The Cyclist's Menu is one of many cycling-centered businesses owned by the founders. The Cyclist's Menu offers amazing cycling adventures for everyone, accommodating riders of all levels and abilities, and pairs them with equally amazing food thanks to their co-founder chef. After years of running the business, they were ready to improve their web presence and increase their registration numbers.
"Big changes happened almost as soon as we started working with Megan. We're eager to see how much easier this year can be for us."
We sat down with Heidi Rentz Ault, the co-founder of The Cyclist's Menu, and her team to figure out what assets we were working with. They had a website but it's accessibility was lacking and they didn't have an easy way for people to sign up for their trips. Interested users had to email them and say which trip they were interested in. Since they'd been running their trips for years, the website contained outdated information or conflicting information, making it harder for users to trust the site. Many people were returning customers but the website wasn't appearing in any web searches, making it hard to gain new customers.
It was quite clear that the cost of doing nothing was the slow stagnation and eventual end of The Cyclist's Menu.
We discussed the vision Heidi and her team had for the business in general. They dreamt of fully-booked trips, an engaged mailing list, and an active audience who was constantly telling their friends about the amazing cycling trips they'd taken. We ideated different ways interested users could register for their trips, including third-party platforms or a custom-built booking system. We knew that organic search would be important for the website so we discussed how to improve the SEO.
We worked with Heidi to figure out a booking system that worked best for her and her team. They settled on We Travel, a third-party booking platform. This allowed them to schedule all of their events for the whole year, cap their trips, send out important information upon payment, and offer add-ons like custom jerseys or lodging.
We decided to redesign their website to showcase their unique selling points of chef-quality food, a caring team, and inclusion for cyclists of all types. We also knew we needed to have galleries to show off the beautiful vistas they'd ride through and the food they'd eat.
We also began strategizing on a newsletter schedule that would fit in Heidi's schedule and keep her trips top of mind.
We found an SEO expert in the cycling industry who could help get the website to appear in searches.
We plotted out a super tight roadmap due to the first trips opening for registration in a few months. Heidi's vision was a redesigned website with much stronger branding and an intuitive user flow, a new mailing list, and sold out trips.