Smoky Mountain CBD
Rebranding hemp products for a mature audience.
The CBD industry is so busy catering to the younger demographics that it has forgotten about the group that needs it most - working adults.
Smoky Mountain CBD leads by example with its wide range of hemp products formulated with grown ups in mind.
Smoky Mountain CBD leads by example with its wide range of hemp products formulated with grown ups in mind.
Industry
Retail
Location
Tennessee, USA
Customer Since
2021
01
In a nutshell
Smoky Mountain CBD was founded to cater to the needs of older adults, something often overlooked by mainstream CBD companies in favor of younger audiences.
And yet Ryan (founder of Smoky Mountain CBD) managed to build a significant consumer base by creating CBD products for older adults.
And yet Ryan (founder of Smoky Mountain CBD) managed to build a significant consumer base by creating CBD products for older adults.
410% Increase in Traffic in 11 Months
Organic traffic increased more than 4 times in a span of 11 months with just 20 blog posts.
100% Local SEO
As a US only retailer, it was important that 100% of the organic traffic originates from the United States of America.
766% Increase in Top Ranking Keywords
Organic keywords in the top 3 SERP positions doubled while keywords from 4th to 10th positions went from just 7 to 99!
Upward Trajectory
With the new, more optimized website, we expect both organic traffic and sales to continue booming.
A qoute about the importance of removing misconceptions surrounding CBD and understanding the needs of older adults.
- Ryan Saari, CEO and Founder
- Ryan Saari, CEO and Founder
02
Company bio
Smoky Mountain CBD is a premium hemp company from the mountains of East Tennessee. In just five short years, the company has become the most trusted CBD manufacturer and supplier in the Tennessee area.
In fact, if you’ve ever had any hemp-based products in and around Tennessee, chances are that this company had a role to play in its making.
Growing at this rate, Ryan, company’s founder realized that he needed to get his company website on par with his products.
This is where we come in.
Growing at this rate, Ryan, company’s founder realized that he needed to get his company website on par with his products.
This is where we come in.
03
Identifying hurdles
Ryan initially reached out to House of Brilliant Ideas to improve local SEO. The success of this early partnership deserved a sequel so we extended our retainer to focus on the company’s aging website copy as well.
01
Modernize the website to simplify the customer journey and complement the new website copy.
Increase organic traffic through the company blog.
Come up with a business messaging framework that correctly conveys company values and goals.
04
Art of content marketing
Our first goal was to produce some killer blog articles to drive traffic from Google Search and kickstart Smoky Mountain’s organic lead generation.
The Best Possible Spot on Google Search
Delta 8 Distillate is one of the most important products for Smoky Mountain CBD and our article for the target keyword reached the top of Google Search Engine Result Page (SERPs) within months of publication.
05
Business messaging
The next big challenge was creating a business messaging framework to guide the website copy as well as future marketing collateral.
We established the key principles of Smoky Mountain CBD and the team behind it.
Based on this, we narrowed our focus to three key aspects.
01
The target demographic is older adults – make them feel heard.
02
Safety is the top priority. Everything is third-party tested and completely transparent.
03
This is an established manufacturer, supplier, and distributor of CBD products.
All progress and iterations were tracked through a Project Tracker.
With a strategy in hand, we created website wireframes to determine all of the website elements Smoky Mountain CBD would need copy for.
We were also asked to write copy from scratch for 14 new products as well as update existing copy for almost 30 products and bring it all up to spec.
We were also asked to write copy from scratch for 14 new products as well as update existing copy for almost 30 products and bring it all up to spec.
06
Website design & development
With the website and product copy done, we arrived at the biggest challenge yet, updating the company website.
Choosing the CMS
Our first choice was Webflow but the unique payment regulations for the CBD industry meant there could be payment-processor related issues down the line.
So instead, we decided to continue on WordPress with the pre-configured Square account to avoid potential service disruption.
So instead, we decided to continue on WordPress with the pre-configured Square account to avoid potential service disruption.
Setting Objectives
During this process, we had two main objectives in mind:
- Ensure the website has a “standard” layout that’s easy to navigate
- Make the website and product easy to update
Creating Mockups and Assets
We started working on website mockups as well as assets and media for the website.
Assets included product mockups, iconography, banners, hero images, blog images, as well as media for the new formulations.
Assets included product mockups, iconography, banners, hero images, blog images, as well as media for the new formulations.
Optimizing Existing Content
The website already had over 50 CMS items that needed performance and SEO optimization.
In addition to the blog posts and products, we also needed to improve load speeds and performance on both mobile and tablet breakpoints.
In addition to the blog posts and products, we also needed to improve load speeds and performance on both mobile and tablet breakpoints.
Iterative Development
Throughout the design process, we implemented feedback from the Smoky Mountain team into the staging website.
We know these things take time and we don’t do rush jobs.
We know these things take time and we don’t do rush jobs.
Launch Day
The new Smoky Mountain website was moved from staging to the live domain around midnight to minimize user disruption.
We worked alongside the in-house team in case any issues had to be ironed out.
We worked alongside the in-house team in case any issues had to be ironed out.
Post-launch Updates
Though the website was live and fucntioning as expected, our work wasn’t complete just yet.
We continued optimizing and improving the sales funnel based on live feedback from real users.
We continued optimizing and improving the sales funnel based on live feedback from real users.
07
Flexible billing
House of Brilliant Ideas offers flexibility in billing to help address our partners’ unique and fluid requirements. Our work with Smoky Mountain CBD is a great example of the efficiency of this model.
Since the initial objective of the project was a series of blog articles, we recommended a retainer for 10,000 words giving us the flexibility to create the perfect article for each target keyword.
At the same time, the client had complete visibility through comprehensive project trackers and assurance of on-time and on-budget project completion.
Success from the content writing prompted Smoky Mountain CBD to extend the project’s scope to also include copywriting, website design, and development. Our hourly retainers were the ideal choice here.
Since the initial objective of the project was a series of blog articles, we recommended a retainer for 10,000 words giving us the flexibility to create the perfect article for each target keyword.
At the same time, the client had complete visibility through comprehensive project trackers and assurance of on-time and on-budget project completion.
Success from the content writing prompted Smoky Mountain CBD to extend the project’s scope to also include copywriting, website design, and development. Our hourly retainers were the ideal choice here.