Hunting and Fishing Marketing | Appealing to Google and your Consumer

Hunting and Fishing Marketing | Appealing to Google and the Customer with Multimedia

Appealing to Google and Your Customer | The Power of Multimedia in Hunting and Fishing Marketing

By: Weston Schrank
Stone Road Media’s Content Marketing Manager

Everyone that is potentially reading this, considering the year and time I wrote this piece, is or has grown up reading hunting and fishing magazines. Depending on your passion, you waited for that magazine each and every month. You would reserve a spot in the calendar, even a chunk of time after dinner but before bed, a time for just you and the latest hunting and fishing articles. What do the old print and magazine articles have to do with this digital blog? A big part of digital marketing and more specifically content marketing is taking lessons from the past and capitalizing on them when tested. Print and digital are two different beasts entirely but they were birthed with the same purpose, engaging the consumer. To bring them together, digital and content marketing must make it a priority in tempting the consumer into the content. This pull and addiction was mastered by print writers, as we know to have been very successful at evoking emotional connection to the story and topic through detailed descriptions, delicate vocabulary, and well-formed article structure. In the world of digital that can and should all apply, but it can be done far easier with the simple task of embedding multimedia. In the world of hunting and fishing marketing this is a must! As the hunting, fishing, and outdoor industry peaks its head into the digital scene, it must open the lesson notes on where the industry has come from and how it has thus far acquired readers, fans, and customers. Until recently it was print or TV shows for many brands, but now hunting and fishing marketing must include well thought out a content and digital marketing strategy that includes the use of multimedia.

While print and digital content are comparable in terms of purpose they are downright different in the fact of what is available. While print was relatively constricted to vocabulary and pictures, it only had to focus on engaging the consumer, not acquiring them.  Digital content must not only engage the consumer but be appealing to google as well, now serving two purposes. One, procure consumers from an extremely competitive field, and two appeal to and engage that buyer. While digital content has multimedia at its disposal, this competition and job description has become a lot harder for online content creators, managers, and marketers to see returns on effort. Just as hunting and fishing print writers developed into masters of engaging readers, outdoor industry content marketers, brands, and shows must dictate the digital content they produce.  This process is and has eventually lead to the final result of becoming proficient at the embedding of multimedia in every piece of content. With Stone Road Media as the front-runner of hunting and fishing marketing in the outdoor industry, we are doing, have done, and are verifying this.

With the realization of open real estate and the earthquake beneath the industry’s feet forming a content and web real estate gap, the time could not be more spot on and important to take control of your content and multimedia use. This has been adequately described in “Content Marketing | An Outdoor Industry Content Gap Is Growing”.

“2016 has come with some big changes that will be noticed by this industry! Do not fall behind. Every company, brand, and product has competition, the top spot for every search related to your business is key. Do you have the content to bridge that gap? An authoritative content gap will begin to form for every topic, subject, and product in the industry. You need to ask yourself, which side of the gap you will be on and where your competition will be?”

Under the weight of this rapid snatching of open web real estate, we have returned our content management and marketing goals, team, and content machine.

What is Outdoor Industry Multimedia?

Multimedia – several forms of communication or expression (Merriam-Webster). Basically this is content that incorporates forms such as text and images (basic) with video, audio, and interactive content (advanced). For the outdoor industry, and as far as hunting and fishing digital marketing should be concerned, this is the blueprint for acquiring and engaging consumers. Each and every piece of content on your blog, channel, and site should incorporate the use of multimedia to appeal to not only the consumer, but more importantly to google. As a rule of thumb every piece of content that goes on our site, a client’s site, or partner’s site must have a minimum multimedia use. Why?

“Sixty-eight percent (68%) of consumers spend time reading about brands that interest them, and once found (search query on google) , 78% perceive a relationship between themselves and the brand after reading or watching digital content; 82% of which is positive feelings towards the brand”Hunting and Fishing TV Show Marketing | how to Acquire and Retain More Sponsors

Content is useless when it does not do its job. An unsatisfying article on summer bass fishing, summer deer mineral usage, or the handgun or rifle selection process wouldn’t sit well with either the editor or reader of a magazine. In the same sense a poorly optimized piece of content does not sit well with google, resulting in a  2nd, 3rd, 4th or worse page rank for related search queries. On the other hand a well optimized piece of content must be natural, interesting, and valuable to the consumer. Multimedia use in digital content is the balance between the two.

