Locale Magazine was a special client of ours for two reasons. First, it was the first opportunity Bixa had the chance to partner with the dynamic duo over at Hoodzpah who brought us in on the job. Second, we were able to create some amazing results for their online presence. Consider this:
BEFORE:
In 2011, Locale was averaging 1,081 visits a month to their website.
AFTER:
For the first 8 months of the year, Locale averaged 20,671 visits per month. That’s a 1,812% increase in website traffic! Yes, you heard right, 1,812% more traffic. This traffic increase was achieved through a few different measures, including: search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing and user-interactive website contests.
BEFORE:
Locale had a desktop-only site that was a scanned PDF of their most recent magazine. The site was impossible to read because the font was so small, plus it was scanned in crookedly. On top of that, search engines had nothing to index or read because Locale’s site was essentially one big image, aka absolutely zero search engine optimization value.
AFTER:
Two redesigns later, Locale now has a beautiful, user-friendly, responsive website (it looks good on all devices – mobile, tablet and desktop). Users can search through articles, upcoming calendar events and local businesses. Plus, they can filter their results based on their region of interest, Orange County or San Diego, as Locale has now expanded.
On the backend, Locale’s in-house team can add new stories, new calendar listings and new directory listings with zero coding knowledge. This functionality has allowed them to save on their long-term site maintenance cost as they don’t rely on a webmaster (or us) for every new story added to their site.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Locale is able to monetize the site through placed advertisements and featured calendar and directory listings. To make it easier for the Locale team, featured listings are purchased through the site, published automatically as soon as they are paid for, and advertisers can edit their content directly…meaning less headache and less back and forth! Who doesn’t want that?
A marketer is nothing without their designer and as such, these great results would not have happened without the talented Jen & Amy Hood who took on the design of the print magazine, online site, all media collateral and maintained content on the website. Read more about their role in taking Locale Magazine to the next level.