What started as a once-a-week blog turned into a content marketing machine. In 4 years of WordPress hustling, the Fish AZ blog, created and maintained by Walter Outdoors sole proprietor Nick Walter from 2014-2017 while working at The Arizona Game and Fish Department, had reached a half-million pageviews.
Walter was humbled July 9-12, 2017 for honors from the Association for Conservation Information Inc’s, which presented a National Award in the Online Community Engagement category for “Fish AZ.”
The blog was the featured platform for engagement and was promoted by social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and the weekly fishing report newsletter. The blog turned into a microsite that was finally fazed out in 2022 in lieu of new fishing report options.
Blog content strategy
The blog utilized polls and surveys and simple questions to help guide a content strategy for the target audience — beginning anglers to Arizona.
Using Google Analytics to create and measure goals, the blog was constantly optimized and content was re-targeted. The eventual result was a blog that hit the target audience (primarily 25-45 year olds and new-ish anglers) with content that spoke that audience’s language.
See a presentation analytics report.
Online community engagement
Engaging topics were formed through the ideation process. A good idea for a blog or other piece of content is like setting the coordinates of a space shuttle. If you want to land on the moon, you better have taken time to set a precise course of action.
The blog featured a “Join the discussions” call to action on the left sidebar:
And the “Got questions?” widget encourages more problem-solving opportunities.
Comments were answered promptly and cheerfully (and drive a customer through the sales cycle — in this case to the purchase of a fishing license).
This the the cocktail party that a blog can feature!
