Discover Boating reports strong web traffic boost

Despite circumstances surrounding COVID-19, Discover Boating is seeing strong performance and growth over the past year, providing early indicators around consumer interest.

The campaign’s quick pivot to ensure a more empathetic and purpose-driven voice, its data-driven approach to content, and strategic site optimization are working hand-in-hand to connect with consumers in a meaningful way. 

The Discover Boating team is tapping into real-time data on consumer interests and providing relevant, helpful content, resulting in record site traffic. A recent example is the article, Boating During COVID-19: Navigating Local Restrictions & Safe Social Distancing, which since its publish date on March 31, has secured its position as the top performing landing page on DiscoverBoating.com. 

What’s more, the team has optimized the backend of the site, ensuring visitors have an experience that delivers what they expect and then some. Combined, these efforts are showing encouraging results at a time when the campaign is navigating reduced funding due to the global economic downturn. The following are data from March 2020 compared to March 2019:

• 30% increase in website visitors
• 44% increase in organic traffic due to new content attracting more people to the site
• 118% increase in visitors to the Boat Loan Calculator—a strong indicator of consumer interest
• DiscoverBoating.com is also reaching more women and younger demographics, with a 45% increase in female visitors and a 78% increase in visitors ages 18-24

Of particular note, April is showing similar, if not more promise than March. Earlier this week, the site saw a nearly 300% spike in organic traffic following the release of new content. 

Discover Boating’s social media strategy is following suit. This month, the team released new relevant, empathetic and strategic messaging to the campaign’s nearly 800,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram. On Facebook alone, this content has seen a 71% increase in engagements over the same period last year.