One of the Idaho Potato Commission's most important and effective marketing tools is its website, www.idahopotato.com. In all of our communication to consumers as well as foodservice and retail partners, we promote the website and encourage everyone to visit it to learn more about Idaho potatoes.
Each month the website receives about 25,000 visitors who, in total, view 112,144 pages, which equates to approximately 4.5 pages viewed per visit.
Between Thanksgiving and New Year's, which is the peak selling period for Idaho potatoes, we heavy-up our presence on the internet through vehicles like Google AdWord, partner with organizations like the National Turkey Federation and promote our seasonal recipes through various public relations initiatives. Last year, these efforts resulted in an 813 percent increase in traffic to our website during this critical six-week time period!
As with all our marketing campaigns, it's critical we keep the site fresh and updated with new information and features. In the past 12 months alone, we:
Revamped the entire look and feel of the website
reorganized the layout to make it easier for visitors to quickly find the information they need
added several interactive features such as the "Watching Waistlines and Wallets" micro-site, the "Dishin' Nutrition with Denise Austin" widget and our 2009 Idaho Potato Harvest game is housed on the website, and
made it easier for visitors to view our videos, including the updated Denise Austin television commercial, the Farmer Poetry video and the famous Dawn Wells potato peeling video (now viewed 5.2 million times).
However, the most popular feature on the Idaho Potato Commission's website is the incredible database of recipes and photographs that we've built over the years. There are more than 500 recipes ranging from salads to casseroles to desserts to all-time favorites like mashed and baked potatoes. They're all categorized by eating occasion and can also be found through a simple word search.
We invest resources in maintaining and building this database because we know once a consumer sees any of the photographs, they won't be able to NOT buy Idaho potatoes and prepare the dish themselves.
The most popular recipe that received more than 126,000 views last year was As Good as Mashed Potatoes But Fat Free! It's definitely a tried-and-true favorite that tastes delicious and, most importantly, is easy to make. Here it is for you to enjoy!