Over a decade, I led the end-to-end digital presence for Discover Kalamazoo, transforming the website, content strategy, and user experience to support tourism, local engagement and destination marketing for Kalamazoo County.
As the lead on the website redesign project, I oversaw the creative direction, ensuring a cohesive and engaging visual identity. I meticulously planned the user experience and navigation to enhance usability and facilitate seamless interaction with visitors. Additionally, I captured all the photographs to represent our brand authentically and wrote all the copy, crafting a compelling narrative that resonated with our audience. This holistic approach allowed me to create a website that looks great and effectively communicates our message.
Core Responsibilities
Oversaw redevelopment and ongoing maintenance of the website (e.g., discoverkalamazoo.com) to align with brand positioning, SEO best practices, accessibility standards and evolving user behaviors.
Developed and executed a comprehensive content strategy: audience research, editorial calendar, content pillars (destination highlights, events, local business features, seasonal campaigns) and performance tracking.
Managed cross-channel digital integration — ensuring website + social + email + partner portals all reinforced one cohesive visitor experience.
Led stakeholder coordination: worked with tourism partners, local businesses, event organizers, and the internal marketing team to gather content, amplify stories and drive co-promotion.
Monitored analytics (traffic, engagement, conversions, leads) and optimized content/modules for performance and UX improvements.
Instituted governance workflow: editorial guidelines, style/voice, asset library, SEO tagging, accessibility compliance and partner-upload processes.
Website Highlights
Destination Region Pages — Created engaging “North / Central / Downtown / South” segments with tailored content for each region of Kalamazoo County, providing rich narratives, imagery, itineraries and maps.
“269 Cool Things To Do” Campaign — A long-running feature inviting locals and visitors to contribute favorite experiences, generating strong UGC, local business mentions, and ongoing content refreshes. (Ref: discoverkalamazoo.com mentions “269 Cool Things To Do”) Discover Kalamazoo
Seasonal & Thematic Content Hubs — Built dedicated microsites or landing pages for major events, festivals, and seasonal drives (e.g., fall color, craft beverage week, family weekends) to boost relevance and shareability.
Web Accessibility & SEO Overhaul — Led audit and enhancements to improve accessibility compliance (WCAG) and boost organic discoverability; aligned metadata, alt-tags, mobile responsiveness and internal linking.
Partner & Community Amplification — Developed content templates and workflows so local businesses and event hosts could submit stories/photos, which were then featured on the site and shared across social.
Analytics-Driven Iteration — Ran quarterly reviews of site analytics (traffic, user flow, bounce, conversions) and used findings to optimize content placement, drop-off points, and site navigation.
Impact & Achievements
Successfully maintained and enhanced a high-visibility digital asset for the region for over 10 years, becoming the go-to portal for visitors and local discovery.
Elevated brand awareness of Kalamazoo County as a destination via improved site traffic, engagement on featured content, and knock-on social share effects.
Established a content and digital governance model enabling scalability, consistency, and collaboration across internal teams and external stakeholders.
Built a lasting framework and asset library that positioned Discover Kalamazoo for future growth and content modernization.
This is a sample of the home page. Visit HTTP://www.discoverkalamazoo.com to view more.
