Brand strategy. Social management. Lifecycle marketing.
Black Bear Ridge
Black Bear Ridge Golf Course opened in 2005 as a rare one-hit-wonder: the 7,071 yard championship course was designed by Bill Magee, whose family had owned the acreage for years—but who had never designed a golf course.
In 2021, new ownership took the late Magee’s vision to the next level, envisioning an entire community built around the championship track. They turned a fun golf course into a year-round resort—complete with accommodations, bocce golf, and a winter trail system—and recognized they needed a marketing partner to help spread the word about the new BBR.
Starting with a social strategy
The original scope was a strategy for Instagram: help BBR reach golf tourists across Southern Ontario and into the US who would appreciate the new vibe. Working with an art director, we started by defining brand pillars and a new voice for the facility that could translate to social content pillars.
With recommendations that spilled beyond social, this quickly evolved into consulting on a larger rebrand lift including a new logo and website.
Working in tandem with a web development agency, I proposed a new sitemap that highlighted each business vertical by priority, and wrote all new web copy to clearly define BBR’s expanded offering. Then, I replicated the new sitemap in a Linktree profile to drive more social traffic to high converting webpages.
Having worked with Haley as a fellow contractor for many years now, I can say unequivocally that she is dedicated to creating the best work possible while keeping her clients’ best interests in mind.
She is highly organized, driven and fun to create with. And it certainly doesn’t hurt that she brings a genuine love and understanding of the industry to the work we create together.
— Hilary Hatt, Freelance Art Director and Graphic Designer
Adding new channels into the mix
BBR had an existing database of emails—a combination of local members and past visitors—but no strategy to engage or nurture it. We brought the new brand to life across a set of Mailchimp templates that could help us scale our outreach, then further segmented the list based on where people lived and how they first engaged with BBR. This let us prioritize locals with updates about live music nights, focus stay & play package promotions on out-of-town golfers, and retarget past holiday bookings each subsequent winter. Then, I developed storylines to push key conversions throughout the year including weddings, corporate events, large group bookings, membership sales, and seasonal promotions.
Meaningful results
Over the past two years, we’ve seen major growth across social and email.
Social 🤳🏼
200% total increase in followers
1.5% average week-over-week growth
Up to 4k reach per organic (non-boosted) post
Email 📧
51% average open rate
2% average CTR (up to 7.5% per campaign)
<0.6% unsubscribe rate