Ellen Whitehurst has built her career and public persona around her expertise in Feng Shui and other alternative health and self-help modalities. With a book published by Random House, Make This Your Lucky Day, and regular columns with respected media outlets such as Redbook magazine, iVillage, and others, her reach was wide but fragmented. Because of the limitations of her contracts, she had no ownership of these audiences. Her own online presence was limited to an outdated website that closely aligned her with Feng Shui — at the expense of her other areas of expertise — and an infrequent eNewsletter. Due to Feng Shui’s wane in pop-culture popularity over the years, her once rapidly-growing brand had hit a plateau. Finally, because her primary offerings, including Feng Shui, were not changing, Channel V Media was brought on to create a plan for rebranding Whitehurst and her knowledge to capture their mainstream appeal.
Thus, our three-month challenge was threefold:
- To repackage Whitehurst’s offerings to encompass all areas of her expertise, rather than focusing solely on Feng Shui;
- To create an online strategy that would allow her to communicate directly with consumers rather than relying on other outlets as a filter; and
- To drive traffic to her new outlets and create ownership of her audience through these media.
Ellen Whitehurst has built her career and public persona around her expertise in Feng Shui and other alternative health and self-help modalities. With a book published by Random House, Make This Your Lucky Day, and regular columns with respected media outlets such as Redbook magazine, iVillage, and others, her reach was wide but fragmented. Because of the limitations of her contracts, she had no ownership of these audiences. Her own online presence was limited to an outdated website that closely aligned her with Feng Shui — at the expense of her other areas of expertise — and an infrequent eNewsletter. Due to Feng Shui’s wane in pop-culture popularity over the years, her once rapidly-growing brand had hit a plateau. Finally, because her primary offerings, including Feng Shui, were not changing, Channel V Media was brought on to create a plan for rebranding Whitehurst and her knowledge to capture their mainstream appeal.
Thus, our three-month challenge was threefold:
- To repackage Whitehurst’s offerings to encompass all areas of her expertise, rather than focusing solely on Feng Shui;
- To create an online strategy that would allow her to communicate directly with consumers rather than relying on other outlets as a filter; and
- To drive traffic to her new outlets and create ownership of her audience through these media.
Whitehurst’s previous website was limiting in many respects — outdated content, uninviting flash graphics, over-saturation of color, no personal connection to visitors and no reasons for them to return — but its most crippling feature was the fact that it emphasized a watered-down, outdated brand of Feng Shui, with characteristics people have come to associate with faddish Americanized Feng Shui. This drastically limited her reach and pigeonholed her in a position that didn’t allow for growth. Working with Whitehurst, Channel V Media created a strategy for a site that was to act as an online nucleus for a larger online and social media campaign, and that needed to contain features that would promote return traffic. We focused both on the aesthetics and the user experience. We toned down the color palette, added representative icons for important navigation, and introduced subtle imagery that offered a sense of renewal. We enhanced the user experience by offering resources for users, including an archive of Whitehurst’s past radio shows, a daily blog, monthly Em-POWER days and tips, “Shuistrology” (a longer version of her Redbook column), eNewsletter sign-up and a Bagua Map tutorial for those unfamiliar with Ellen’s approach.
Our online content and social media strategy introduced Whitehurst to a completely new concept: offering free editorial content directly to her audience. Our strategy revolved around the fact that her current editorial content (that which she was paid to create) wasn’t bringing her any closer to her audience. And since she didn’t "own" that audience, she couldn't leverage it in upcoming book or broadcast negotiations. By providing regular content on her new blog and interacting directly with her fans on the chosen social media platforms, Facebook and Twitter, Whitehurst would, in turn, drive readers back to her website where they could elect themselves for regular contact in the form of an enewsletter and other promotional announcements.
Whitehurst's new brand and associated online content strategy transformed what was once a modality-dependent, one-woman show, into a self-sustaining media channel.
The shift from Whitehurst's previous message to The Empowered Lifestyle went seamlessly and attracted much positive attention from her fans and media contacts alike.
From the point of introducing her first splash page until the end of our three-month project, Whitehurst's website received over 11,250 visits. Within a month of introducing The Empowered Lifestyle blog, it received 1345 visits. Her Shuistrology blog received 2,500 visits within the same time frame. Whitehurst's email database increased from 1,100 subscribers to 3,000 in the length of our project.
After introducing The Empowered Lifestyle, we were able to secure over ten radio interviews to drive traffic, including recurring spots with shows such as Live! With Lisa, Amy's Table, and Patricia Live.