DCTA’s A-train Rail Trail Completion Article Brings Readership as the Most-Viewed Blog Post of 2020


Target Audience: Current and potential DCTA riders, local cyclists, running groups and key organizations/associations with trails and environment focus, member cities, stakeholders and local partners.

Strategy Objective:The main goal was to successfully announce the completion of DCTA's A-train Rail Trail and bring awareness to this amenity that will be of great benefit to the many communities and riders the agency serves. DCTA had a great opportunity to share this announcement with its target audience and encourage use of the newly completed trail. The main challenge DCTA faced was creating all content and collateral in house, and in a short time frame in advance of the launch of this announcement.

Situation Challenge: DCTA developed a strategic marketing communications plan that focused on a blog article announcement to "house" all of its A-train Rail Trail construction completion content, photos, videos, etc. The blog article served as the main marcom tactic for the campaign to reach set goals and objectives. DCTA worked with various agency staff to develop historical information, interactive content, etc. to feature in the blog that was promoted via various agency communications channels including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, press release, email marketing and DCTA's website.

Results Impact: - Blog Article – 1,887 total pageviews, number one viewed article on DCTA's Hop on Board blog during the campaign period with no advertising efforts (all organic) and nearly five minutes average spent on the article - Social Media – Nearly 8,500 total impressions and 552 total engagements from Facebook and Twitter social marketing efforts combined - Public Relations – 11 articles secured, 241,700 impressions/reach and $1,900 in publicity value from the blog article announcement via media outreach efforts - Blog Link: Celebrate with DCTA: The A-train Rail Trail is Complete (hoponboardblog.com) - https://hoponboardblog.com/2020/01/celebrate-with-dcta-the-a-train-rail-trail-is-complete/

Why Submit: DCTA learned that focusing all of its content and marcom efforts in a single blog article strategically paid off in terms of meeting and exceeding the set campaign goals and increasing awareness of the completion of its A-train Rail Trail. The agency didn't utilize any of its yearly marketing budget to implement this effort, and the blog article to-date remains the most-viewed blog for DCTA's Hop on Board Blog for 2020. DCTA plans to continue to use this announcement strategy with future blog posts for more successful results and increased awareness.