The quaint wine town to beat all quaint wine towns.
Zero supermarkets, zero chain hotels, and an incredibly passionate tourism board who worked with us to make Carlton’s gem less hidden.
Together, we took Carlton from a neglected web presence to a constantly-evolving, conversion-optimized, all-encompassing website that generates real tourism traffic.
Carlton struggled to differentiate itself in a valley overflowing with wine towns. Visitors were passing through Carlton after booking a stay elsewhere and thinking “if only we knew about this place before booking.” We aimed to change that.
Carlton’s goal with this project was to drive more overnight stays. But how to accomplish this?
McMinnville had the glitz and modern amenities. Dundee had the rural charm. Newberg had the luxurious vibe.
So where does Carlton fit in?
Our pitch: Carlton’s strengths have nothing to do with what’s in the town. It has everything to do with two things:
First up, what’s not there: Walmarts. Hiltons. Traffic lights. Highways.
Secondly, what’s just a short drive away: Walmarts. Hiltons. Traffic lights. Highways.
We reframed Carlton’s core value proposition as being “the heart of wine country.” Uniquely located directly at the center between surrounding larger wine towns, Carlton’s value is as a home base for all your Oregon wine country travels.
In Carlton, you feel far from society without being far from society.
On the topic of overnight, Carlton’s tourism board mindset shifted just as quickly.
Armed with a robust, easily-updatable website that – crucially – automatically pulls in and promotes events from surrounding towns, Carlton reinforced its core value as a central hub of wine country while driving traffic to local businesses through its listings system.
From a neglected, decade-old site to the best online presence in the valley in just a few short months, we transformed the wine tourism game in my old home of Willamette Valley.
