Merry Christmas 🎄 We're out of the office from 20th December 2024 to 6th January 2025.
When it comes to digital marketing, understanding and effectively engaging with niche markets can be both a challenge but also challenging and rewarding.
For Trout Tales, a business rooted in the unique and passionate world of fly-fishing in Tasmania, carving out a distinct digital identity was really important for both online but also 'out in the wild' so to speak.
The journey with Wakeford Digital hasn't just about broad strokes; but instead a carefully thought about step-by-step process, specifically tailored to resonate with an audience deeply connected to the art and adventure of fly-fishing.
This case study unfolds how a strategic, 'game plan' approach to digital marketing can lead to remarkable success, even within the most specialised markets.
The game plan, to date, has included four key stages that also work together closely, which have included:
Trout Tales Tasmania is a fly fishing business, offering guided experiences that are both immersive and exhilarating.
Through a wealth of expertise, they provide unforgettable fishing adventures matched only by owner Matt Stone's own passion for the activity.
Trout Tales offers all inclusive fly fishing packages to a range of clients, from local anglers looking for a guide to help show them the ropes - right the way through to visitors to the state, perhaps new to fishing, looking for that once in a lifetime experience of Tasmania.
For Trout Tales Tasmania, the challenge of the digital marketing game plan extended beyond the typical objectives of digital marketing.
The campaign to date has been about capturing the essence of a passion-driven business and translating it into a narrative that appeals to a diverse audience.
The fly-fishing community is unique, comprising both seasoned anglers and novices who may have never experienced fly fishing before. This diversity presents a dual challenge:
For Wakeford Digital, the goal was to create a digital presence that not only showcased Trout Tales Tasmania's expertise and passion for fly fishing but also made the activity accessible and enticing to a broader audience.
The digital strategy game plan needed to reflect the authenticity and spirit of Trout Tales Tasmania, ensuring that every digital touchpoint – from the website through to social media – echoed the brand's core values and appeal.
This digital marketing Hobart campaign was not just about reaching an audience - it was about creating a lasting connection.
The first step in Trout Tales Tasmania's digital transformation was the redevelopment of the existing website.
This phase was driven by the need to create a more engaging, consistent and professional online presence for Trout Tales, with the redesign focused on enhancing the visual look and feel, streamlining the navigation, and improving the overall functionality of the site.
Specifically, this stage focussed on:
Streamlined Navigation:
The menu on the existing site, while adequate, lacked clarity and organisation - so this became the first focus with regards to the redevelopment. The menu structure was redesigned for ease of use, guiding visitors smoothly through the site.
Enhanced Blog Functionality
We identified early on that there were some really strong blog posts that were driving some traffic to the Trout Tales website already, so inline with stage two and the search engine optimisation focus - it was important to not lose this 'SEO juice'.
This step involved migrating the existing blog posts into Webflow's content management system, or CMS, where the blog experience overall was revamped to offer richer content and better user engagement.
Package Restructuring
Another of the major, initial website changes was the restructuring of the packages. This came about following discussions with Matt about what it was that the ideal target market wanted - switching from a 'per-angler' package setup to a 'per-day' setup which more clearly align with customer needs and preferences.
The website was integral in facilitating both the organisation and funnel of this through to the individual package pages, then finally to the book now online form.
Visual Appeal
A key pain point for Matt in the existing website was reliability and downtime, as well as a bit more of a professional look and feel. Utilising Webflow's hosting and security features has helped the website keep a 99.9% uptime, while the new design taps into the visual nature of what the business is about - fly fishing in Tasmania.
To achieve this, it incorporates large, stunning imagery as well as bold text, capturing the essence of fly-fishing adventures - and extending to a new video background in 2024 to further enhance this notion.
The website redevelopment for Trout Tales Tasmania has been a resounding success, setting a strong foundation for their digital presence.
It not only improved the aesthetic appeal but also made the site more intuitive and user-friendly, something reflected in the consistently growing website traffic.
This phase was crucial in enhancing the brand's online image and effectively capturing the essence of the fly-fishing experience they offer, which was reflected in the positive feedback from clients and an increase in bookings.
"Clients have said that they have specifically booked a trip with us because our website appeared at the top of search engines, but also looked the most professional and was the easiest to use" - Matt Stone, Trout Tales Tasmania owner.
