Sprinting a Marathon

Bellingham Bay Marathon wanted more attendance and more participation—just six weeks before the race. Challenge accepted.

INDUSTRY

Sports, Nonprofit

GOALS

Increase attendance

SERVICE

SEO, Search Engine Ads, Content Creation, Social Media Ads

Their goals

The Bellingham Bay Marathon (BBM) offers organized races along Bellingham Bay including a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, full-marathon and marathon relay—100% of net proceeds benefit eight youth-focused nonprofits in Whatcom County.

Like many nonprofits, Bellingham Bay Marathon’s organizers consist of part-time employees and volunteers. The organization was picking up speed (so to speak) but their time to focus on digital marketing wasn’t pacing. They were partnering with website designer Highwaters Media to deliver a new, slick design up-to-speed with the times.

Our results

Total Sessions
18
%
increase
Page Views
32
%
increase
Organic Traffic
32
%
increase
Click-Through Rate
17
%

SEO

Increased the number of top 3 ranking keywords from 11 to 31 in time for the marathon, resulting in a promising rise in sessions on the Bellingham Bay Marathon webpage.

Google Ads

Made 17,866 impressions and achieved 195 conversions with a startling 17% click through rate.

Facebook Ads

Methodically targeted potential participants by race type, demographic and time frame to reach 41,860 potential participants.

Our exhaustive keyword research was the foundation for a massive success. Organic search led potential participants right to the website—where they spent longer and viewed more pages than the year before. Fueled by a few select keywords, we raised the Google Ad click-through rate to an impressive 17%, meaning almost one in five people who saw the ad used it to get to the website. We couldn’t be more proud. The data we compiled is now used to inform future campaigns.

How we did it

Another local nonprofit recommended Intellitonic to BBM. (Aww, you’re making us blush!) We got together, discussed the campaign’s strengths and what they were falling behind on. We proposed the following marketing mix:

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