Bear Mountain Inn + barn | Marketing Strategy
Waterford, ME
CHALLENGE:
Whew, where do we start with this one? We were lucky enough to get married at the Bear Mountain Inn + Barn in June of 2023. From the moment we set foot on the property, we fell in love with the historic inn and the incredible piece of land that it sits on in the woods of Maine (and this is despite the fact that it was sleeting sideways on the day we visited!).
The inn + barn had just been purchased by new owners, Nick and Jessica Orgo. Nick also happened to be the proprietor of the catering company for our wedding, so we were overjoyed when we heard that they had become the new stewards of the property.
We enjoyed our wedding weekend so much, and became so close with the BMI team that we knew we wanted to continue working with them long past that weekend.
Being new owners (on top of already owning several other local businesses), Nick and Jessica had a lot on their hands. We knew that marketing their new business to both potential wedding couples and inn guests was a major lift, one that they just didn’t have the time to manage themselves. We knew that we had the expertise to help lead their efforts, and we could not have been more excited when they agreed to bring us on board as consultants.
The challenge was simple: build a new marketing strategy from the ground up, and create the content to support a robust digital communications plan while solidifying the Bear Mountain Inn + Barn brand.
PRODUCTION:
So, how did we go about making this plan a reality?
We started by creating a strategy document that would be the guidebook for all of Bear Mountain Inn’s marketing activities. We took stock of the inn’s existing assets, completed a competitive market analysis, defined our goals and the roles of stakeholders, and began to build a plan to elevate the inn’s digital presence.
The first area of opportunity that we identified was the creation of a new website. The existing site had served the inn well, but was in need of an overhaul to update its visual design and to ensure that prospective guests could find all of the information they would need more easily. We’ve launched the website as of late April 2024 and upon it’s first SEO audit we actually discovered that at the moment of transfer to the new site, the site had better SEO than with the old site immediately which almost never happens when you change over to a new site! To say we were really stoked on this is an understatement.
To bolster SEO, we performed optimizations to BMI’s Google Business profile, in addition to their profiles on The Knot, Wedding Wire, Yelp, and Trip Advisor.
We also agreed that the inn was in need of a more consistent social media presence, to which end we decided that Bunker Hill Media would assume the management of the Bear Mountain Inn + Barn Facebook and Instagram profiles, in addition to the Bear Mountain Inn + Barn Weddings Instagram profile.
To support a consistent social media presence, we have also had to create a plethora of photo and video assets, more about which you can see below!
DELIVERABLES:
Comprehensive Bear Mountain Inn + Barn Marketing Strategy
New Bear Mountain Inn + Barn Website
Video and Photo Content
Social Media + Email Management
Local SEO Optimization + Management
Video + Photos
Below is a selection of the video + photo content that we have produced for the Bear Mountain Inn + Barn. We have created a wide variety of content, from long-form story driven video, to shorter reels and still imagery. We have maintained a strict creative style to ensure brand consistency.
Social Media Management
Bunker Hill Media has been working closely with Bear Mountain Inn + Barn since December of 2023 to curate their social channels for both the @bearmtninnme + @bearmountaininnweddings Instagram profiles, in addition to the Bear Mountain Inn + Barn Facebook page.
Website
The number one priority that Bunker Hill Media identified for Bear Mountain Inn was the need for an overhaul of their website. We have been lucky enough to work closely with the BMI team on this project, and are incredibly excited to launch the new site, which will drastically enhance the sites visual appeal and user experience. Click on the image below to check out their new, show stopping website! After launch, we discovered that SEO was increased after the domain transfer - we were really ecstatic about this!
