internal testimonials circle
“Establishing blog guidelines for a consistent style, tone, quality, and frequency resulted in visually stunning, compelling content that drew readers in, kept them clicking through, and ultimately, coming back.”

— Corey Scarano, Content Manager

The Journey to Success

01.

The Challenge

The Visit NH team knew they needed fresh, visually rich content to spark interest and drive visitors to choose a New Hampshire getaway and invest their precious vacation time and dollars in the myriad destinations, attractions, and businesses that make New Hampshire unique and worth exploring.

02.

The Approach

Harnessing decades of design and content marketing experience within the hospitality industry, we developed and executed an innovative, brand-aligned content strategy for Visit NH. We bring the state’s authentic character and epic experiences to life across a variety of print and digital channels.

03.

The Outcome

Purposeful, coordinated strategies on multiple marketing fronts have breathed new life into the Visit NH marketing campaigns. As the numbers can attest, the print and digital content marketing engines continue to attract new and repeat visitors to New Hampshire and engage locals.

A tool to welcome and guide visitors

While Visit NH had a visitor’s guide they’d been producing with a New England magazine publisher for years, they yearned to take it to the next level in terms of content and design to truly capture the culture and beauty of the state and all it offers. We converted what had been a rather dense, directory-like publication sprinkled with articles of interest into a custom magazine with in-depth, visually rich stories that immerse the reader in unique New Hampshire experiences and destinations. An eye-catching, inviting redesign completed the transformation.

hawthorn creative hospitality marketing case study visit nh custom magazine spread left
hawthorn creative hospitality marketing case study visit nh custom magazine spread left

Harnessing the power of a blog

We took over the existing Visit NH blog to convert it into a multifaceted tool rather than a side project. Our mission was to not only highlight the compelling people and places of New Hampshire but to dig deeper to find the untold stories worth telling and the lesser-known attractions worth visiting.

We developed a story series that encompassed New Hampshire’s allure in an organized way, giving similar stories a home within the blog for readers to browse with ease. Timely coverage on culture, history, events, attractions, people, and places assured content would be well-balanced to speak to – and appeal to – large audiences.

hawthorn creative hospitality marketing case study visit nh blog website content ipad left
hawthorn creative hospitality marketing case study visit nh blog website content ipad left

Well-timed social posts help create more buzz

To cross-promote new blog stories and inspire Visit NH subscribers to engage and explore the state’s many experiences, each month’s content calendar aligned blog post dates with scheduled social posts across Visit NH’s Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest accounts. By posting two to three times a week through these channels, we cast a wide net to engage with all generations and spark conversation within each social sphere. (for example, Facebook posts enabled friends to tag each other with comments such as “Can we please do this!?” and “I had no idea this was in NH!”).

Social was the primary driver of a 913% increase in blog traffic within 90 days

Email marketing entices readers to explore more

Leveraging all the robust content, we provided the copy and imagery for Visit NH’s twice-monthly email campaigns. Using timely or intriguing subject lines, we composed emails with one overarching theme (e.g. holiday shopping) and seeded the email body with teaser copy for three blog posts that aligned with the given theme, driving interested readers to the website to explore more.

Visit NH blog traffic increased by nearly 200%in the first season of our partnership

Custom photography, videos & illustrations kick content up a notch

Visit NH aimed to incorporate the type of imagery across their stories to rival the best travel content out there. That required our team to deliver with custom photo shoots, a video blog series, and illustrations to take their content to the next level. For example, in the 2019 Visitor’s Guide, our team sourced, styled, and photographed all the products for the “Greatest Sips of the Season” feature story, which highlighted spirits and cocktail recipes designed by eight New Hampshire distilleries. The result? A visually rich, enticing, “keep-worthy” piece that helps put New Hampshire on the map as a craft food and beverage destination (another important marketing message for the client).

The video blog series “The Getaway Car,” which we created with another Visit NH media partner, gives an authentic personal look at different regions and experiences in each season through the eyes of out-of-state travelers (check one out here!). Our team also enlisted the talents of local illustrators to enliven a couple of the Visit NH guide’s content pieces with original artwork created to complement the story text to a T.

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