How to Use Multimedia in Outdoor Industry Content

Now I am not simply telling you that what you have been doing this entire time is working, considering if you are like 70 % of the industry (the 30% being our clients and partners). I’ll express to you now to clear your mind…putting some basic text or a blog with a picture of a buck, a food plot, a boat, or an 8lb bass, or even better just uploading YouTube video is not going to cut it! There are a lot of websites out there that just simply do that, but this will change shortly. At the advent of Google’s hummingbird update, the content game and resulting real estate gap has been completely re-figured. This is ultimately is what will separate the regurgitated post websites, and the truly “original and valuable” content creators that prop themselves up to be the authorities. This is why multimedia use is so key, and why our clients our soaring to the top of every search page all around you!

The reason this blog exists? It pains us to see the so very real struggle of hunting and fishing brands, TV shows, and company’s going through with this. Here is an example…

Content Marketing for Hunting, Fishing, and Shooting | The Future of Outdoor Industry Marketing from Jeremy Flinn on Vimeo.

Content Marketing for Hunting, Fishing, and Shooting | the Future of Outdoor Industry Marketing

(Video) – Content marketing has been deemed as the future of all marketing. For small and large brands, alike, now is the time to seize the space in your niche. Find how by reading on…

Its common knowledge that the entire industry is going towards video content, it’s simply the best way to tell the story and engage consumers. Those who cannot produce video settle with the next best thing, a podcast. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages, but both are considered prized multimedia for the outdoor industry. For hunters, and content creators in the hunting and fishing industry, creating quality content is not the problem, at least not from where we sit and view it. There is so much content out there with potential. You currently reading, you most likely have several YouTube or Vimeo videos sitting on a channel, or perhaps several podcast sitting on your site, but…(you know what I am about to say) you’re not getting any traction!  While you might have filmed a thrilling 180 inch whitetail hunt, or a great “how to” fishing video, you failed to reach the consumer with it. The main reason? Simple optimization, basic titles, keywords, and a lack on your part to think before you post. This is the struggle we see EVERYWHERE IN THE INDUSTRY. If a brand, content creator, company, or site does achieve basic optimization to tell google what it actually is on their site, they will most likely fail on another step. This second critical step is syndicating content with your partners, your shows, your hunting and fishing TV show sponsors or whatever the case may be. Without this syndication of multimedia, you basically see the current state of the industry, a ton of content with no rhyme or reason. While it pains us to see this, what’s even more painful is trying to watch hunters, fisherman, outdoor enthusiasts, and your consumers trying to wade through this content. “It’s sad to see extremely valuable and quality content go unseen” – quoted for one reason only, it is happening!

If it’s not already there yet, I want to place a light bulb in your head. Dig and sift through all of the related multimedia that pertains to your brand. Now how much of it are you currently using? If it’s below 80-90%, the 10-20% being newly produced or out of date media, then you are way behind. If this is your situation, write some copy (text) to go with those videos, the podcasts, and the pictures. Slap this up on your blog or landing pages, optimize it, and use it to your benefit.

How Multimedia Bridges the Gap Between Google and The Consumer

Once you begin employing every piece of multimedia, you will begin to understand the massive value it brings to your brand. Google loves well optimized blogs, articles, and pages, but it loves those same pages more with pictures, videos, audio etc. The key here is so does the consumer! It bridges the gap!

After some time, mastering this multimedia use for your brand, will not only acquire customers organically but evoke the responses you desire and get them hooked. Just like print and the hunting and fishing magazines did/do, if every one of your posts contain quality pictures, a video, some well written and intriguing text, and information that readers want, you have done your job! For this you need strategy, a content manager, skilled content producers, and a will to grind!

This is just a taste, the entry-level basics of what is rapidly becoming the new standard for digital marketing and hunting and fishing marketing. Outdoor content marketing will be, and is developing, as the future and focal point of the outdoor industry. This is based off and includes multimedia use. Whether you are a sponsor, a hunting of fishing TV show, a brand, or a company in this industry, no matter your size, impact in the industry, or your budget, outdoor content marketing and multimedia use can boost you in the industry. As you plan for the 2016/2017 marketing of your company and beyond, remember that a lot of companies are already investing into outdoor content marketing. There is only so much space in this competition, and once you get ahead in the game it could be easy to stay ahead!

For more information on Stone Road Media’s front running digital media assistance and multi-faceted team that has harnessed content production, management, and marketing, contact us today at info@stoneroadmedia.com.

Weston Schrank is Stone Road Media’s Digital Content Manager. He has turned the obsession of outdoors and hunting, expertise in wildlife and land management, and understanding of specialized content creation and SEO into an excelling and devoted career as a content manager and strategist, benefiting the company’s many outdoor industry partners.

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