The Airstream and the RLC Design team have been in Colorado for a month now. And today we wrap up our latest destination client job. The Bud Farm. It’s not our typical tourist travel destination at all. The Bud Farm is one of the many legal marijuana dispensaries in Colorado. Definitely a new kind of tourist destination.
Marijuana dispensaries as destination locations? Yes, there are many people throughout the US visiting Colorado in order to visit the dispensaries
New travel destination markets = Fierce competition
Our new clients offer a variety of products to their customers beyond just what they grow in house
Last year on a trip to Cortez Colorado we investigated the local marijuana dispensaries. A new market place to be sure, and we wanted to know how the digital side was shaping up. In some cases businesses in this new travel destination market space were totally online and utilizing the Internet. Other businesses hadn’t taken a step in any direction. And after looking into many of the businesses in the Four Corners region we contacted The Bud Farm in Mancos.
Of all the shops in the area, the Bud Farm caught our attention. A small mom & pop family owned business. Their beginnings were in the medical marijuana space. And they served the Durango, Mancos, and Cortez area well in the medical space. They have their own grow facility, and like all of the other dispensaries in the area, go through rigorous testing and oversight. Also, for our purposes, they had no real online presence whatsoever. Given their changing market, we decided to give them a contact.
While The Bud Farm was way behind some of their competitors online, RLC Design Services knows how to get destinations found. So while we found too many “marijuana guide” index services, and an entrenched set of established stores online, we knew we could help The Bud Farm carve out their own unique segment of Internet searches.
Building a relationship takes time
Our initial contact with The Bud Farm was in August of 2015. At the time the owners weren’t ready to do any major online marketing push, but they were interested in what we had to offer. Jodi contacted them and kept an e-mail dialogue open.
Since we were visiting the Cortez area in May we sent along another inquiry to see if the owners of The Bud Farm were ready to sit down and talk about their digital marketing. The answer the same day was yes. From that point we had several meetings, several presentations, and a decision to move forward with RLC Design. Our prices were higher than other companies that contacted them, but it was clear to the owners that we actually know how to bring traffic to travel destination locations.
While it took nearly a year to begin working with this client, that’s okay with us. We like to get to know our clients over time, and we’re happy to let them take their time learning about the work we do.
Website, SEO, Social Media, and Training
Over the course of the last few weeks RLC Design has followed our process completely. A ground up mobile friendly website build (customers from out of state can find them easily). Multiple walk through videos of The Bud Farm’s location. Interviews with the owners of the business. Rigorous SEO research and implementation. Social media tie ins that use the website and other social media outlets ensuring minimal effort on the part of our clients. And finally hands on training with their new website in order to allow them some control of the direction their online presence has.
Today we’ll be handing off the site to The Bud Farm. But we’ll be in the background for ongoing maintenance when their ready, and once they see the results (which they already are), they’ll contract us to continue SEO and Social Media work for them. When employees already note an increase in foot traffic and phone calls within a few weeks of setting the site up, we’re more than confident about how effective our work is.
If you’re ready to get noticed, increase traffic to your travel destination, and communicate in a whole new way with your potential client base, get in touch with us today.