RESULTS THAT GET YOUR MOTOR RUNNIN’
Webster City RV had always been on top of their marketing game. They were one of the first in their industry to tap into the power social media, let alone develop an online marketing strategy. After a recent purchase of two new regional dealerships—which turned them into one of the Midwest’s largest dealerships overnight—owner Adam Ruppel’s biggest challenge was developing brand awareness in an already crowded marketplace. I specialize in getting big ideas off the ground so I knew this was a challenge my team could sink our teeth into.
BEFORE:
At its core, inbound marketing is about helping. To quote the 2015 State of Inbound report:
The mantra “always be closing” has largely been displaced by “always be helping.”
For us, this entire process starts with branding—connecting emotionally to engage and guide your audience. It’s the foundation upon which my team builds every inbound marketing campaign—because if it’s just about writing a blog post, what’s the point right?
Webster City RV had to tell a better story.
Now in stories, every hero (your customer) needs a guide. It’s an age-old trick storytellers have been using for more than a 1,000 years. Luke Skywalker had Yoda, Katniss had Haymitch, James Bond had Q, Harry Potter had Professor Dumbledore. This guide character steps into the story and gives the hero some comfort. They’ve been there before and have already conquered the very challenge the hero has to overcome.
So what we wanted to do with this new brand, is position them in the role of guide. We wanted to help them step into the lives of all of the potential hero customers of theirs and say, “Hey, we’ll be your guide to the good life!” After extensive interviews, competitive analysis, and brand strategy, we parked on a brand that resonated with the target audience: Good Life RV.
AFTER:
With a solid brand foundation in place, it was time to turbo-charge their marketing. They knew effective marketing strategy was an ongoing process, and couldn’t be completed after one talk around the campfire.
THE NUMBERS:
As their inbound marketing partner, we have written and designed 24 gated content pieces, including an infographic, travel guides, various maintenance guides and over 100 blog posts with custom-designed images. By engaging in a long term inbound marketing strategy, Good Life RV has seen tremendous results and has sold more rigs that are now rolling down the road.
12-MONTH STATS:
- OVER 23,500 BLOG VIEWS
- MORE THAN 11,000 NEW LEADS IN THEIR DATABASE
- OVER 1,200 GATED CONTENT PIECE DOWNLOADS
LOOKS MATTER:
While content and strategy are a huge part of what makes inbound marketing effective, designing the content is an equally crucial component. We approach each gated content piece individually with design ideas and layouts. Although each of the pieces can stand alone, they all have a consistent look and feel that acts as an extension of the Good Life RV brand.
AN RV FEATURE COMPARISON THAT WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD:
The RV Feature Comparison guide we wrote and designed is a great example of how great design can bring and inbound marketing piece to life. Tied to a musical theme, this hardworking guide provides customers an easy way to compare different RV features within different price ranges.
Bringing in a story and concept with this piece allows it to be thoughtfully designed, and guide the customer through the different price tiers of RVs.
This is not your average RV feature comparison guide. Packing a guide full of stock photos of families enjoying an RV, and pictures of the interior and exterior gets old quickly. While some of these elements are necessary, we knew that we needed to differentiate this guide to engage the reader. Along the way, you will find photos of famous musicians, custom guitar necks and amps adorned with the GoodLife RV logo, records and musical notes.
“Inbound marketing has helped establish our dealership as the experts in the RV industry. We have been able to brand ourselves as more than just a place to buy an RV, rather a place that helps customers go camping!” -Adam Ruppel, Owner
Not only did we create an RV feature comparison that will rock customers’ worlds, but we built a great brand, rooted in design. This kind of inbound strategy is worthy of a diamond record.
DRIVING DIXIELAND TRAVEL GUIDE:
As an installment in the “RV There Yet?” travel series, Driving Dixieland lays out an ideal RV road trip for the Good Life faithful to take leaving from the GoodLife RV dealership in Iowa. Aimed at current owners looking to upgrade their RV, or a customer that just recently purchased an RV themselves, this travel guide is designed around fun travel stops, like sight seeing, great spots to get food and must-see landmarks.
While this guide was part of a series, it still upholds the overarching Good Life look and feel. By using the same style, we are able to design gated content that all uniquely live under the Good Life brand.
With an easy-to-follow layout, readers can easily identify the legs of the trip, fun facts, different photo opportunities, fun facts, and of course, where they should set up their RV when they’re done driving for the night.
The design of both of these pieces has successfully done two things that every guide in every good story does:
Show empathy:
Their customers want to take a journey and they’ve run into a problem. If they didn’t have a problem, they wouldn’t be coming to see GoodLife RV in the first place. These guides are empathetic to both their purchase and trip planning problem—and that creates a bond. After interacting with this content the prospect or customer will sense that the Good Life RV brand understands them and is for them.
Establish authority:
Their prospects need to know that GoodLife RV can help them solve their problem. Between the intentional design and solid content, these guides are full of psychological triggers that let prospects know that they have finally found a guide who can help them with their problem.
Because we have helped them guide so many new customers to be the hero of their own outdoor adventure, their database is now chock-full of raving brand evangelists. This case study proves that when great inbound strategy meets great design, the rubber really hits the road.
