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CVM Work

The Grass(fed) is Always Greener

U.S. Wellness Meats

PR & Audience Generation Website strategy & Development Content-Rich Media

The Insight Overview Website Strategy & Development Public Relations Results

The Insight

Buzzwords like "green," "sustainable," and "local" have recently made it into the zeitgeist, but today's consumers want more than flashy marketing—they want information, education, and a clear sense of where their food is coming from. Though our client U.S. Wellness Meats has always upheld its mantra of "health for the land, health for the animal, and health for the consumer," the company needed a website rebrand and PR program that focused on educating its consumer base in an accessible, reliable, and honest way, in light of the windfall of mainstream demand.

Program Highlights

- Direct-to-consumer, online-only, grass-fed
   meat purveyor—a pioneer in the industry
- 30% year-over-year growth
- Weekly newsletter with over 30,000
   subscribers (and growing!)
- Featured chef series
- Monthly landing page series
- Social media (blog, twitter, facebook)
- YouTube gallery with 11 videos and almost
   20,000 views
- An e-commerce site and brand home base
   all in one
- Approximately 330 products on the site

Overview

Approaching its 10th year in business, USWM was facing a new generation of organic and sustainable-food fanatics. But arriving alongside the consumer excitement were new guidelines, new opinions, and therefore, a slew of misleading information about what it means to be organic, sustainable, and most importantly, grassfed.

When USWM and CVM realized that the existing educational materials on grass-fed meats were not only diffuse but often inconsistent, unclear, and downright false, we teamed up to address them through a brand overhaul, an educational content program, and a PR strategy that would ensure USWM's message rose above the chatter.

The day is off to a great start when you receive a call from your Congressman's office in regards to favorable press.

— John Wood, Founder and CEO of U.S. Wellness Meats

Website Strategy & Development

We started by converting what had been a traditional e-commerce hub into a multi-purpose marketplace, offering not only buying opportunities, but also serving as a regularly-updated destination site for those looking and for facts on sustainable eating, the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed meats, and the health benefits of their products.

We used the company's existing knowledge base and expertise in the field to position it as the farm to go to for top-quality, humanely-raised grass-fed meat—and education about anything having to do with it.

We additional conducted our own careful research to gain knowledge and understanding of what today's consumers are looking for online and off. We used this information to create a content-rich site that houses the brand's story and products, along with content that's educational, insightful, and entertaining.

The resulting site includes a plethora of information on the health and environmental benefits of grass-fed meat via an FAQ section that covers everything from shipping to omega-3s; an interactive "Learn Your Cuts" section for those unfamiliar with the physiology of the cuts; the full U.S. Wellness Meats story; a school lunch program for progressive schools and an "Our Farms" section that puts a face with the farmers' names. Channel V Media also designed the U.S. Wellness Meats blog, which is consistently updated with fresh content by the U.S. Wellness Meats staff.

Content, Delivered Fresh

In addition to this fixed informational content, CVM and U.S. Wellness Meats developed a monthly landing page series to keep the homepage content fresh and regularly-updated. These pages—which celebrate everything from "National Pig in a Blanket Day" to Thanksgiving—provide visitors with original recipes, information about the given "holiday," external resources and, of course, links to purchase USWM products. These landing pages additionally make good fodder for the companies ongoing social media program, and are often the most highly trafficked pages on the site.

Content, Delivered Regularly

The monthly "Featured Chef" page, also a Channel V Media creation, features home and professional chefs and their recipes. Chefs from eateries as varied as Craftbar in Atlanta and Blind Lady Ale House in San Diego; bloggers from Better Homes & Gardens and KathEats.com, and home chefs from New York City to Houston, all have a chance to tell their food-centric tales, and share their unique recipes with fellow grass-fed meat lovers.

Public Relations

Knowing that the product could speak for itself in terms of great taste, and that the nature of the company comes with plenty of positive buzzwords like "sustainable," "green," and "healthy," we stayed true to the core values of U.S. Wellness Meats—health for the land, the animal and the consumer—when tailoring our approach. We explored different ways to engage the individual audiences of each of our target outlets and the specific interests of our contacts. Children's magazines? "Did you know that U.S. Wellness Meats has been shown to have no negative effects on kids with allergies?" Newspapers and news outlets? "Did you hear that U.S. Wellness Meats has not been (and likely never will be) affected by the E. coli scares of conventional meat?" Holiday time? "U.S. Wellness Meats makes for great holiday dinners and great gifts!"

Giveaways

Giveaways can help even the smallest campaigns get bigger. Blog readers love free stuff, and bloggers love giving it to them. Mom bloggers, food bloggers, and regular-ol'-bloggers jumped at the chance to give their readers $75 worth of U.S. Wellness Meats products. Giveaway entrants helped spread the word about USWM's products since the "entry fees" were simply "tweet this five times," "visit the U.S. Wellness Meats site," or "refer five (5) friends to..."

Results

As with any product-based program, success is measured by the overall increase in sales. The all-encompassing U.S. Wellness Meats program—from website makeover to PR program and ongoing content production—resulted in such popularity for the company that at one point, the demand exceeded their supply. (Worry not, though—the U.S. Wellness Meats supply has since caught up with demand.) U.S. Wellness Meats has been featured in outlets like Fox News, Parade, SheKnows.com, The Huffington Post, Sierra magazine, Organic Product Retailer, The Nourishing Gourmet, Edge Publications, and Portland Picks for Men. We have additionally helped U.S. Wellness Meats increase its traffic, on average, 25% each year since beginning our work with them.

Now that I've discovered a purveyor of meats from animals raised the way I like—on lush, green pasture land, free from pesticides, hormones and antibiotics—I will let [my husband] indulge, because healthier animals mean tastier, better-for-us meat and dairy products.

— PARADE