Following the website overhaul, Wakeford Digital initiated a comprehensive SEO campaign to boost Trout Tales Tasmania's online visibility.
The primary challenge of the SEO campaign was to maintain the traffic from a key blog post while enhancing the performance of the homepage and other critical pages, however also needed to extend beyond this to be a more encompassing campaign.
The strategy involved a considered optimisation of existing content and technical SEO elements, while also developing a content creation plan - having this plan in place is something often underrated but, we have found, can be a really beneficial component of our digital marketing services.
Efforts were concentrated on improving search rankings and driving targeted traffic to the site, which was crucial for increasing the brand's reach and attracting potential customers.
Along with our usual SEO process (blog post coming soon) including competitor analysis, keyword research and understanding the wider topic - as a summary, this was achieved through:
Content Optimisation
Key blog posts were fine-tuned, balancing the retention of existing traffic with the goal of attracting new visitors.
In particularly was the 'Fly Fishing Hobart' blog post which we analysed and extended the content on this to ensure it was the authority in the space, as well as tweaking titles to capitalise on local search (i.e. fly fishing near me).
Technical SEO
Improvements were also heavily focused in optimising headings, titles, and other on-page elements which almost instantly boosted the site's search engine performance.
Strategic Content Creation
As mentioned, we also placed importance on creating regular and highly considered new content for the Trout Tales blog, which has a few benefits.
Firstly, search engines love seeing that a website is regularly updated - meaning it might be prioritised over a website that hasn't been updated for one, three or six months.
Secondly, these considered posts allowed us to generate internal links back to the primary pages of the Trout Tales website. As an example, any blog post that mentioned 'trout fishing in Tasmania' linked to the homepage which helps strengthen the organic keyword rankings here.
Instead of directly targeting highly competitive primary keywords, we actually first aimed for topics that had lower competition but were still relevant. Having identified opportunities in keywords such as 'trout fishing season tasmania' and the like, we set about creating longer form and highly targeted content around these search terms.
The Trout Tales SEO campaign marked a significant turning point in enhancing Trout Tales Tasmania's digital footprint.
Through targeted optimisations and strategic content enhancements, the campaign successfully improved the site's search engine rankings and visibility. This phase not only brought more traffic to the site but also played a vital role in establishing Trout Tales Tasmania as a leading name in the fly-fishing tourism sector.
Check out the results area below for some specific SEO based outcomes.
With a solid foundation now established with regards to the website and SEO campaigns for Trout Tales, Wakeford Digital introduced videography to further enrich the digital narrative.
This initiative aimed to leverage the visual appeal of fly fishing, enhancing the brand's storytelling as well as further increase Trout Tales following and audience engagement.
Regular Video Updates
Our first focus was on complimenting the regular blog posts with video content. For example, the regular trout fishing update posts written initially by Matt were coupled with one to two minute video updates.
These short, engaging videos that aimed to keep the audience connected and informed about the latest in fly-fishing.
Educational Content
Beyond the regular updates, Trout Tales and Wakeford Digital started creating more in-depth videos offering tips and insights added value to the audience's experience.
"Tales From The Fly" Series
Particularly recently, we've been proudly developing long format feature videos, capturing in depth overviews about specific fishing locations around Tasmania as well as key insights, tips and tricks and plenty of fish catching action. These Tales From The Fly videos are a testament that long format video is alive and well, averaging close to 2,000 organic view per video.
Check out the first Tales From The Fly episode in the player below.
The integration of videography into Trout Tales Tasmania's digital strategy added a dynamic and engaging element to their online presence.
Importantly however, it has significantly increased audience engagement and appeal to a wider audience, particularly on social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram.
This phase not only enhanced the brand's storytelling capabilities but also played a crucial role in attracting a wider audience and building a stronger online community around the brand.
The current phase of Trout Tales Tasmania's digital transformation has involved targeted advertising campaigns on social media platforms, specifically Facebook and Instagram.
Wakeford Digital's approach transitioned from simple boosted posts to more structured and strategic ad campaigns. These included:
Targeted Facebook and Instagram Ads
Structured campaigns were designed to resonate with the brand's target audience, firstly aiming to develop a targeted audience and improve the likes/followers of Facebook page with a wider awareness campaign.
