In 2019, I was was hired by the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association (NMLRA) to head their new media marketing initiatives. The NMLRA website had not been updated in several years, they had no SEO control of their brand, and without a focused social media approach, they were missing valuable attention from a larger, younger audience.
Over a year, I brought website traffic from 1,200 visits a month to 20,000 visits each month. Search Engine Optimization as improved as the NMLRA webpages moved from the 2nd and 3rd pages of Google to the top of the front page on related searches, as well as auxiliary searches related to their monthly magazine, the muzzleloading industry, and traditional craft hobby.
I transitioned the website to a user friendly website building platform for easy editing by future staff members. With a modern backend, We were able to begin updating the front end of the website. Redesign focused on large photos and videos showcasing the events and benefits of becoming a member of the NMLRA. The website had to not only sell the NMLRA to new members, but had to host legacy information for members including, match records, archived magazine articles, and nation wide charter club information.
With its history in monthly publications, it was only natural for the NMLRA website to host an active blog with freely accessible information from the “Muzzle Blasts” magazine, weekly events, interviews and more. I curated content weekly to generate an estimated 1000+ original blog posts over 12 months. In conjunction with this, we started the “Muzzle Blasts” Podcast.
The Muzzle Blasts Podcast focused on interviews with industry professionals, talented traditional craftspeople, and pieces of NMLRA History to capture their stories for the association archives. In the first year, the podcast was downloaded by over 8,000 listeners over 28 episodes. As the host and editor, I saw it as my job to ask guests questions on behalf of the listeners and let them tell their story.
Over the past year we’ve seen great growth at the NMLRA and are excited to continue to grow with them and their effort to preserve muzzleloading, living history, and traditional crafts.
To generate more revenue for the association, we began targeting new muzzleloading enthusiasts with the NMLRA’ exclusive library of muzzleloading books. These books and other merchandise were exclusive to the NMLRA and hard to find unless you were able to acquire one second hand. SEO for these books and merchandise items were updated to align with the search keywords of potential customers and optimized to get infant of these fresh eyes. Over the course of one year, revenue online grew several hundred percent. During a year of forced cancellations of events and the closing of the NMLRA campground, the major revenue generators for the business, due to Covid-19, this revenue was needed.
Each month on average, I produced 10 original videos, 2 podcast interviews, several dozen unique social media posts, and added 6-10 original blog posts to the NMLRA website to continue dominance in the muzzleloading industry. During this time, no other business or publication in the muzzleloading industry produced as much content as the NMLRA.