As we settle into this frigid month of January it’s no wonder we’re dreaming of palm trees and warm weather destinations this month in our Client Spotlight, Hilton Head Rentals and Golf, who has partnered with Blue Tent for all of their digital marketing needs over the past few years.
Utilizing the entire spectrum of our services including Email Marketing, Managed Services, SEO and PPC, Hilton Head Rentals & Golf was on the leading edge of the curve in mid 2012 when they embarked on a fully custom website development project with a focus on responsive design. What emerged from this progressive initiative that launched in early 2013 was a fully responsive site allowing vacation planners to search by map location, home size and amenities, and then book seamlessly online from their desktop, tablet or phone. With the user in mind, the redesign focused on a clean layout and an easy-to-use, mobile optimized experience.
Hilton Head Rentals & Golf recognized early on that mobile and tablet traffic was on the rise and now accounts for a significant percentage of website visitors. By staying ahead of the curve, they spent most of 2013 capitalizing on increased mobile bookings made by high tech vacationers.
Heading into 2014 they will turn the focus to increase homeowner communications. They recently began a monthly homeowner e-newsletter series focusing on homeowner education about new marketing initiatives, homeowner tools, housekeeping topics, area events, and much more. They kicked off this communication campaign with an Owner Survey. It’s always important to gather feedback from your customers but sometimes it’s difficult to get your customers to do so. Thus, we helped the team over at Hilton Head Rentals & Golf create a contest to try to entice owners to complete the survey. What was in it for them? Well, each owner that completed the survey was automatically entered to win a $1000 property upgrade. Pretty nice. We even took it one step further, owners were entered to win a $2000 property upgrade if they completed the survey, plus completed a few other “social media” related activities to help promote their property and Hilton Head Rentals & Golf across Facebook and Google +.
Ryan Austin, from our Email Marketing team, handles Hilton Head’s account and worked behind the scenes to make sure both surveys were set up and receiving information properly. He compiled the results in an easy to read spreadsheet which allows the Hilton Head team to see at a glance how the results were coming in. He also created an eye catching and well laid out email campaign announcing the survey and providing instructions and guidelines.
All in all, the campaign was a great success. They had over 25% of owners respond, which is above average for this type of campaign and the feedback will help owner, Tom Ridgway, make important decisions moving forward.
2014 is gearing up to be another exciting year for the Hilton Head team! Their overall marketing plan will continue to evolve but out of the gates a heavy emphasis will be placed on their content strategy, engaging social media campaigns, captivating eNewsletters, increased transparency to owners, and a robust search engine marketing strategy including pay per click, search engine optimization and digital advertising. Best of luck to the Hilton Head team in the New Year!