Case Study State DMO

State Group Travel Hub Dominates Search

Browse Additional Case Studies: Resort DMO | >State DMO | Local DMO | DMO Disaster

Statewide DMO Dominates Group Travel & Meetings Market

A statewide DMO focused on attracting group travel, meetings, conventions, and business retreats faced a major challenge: despite catering to meeting planners and corporate event organizers, their website traffic was overwhelmingly leisure (FIT) travelers due to misaligned optimization and messaging.

Strategy & Execution

✅ Website Overhaul & Repositioning:

• We rewrote and restructured the entire website, ensuring the content and SEO were laser-focused on meeting planners, event organizers, and corporate retreat coordinators.

• The new structure allowed the DMO to compete at the state, regional, and local levels, ensuring visibility in broad discovery searches and high-intent decision-making searches.

✅ SEO-Optimized RFP Generation:

• We optimized meeting and event RFP pages to directly target planners at all stages of the sales funnel.

• By ensuring the RFP process was clear, fast, and intuitive, we increased the volume of qualified leads flowing to stakeholders.

✅ Strategic Advertising for Meeting Planners:

• Leveraged a multi-platform ad strategy, including:
  🔹 Google Ads – Focused on high-intent keywords related to event planning.
  🔹 LinkedIn Ads – Targeted corporate decision-makers and event organizers.
  🔹 Meta (Facebook & Instagram) Ads – Used for remarketing and awareness campaigns.

✅ SEO Domination Across the Sales Funnel:

• Over four years, we secured top Google search rankings for both early-stage discovery queries ("Best destinations for corporate retreats") and decision-stage searches ("Submit RFP for [State] group travel").

• This ensured consistent, high-quality traffic from meeting planners actively looking for group event destinations.

✅ Collaboration with Internal Marketing Team:

• We worked hand-in-hand with the DMO’s internal marketing team to plan and develop a new website designed for long-term SEO success.

• Provided training and strategic guidance to ensure their team could execute content marketing at scale, further expanding their digital presence.

✅ Competitive Positioning with Comparison Content:

• Launched "Us vs. Them" comparison content, ensuring that the state appeared in searches where event planners were considering competing states or metro areas.

• This positioned the DMO as a leading alternative to competing destinations, effectively pulling meeting planners away from competitor markets.

Results

✔️ 600% Increase in Relevant Group Travel & Event Traffic – Over four years, high-intent meeting planner traffic skyrocketed, directly impacting event RFP submissions.
✔️ Dominating Google Search Rankings – The DMO now owns top search results at all stages of the group travel funnel, making them the go-to resource for meeting planners.
✔️ Consistent Flow of RFPs – Stakeholders (hotels, event venues, vendors) now receive a steady stream of qualified business inquiries, helping them fill room nights and support local businesses.
✔️ Statewide Recognition & Co-Op Funding – The success of the strategy led to recognition from the state, securing valuable co-op marketing funding to further scale efforts.
✔️ Internal Team Empowered for Long-Term Growth – The marketing team now consistently produces high-quality content, building one of the largest digital footprints for group travel in the industry.

Timeline: 4 Years

This long-term, strategic transformation positioned the statewide DMO as a leader in group travel marketing, creating sustained success for both the organization and its stakeholders. 🚀