How Destination Signals™ Helped Arkansas River Tours Make a Splash with Sponsored Content
Discover how one Colorado Springs rafting outfitter partnered with Destination Signals™ to stand out from other whitewater offerings.
Carving through the Royal Gorge in Cañon City, Colorado, and snaking through other communities and landmarks that surround Colorado Springs, the Colorado stretch of the mighty Arkansas River is among the top destinations in the United States for whitewater rafting — brimming with thrill seeking travelers each summer. As a result of this popularity, the Pikes Peak Region boasts dozens of whitewater rafting outfitters that each offer their own unique excursions onto the river’s rapids.
Challenge
Aiming to differentiate their expeditions in what is a very competitive community vertical, local outfitter Arkansas River Tours turned to the regional destination marketing organization, Visit Colorado Springs. Together, the teams searched for creative solutions and methods to harness the traffic received by the official destination website to introduce adventurous travelers and local residents to their distinct offerings in a way that felt organic and true to the experiences they offer.
Solution
Destination Signals™ identified that a sponsored blog — naturally housed within Visit Colorado Springs’ blog directory and indistinguishable from other entries — would allow Arkansas River Tours to illustrate the different family-friendly rafting experiences they offer in greater detail than is available in a standard partner listing. The blog would also rapidly increase their exposure and overall presence on the Visit Colorado Springs website.
Arkansas River Tours provided the initial focus and framework for the content, from which Destination Signals worked hand-in-hand with the SEO and content experts within Tempest’s Growth Marketing team to develop an original piece of exclusive content for Arkansas River Tours written to authentically convey the variety of excursion options and pull in traffic from organic search.
Upon publication, Destination Signals™ used a combination of targeted sponsored content placements to drive traffic to the blog as well as point interested adventurers to Arkansas River Tours’ official website to book their experience.
Results
46.5%
CTR
365
Days
1,726
Qualified Referrals