When the Global Hotel giant, Hilton, asked us how a Luxury Wellness Retreat can be promoted in a region that has never seen anything like it, we immediately knew what needed to be done.
The Dharana Retreat, a 330-acre destination in the hills, possessed the prerequisites to truly take its Wellness Offerings to a global standard of excellence. Our process of research, benchmarking and analysis of the Retreat and Industry led to one conclusion:
The Dharana Retreat has three, prominent USPs.
Promoting all these factors was essential to making Dharana’s message and offering comprehensive and clear to its customers. Doing so requires not only consistency but also a strategy that reaches out to an extremely diverse set of global and local audiences. All the stakeholders needed was to connect with and be in the know of what the retreat offers.
Modern, accessible technology has made many Hotel and Resort operations, traditionally requiring human intervention and effort, to be significantly automated. Therefore, it was necessary that the Dharana Retreat’s first step into the digital realm was with a user friendly website.
A website is the digital home of the brand. 9 times out of 10, audiences will ‘Google’ for something rather than ‘Instagram’ it. Additionally, websites also allow for integration and amplification via Digital Marketing strategies.
This is why one of our objective was to develop a website that’s relevant, always accessible and always ranks.
The developed website served three core functions:
The integrated approach is not just making accounts on every possible medium and calling it a day. It’s deep research. It’s understanding psychology. It’s understanding what’s happening around you. Most importantly, a strategy is developed when you bring in experts from each marketing discipline under one roof and build a team of ideators.
When developing an Integrated Strategy, we did a deep dive to find out and understand every single possible variable and factor that comes into play for a product of this scale.
id8 utilized strategies, both modern and traditional alike, using the wide implementation of Digital Tools to robust On-Ground Surveys, to truly bring forth the way forward. We discovered what Dharana can offer, matching it against what the potential consumer expected. We researched what the immediate competition offers, matching it against what the industry does.
A collaborative process helped elevate and create a deeper awareness of the Retreat, eventually culminating in a Marketing Roadmap to help Dharana achieve what we know it can. This involved the activation of Visual Branding Strategy, Public Relations, Social Media Marketing, Content, Blogs, Influencer Marketing, Search Engine Marketing and Optimization to give the brand visibility and create clarity regarding its offerings.
The objective was to educate, create awareness about and establish Dharana as a holistic Wellness Centre and a completely sustainable retreat. This strategy was implemented as PR first, allowing us to create a base of understanding of this unique offering. This was achieved through high-quality coverage in leading hospitality, trade, lifestyle, and luxury news outlets across print, television and digital.
We fostered collaborations with some of the best and leading Wellness and Travel Influencers, both on a local and global level. The buzz generated online and on social platforms helped boost Dharana’s Social Media profiles to a wider audience.
Content creation process for Dharana kept in mind the ‘Holistic Luxury’ aspect of Dharana. The language and tone focused on being gentle, yet ever so slightly knowledgeable.
The design followed the same principles, focusing on championing the high quality imagery of the retreat, while also maintaining an overall feed aesthetic.
Our efforts in defining brand guidelines, content buckets and a performance strategy helped the page reach 10k followers withing 6 months.
Without proper Research and Analysis, any strategy will quickly fall apart. This is prominent in regard to Digital Marketing.
Without proper Research and Analysis, any strategy will quickly fall apart. This is much more prominent in regards to Digital Marketing which was possible due to the new Website.
Deep research is ingrained behind the SEO and SEM implementations. Understanding the brand and its competition allowed for better Keyword Analysis and All-around Optimization.
This handled factors like Website Structure, Meta Tags, Header Tags and Content Optimization, making the experience much more user friendly.
Often overlooked but important, off-page Optimization helped generate quality backlinks via blogs and directory listings.
SEM efforts focused on designing a sound campaign structure which could effectively convey Dharana’s USPs to the right audience. Our work didn’t end there. The campaigns were constantly monitored to measure their performance and maintain quality.
| Years | Sessions | Users | Pageviews | Leads |
| Year 1 | 12,890 | 9,625 | 26,639 | 137 |
| Year 2 | 338,917 | 270,679 | 563,686 | 708 |
These efforts powered visits and discovery of the website, increasing quality leads by 400% in just a year!
Our journey with Dharana still continues as we look towards diverse and ideated methods to promote an experience unlike any other.
Marketing is not a one-time activity, it’s a continuous and ongoing process.
Your brand can experience the absolute best of Integrated Marketing, just reach out to us at info@id8mediasolutions.com or check out our Instagram!