Recently I had the opportunity to travel to Keepers of the Wild. Keepers of the Wild is a worthy organization and if you haven’t seen it yet, get your butt out there and see it. They are an internationally recognized non-profit organization dedicated to the dignified rescue of exotic animals. Located just east of Kingman, Arizona on Historic Route 66. Yes, that famous highway!
They are easy driving distance from several world class tourist destinations. Perfect for those people traveling along I-40 or Route 66 wanting something a little different between Las Vegas, Phoenix and the Grand Canyon. And Keepers of the Wild is Really Different!
As I did my research before traveling to see them, I realized they are excellent at Internet marketing, lousy at social marketing. looking at everything, they are a textbook example of what you need to do for successful Internet marketing. Until you hit their website.
What I mean by that is this – Keepers of the Wild is almost everywhere they need to be online to be found by the wandering, traveling public: Excellent reviews and rankings on all the major travel sites. 1000′s of articles written on them from all over the world by major media. They pop up on map/location searches. Plus they have a great reputation for being a worthy charity.
In fact, I think they do a better job at Internet Marketing than many of their nearby competitors do. When you have all this great content generated on a variety of very popular websites, it tends to drive a ton of targeted traffic to the main website. But you lose all that goodwill when the guest arrives at an unfriendly website like this one.
Flash Based – That style went out years ago. The slow loading can be a killer if being viewed by a tourist at a public/hotel computer (if allowed at all).
Small Text – On the side menu bar, makes it hard to read, not easy to change sizes or make adjustments to the screen.
Drop-Downs - On top toolbar, blends in with the images on the screen. Difficult to work if viewing on small monitor
Contact Page – Once found, it is difficult to fill in. Flash based makes the usual tab functions impossible
NOT MOBILE FRIENDLY!!
If there ever was a segment meant for mobile marketing, it was travel and tourism. “Spur of the moment, wanting something to add to current adventures, looking at review sites, want more information” viewer. That’s a mobile tourist Internet viewer.
This stretch of the famous highway is heavily traveled by upper income, mobile tourist with all the latest traveling technology (smartphone, GPS equip, etc..), seeking a new experience… That’s a perfect customer for Keepers of the Wild and they are losing them by not being mobile friendly.
The prospect finds Keepers on a review site on their mobile phone, likes what they read and wants more information. Ooops, can’t access website in a friendly, viewable manner because its flash based with small print that can not be magnified.
I would bet that their website traffic would double within a year if they made it mobile friendly or created an entirely different website for the mobile audience! Double. Not to mention how many new visitors and contributors it would bring in.
Missing Social Media
Again, the absolute perfect candidate for active Social Media. Keepers of the Wild active on Twitter and FaceBook would rock their world!! That would be a killer addition to their marketing strategy. They are on FaceBook, but nothing interesting or informative is there. Too Bad…
The stories and updates of the animals and what is happening would hit the heart strings and purses of many more people. Do even better if the website had a blog attached to it. The three combined would add excitement, interest, donations and visitors to the site as well as to the operation.
This is just my viewpoint. I see they are losing a lot of traffic because of the website design and lack of any social media strategy. A little fine tuning and they would see a marked increase in donations and paying visitors. Two things any non-profit could use right now.
Your Thought??
Hope This Helps.
Mark Anthony
