Blue Ridge, GA

Blue Ridge has grown and developed over the last 20 years into a popular mountain destination, but the group wanted a way to reach new people as the internet became the predominant place consumers search for vacation destinations and accommodations. And, as more people use aggregator sites like Airbnb and VRBO, they needed to drive traffic to their website to take advantage of their rental properties.

Blue Ridge started working with ReachLocal, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK, more than six years ago for LOCALiQ Search Marketing to reach prospective searchers online. They have since added LOCALiQ Social Ads, YouTube Ads, and Targeted Display to get in front of consumers on social media and retarget them online.

Since working with the team for LOCALiQ solutions, Blue Ridge has nearly doubled their hotel motel tax revenue, an incredible indicator of success they attribute to their marketing campaigns. Even in the slower seasons, Blue Ridge is seeing more visitors than historically measured as a result of getting in front of more online visitors. And, in their busier months, they’re booked to 100% capacity.

Paid search marketing and Facebook advertising drive traffic to their website and help them engage with prospective visitors, while retargeting helps them drive repeat traffic to the site so they can increase rentals of their properties. They have also seen incredible results on YouTube, resulting in increased awareness for their destination.

Jan Hackett, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Director of Tourism, said she appreciates that she can see exactly how effective her LOCALiQ campaigns are through her reporting and loves having a strategy that enables Blue Ridge to meet prospective visitors where they are online.