Tailored Lead Campaign
Following initial in-house testing, one of the great success stories of the Trout Tales Hobart social media advertising campaign has been the tailored lead campaign.
Utilising a short fifteen-second hype video, the tailored leads campaign has been highly effective in converting interest into tangible leads for Trout Tales at a highly competitive per-lead cost - a testament to the specificity that social media advertising can bring.
Learn more: Check out our Trout Tales tailored lead campaign project.
Instagram Reel Success
Another unexpected but pleasing successful social media advertising campaign has been the cinematic 'This Is Fly Fishing In Tasmania' reel we filmed and produced for Trout Tales.
Coupled with viral audio, the stunning reel has brought in a massive amount of targeted followers to Trout Tales - helping to increase engagement and awareness.
You can check out the video in the player below, boasting an impressive 20.8K views.
The social media advertising campaigns represented a strategic culmination of all the previous efforts.
They not only complemented the website, SEO, and videography initiatives but also significantly expanded the brand's reach and impact.
The success of these campaigns was evident in the impressive reach, engagement rates, and the direct contribution to business growth; showcasing the effectiveness of a well-rounded and integrated digital marketing strategy.
Our game plan digital marketing campaign with Trout Tales Tasmania continues to be a journey marked by careful planning, as well as the ability to pivot and expand on strategy to achieve measurable outcomes.
The results to date haven't just been numbers on a dashboard but a reflection of the improved user experience achieved through the redeveloped website and increased visibility off the back of a targeted SEO campaign, coupled with videography and further enhanced by social media advertising.
Ultimately, the goal of any of our efforts has been to a) increase bookings to Trout Tales and b) to grow the business online presence.
With this in mind, some key highlights include:
Improved Keyword Ranking
By September 2023, the number of keywords the site ranked for expanded from 100 to an impressive 1043.
The keyword 'Trout fishing Tasmania' has made a commendable leap, moving from position 33 initially to position 3 on Google. The number of keywords in positions 1-3 has also improved from 3 keywords, to now over 50.
Website Performance
Clicks to the Trout Tales website have seen an increase from an average of 3 to 20, with impressions surged from 100 to a notable 1,100 as of 2022 from Google Search Console data. Also in 2022, the website witnessed a substantial 212% increase in contacts, highlighting the trust and value it offered to its visitors.
Organic Traffic
Organic traffic is a vital metric when it comes to SEO, starting at 134 in October 2021 and now sitting at 1,250 at September 2023. The number of keywords the site ranked for has also expanded in this time from 212 to an impressive 1043. Backlinks were also at a lowly 21 and currently sit at 1,900.
Youtube Growth
Starting from zero, in 2024 the Trout Tales Youtube channel now has close to 400 followers - and while not a viral following (yet), it shows the power of consistent and high quality videography to produce that growth in a very shor timeframe.
But, what about business growth?
At the heart of any SEO strategy is the ultimate goal of driving business growth.
For Trout Tales Tasmania, the tangible results of our efforts were evident in the significant increase in leads and enquiries through the website.
Trout Tales saw a 300% growth in books in the first year of the SEO campaign, with this momentum continuing to an additional growth - seeing an increase of approximately 567% from the start of the campaign.
This consistent and substantial growth not only underscores the effectiveness of our wider digital marketing Hobart efforts - but also highlights the direct impact on Trout Tales Tasmania's bottom line and its growing popularity among fishing enthusiasts.
The journey with Trout Tales Tasmania highlights the power that a considered, strategic digital marketing campaign can have on a business.
Particularly though, we think it's fantastic to work alongside a like minded business to grow in a sustainable and affordable way - ticking off and demonstrating success step-by-step, instead of biting off more than both can chew.
We feel this is something really, really important to small businesses in terms of being able to plan for growth, but also meet budgets as well.
Through careful planning, content creation and continuous optimisation, we were able to drive significant growth for the local fly fishing business... but it is important to note that every business is unique, and so are its challenges and opportunities in the digital landscape.
If you're a Hobart-based business curious about how our approach to digital marketing might benefit your business, we invite you to fill in our discuss your project.
We're always really excited to collaborate with local businesses and craft a success story tailored for your business.
We also take this moment to thank Matt and Trout Tales for their ongoing support and opportunities.
Get in touch with Wakeford Digital today to discuss your digital marketing goals.
Discuss A Project