on page one for all Pack results for medium-competition, Essex-based keywords (eg, phrases with around 1000 to 5000 searches per month) – but they couldn’t break into the major terms and claim these clicks from their competitors.
To hit the KPIs set by the client, FSE Online needed to develop a multi-faceted strategy that included ongoing organic SEO, social management, UX optimisation and Google AdWords account optimisation. All parties were in agreement that the key here was to ensure an integrated approach across all channels to deliver the best possible value for the brand.
Execution
SEO
SEO consultants at FSE Online identified suitable localised targeted keywords and split the campaign into two arms that represented Crondon’s core business sources: golf and weddings. Content on the website was revamped by the technical SEO team to encourage longer onsite engagement and a higher volume of brochure downloads.
Optimisation And Technologies
A full review was carried out to address the website’s design, structure and content. This helped the team to identify the areas that were holding the website back. After comprehensive analysis, they carried out extensive onsite optimisation work that included:
- An overhaul of website page structure and internal page content
- Updates to the page navigation system, including internal link improvements
- Identifying and correcting a major server issue which was causing 30 per cent crawl fails and affecting organic rankings
- Site transfers to a more stable hosting package
- Site transfer to SSL secure site
Social
After in-depth discussions with the client, the team developed a social media calendar that was based heavily on Crondon’s upcoming events. They then scheduled a range of content and media across the campaign’s major social platforms – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – for heightened organic interaction. Both planned posts and reactionary posts were incorporated into the strategy. Paid ads were not utilised – unusually, the campaign relied entirely on organic promotion.
Pay Per Click
The PPC managers at FSE Online carried out a full review of Crondon’s Google AdWords account to identify key conversion times. They created a new scheduling structure and adjusted the bid strategy to focus on these timers. They also refined location targeting to within 20 miles of the venue – the key area for conversions.
Ads were repurposed to target users with suitable budgets, and split tested accordingly. Remarketing campaigns were also implemented for maximum reach.
Results
Although FSE Online have only be working with Crondon Park for five months, from March 2017 to August 2017, the results from this integrated search marketing campaign have so far been astounding.
To date, they have achieved:
- #1 organic positions for all medium-competition localised search terms, including ‘wedding venues’
- 37 per cent increase in clicks from local search (despite search volumes traditionally declining during the client’s off-peak season)
- 48 per cent increase in indexed organic keywords
- Average 62 per cent increase in monthly brochure downloads
- 33 per cent increase in Facebook likes and followers
- Nearly 15,000 interactions on the Facebook page alone, with single posts reaching at least 4000 users
- Awarded a coveted ‘Very Responsive’ badge on Facebook due to our consistent, fast-response interaction with users
- 55 per cent increase in Instagram followers
- Record post engagements on Instagram
- 30 per cent increase in Twitter followers
- Decrease in Google AdWords click spend of 20 per cent whilst generating an increase in conversions