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Greenwood Springs Plantation : A Case Study

Posted by Jared Hughes // March 9, 2010

Introduction

In November 2009, Greenwood Springs Plantation – a family-owned hunting camp located in Loxley, Alabama – approached LandHub in need of a corporate identity and online presence. After nine years of meticulously managing the 850-acre property that has been in the family since the 1800’s, they decided that it was time to begin offering paid deer hunts and various off-season activities open to the public (check out the Continental Pheasant Hunt coming up next week). In order to promote this new business venture, they turned to LandHub to develop their logo, website, and oversee the online marketing efforts. They couldn’t be more pleased with the result!

Logo Design

The guys at Greenwood Springs Plantation were looking for a logo design that reflected the Civil War history related to the property. In the weeks leading up to the Battle of Mobile Bay, Union soldiers camped at Greenwood Springs Plantation due to its key location in proximity to Mobile Bay and the natural resources the property offers. (In the years since, many Civil War relics have been recovered from the property.)

We decided to feature Civil War-era canons on opposing sides of the logo in order to illustrate the property’s history. The focal point of the logo is a line art graphic of a whitetail buck, representing Greenwood Spring Plantation’s primary purpose as a whitetail deer hunting camp. On each side of the deer, however, are graphics indicating the other activities available in the deer hunting off-season: turkey hunting and horseback riding.

While this logo is complex enough to represent the various facets of Greenwood Springs Plantation, it’s also simple enough to be easily utilized and recognizable in a wide variety of uses, including embroidery on hats and t-shirts.

Website Development

In approaching the design of www.GreenwoodSpringsPlantation.com, we had multiple objectives in mind:

  1. Organic Search Traffic
  2. User Engagement
  3. Calls to Action
  4. Informative Content
  5. Visual Appeal to Target Audience
  6. Intuitive Site Management
  7. Ad Module


Organic Search Traffic

At LandHub, our number one priority is delivering organic search traffic to your site. All of our sites are designed around this principle. Site navigation is search engine-friendly, URI’s (page links) utilize keywords, blog posts are properly organized, and broken links just don’t happen. In addition, the LandHub Console™ makes it easy to manage keyword placement in Page Titles, Meta Tags, Image Alt Tags, Body Content, and more.

Greenwood Springs Plantation’s website was optimized to generated traffic in search of paid deer hunts and hunting camps, specifically in Alabama. We included keywords that target terms ranging from geography (regional to county-level) to activities (hunting, horseback-riding, etc.).

User Engagement

Social media usage is clearly at an all-time high and, if utilized properly, can generate incredible results, even for a hunting camp. Our goal with Greenwood Springs Plantation was not to create a one-time visit, informational-type website, but rather to create an interactive and engaging site that encourages users to return.

The first step to accomplish this goal was to setup a blog. Since this is already built into the LandHub Console™, it was automatically included with the website package. We took the blog module a small step further, though, and configured it to feature videos (powered by Vimeo) and photos (powered by Flickr). By doing this, we’ve created a community for past and prospective visitors of Greenwood Springs Plantation.

In addition to on-site features, we’ve setup a Facebook Page and Twitter account for further connecting with our audience. What we’ve experienced is that most everyone who’s spent a weekend hunting at Greenwood Springs Plantation cannot wait until their next opportunity to visit. The Facebook Page and Twitter account make it possible for them to stay connected even away, thereby increasing their likeliness to return.

 

Calls to Action

A website is meaningless if it is unable to capture leads and develop an ongoing connection with visitors. In order to accomplish this, we’ve setup a newsletter signup form to collect email addresses. We’ve also placed a contact form on the contact page that is linked to throughout the site, making it easy for site visitors to inquire. You’ll also notice links to the various social media accounts on the homepage.

Informative Content

Isn’t it frustrating when a website doesn’t include the most basic information? Such as when the coffee shop down the street lists their wide variety of beans, but doesn’t post their hours? It’s imperative to adhere to fundamentals when it comes to content, and Greenwood Springs does this by fully describing the hunting packages,  pricing, property location, etc. Check out the interactive map we setup to allow people to easily locate the property:

Visual Appeal

Greenwood Springs Plantation was looking for an outdoors appearance that utilized greens, beiges, and woodgrain elements, along with photos of wildlife. We accomplished this with a design that includes these elements, along with large, colorful photographs. The end result accomplishes the goal of creating a professional identity, along with appealing to the outdoorsman.

Intuitive Site Management

As with all LandHub sites, www.GreenwoodSpringsPlantation.com is backed by the LandHub Console™, enabling anyone at Greenwood Springs Plantation to manage the content of pages, publish news and blog posts, post photos and videos, etc.

Ad Module

Greenwood Springs Plantation wanted to be able to sell ads on their website in order to help promote local businesses and events. LandHub installed a highly-advanced, third-party ad module that allows them to easily sell and manage any ads appearing on their site.

Marketing Collateral

LandHub has also provided Greenwood Springs Plantation with various print marketing collateral, including promotional posters and business cards.

Applications

Not only does LandHub provide solutions for your online presence, but we also offer internal administrative solutions to help manage workflow and leads, along with tools to optimize ongoing marketing efforts.

For Greenwood Springs Plantation, we provide full email support and an integrated calendar for scheduling hunts. To monitor site traffic and improve organic search results, we’ve installed a world class analytics package, which Greenwood Springs Plantation is able to access at any time.

Results

What is the final account of these combined efforts? Larry Wallace, a partner in Greenwood Springs Plantation, says it best:

“In our first year of offering paid hunts, we booked every weekend
we had available, and all of our leads came from online.”