Executive Summary
Why this case study is important
Challenges
The project illustrates how Bull Moose Marketing spearheaded a micro-influencer campaign to visit and promote amenities in Crawford County, PA. Influencers offer unique opportunities for rural DMOs as their popularity continues to grow on social media. Micro and nano travel influencers, while they don’t have huge audiences, still have a high concentration of followers with similar interests and are typically very loyal and trusting. This positions micro and nano influencers as partners for rural DMOs with limited budgets and resources. Finding the right fit for a destination’s offerings opens the door to many benefits for DMOs looking to gain more assets and spread awareness. We were able to organize and project manage a partnership between our client Visit Crawford and a regional influencer to build their Instagram presence and acquire owned assets for the DMO.Situational Analysis
Visit Crawford is the official destination marketing organization for Crawford County, a rural county in Pennsylvania. The DMO had a small Instagram presence made up primarily of residents, had no owned photography assets, a few owned blog posts and little to no presence on other social media platforms. In addition, the DMO had not yet branched out into promoting non-members in their marketing efforts, giving visitors a limited view of what the region has to offer.
Visit Crawford knew that they needed to overcome these challenges, but was unsure of which tactic would work best. Visit Crawford and Bull Moose Marketing were able to work together on an Instagram partnership with a regional influencer whose interests paired well with what Crawford County had to offer, including outdoor amenities, birdwatching, dog-friendly amenities, nature photography opportunities, camping and more. Not only did this allow for more exposure and increased engagement on Instagram, but also resulted in more owned photography, more website content and offered an opportunity to test the waters with new niche audiences.
Challenges
- Visit Crawford had a small social media following for a county-wide destination marketing organization
- Limited pool of local photography
- Very little content geared towards Visit Crawford’s young, outdoor persona
- Small social media following was local network – get exposure in other circles – expand the audience beyond CC
Strategic Approach
- Identified “hidden gems” within the community that would resonate with the influencer’s followers, including dog-friendly, birding and nature photography locations
- Highlight non-members to give a holistic view of the region
- Leveraged larger amenities to show off smaller amenities
- Made contingency plans in the event of amenity closures or inclement weather
- Utilized influencer content to fill the gaps where some amenities and events aren’t featured in existing content
- Leveraged influencers top content channels which included, Facebook, Instagram and Tiktok in addition to blogs
Results to Date
- 100+ likes per influencer post
- 90+ original photography assets secured
- 4 blogs targeting niche audiences and featuring high-quality, owned photography
- 35-340 blog views within the first month
- 111-5,337 blog views lifetime
- Increased awareness of birdwatching in the county and attracted more bird-watching enthusiasts to the area