EverythingJerseyCity.com (EJC) is Jersey City’s premier city guide and destination site equipped with a comprehensive business directory, restaurant guide and continually updated calendar of events. Built for residents and visitors alike, EJC celebrates and promotes the great cultural diversity Jersey City is nationally recognized for, along with its unique shopping, dining, arts and living experience.
Founders of EverythingJerseyCity.com, Sam and Francine Mikhail, also happen to be CEO and CFO of Jungle Communications so naturally, our team took on the challenge of building EJC from the ground up!
GOALS
Source good news stories in Jersey City
Make website profitable with paid advertising
Become a recognizable Jersey City website
Partner with other local organizations for community outreach
Bridging small businesses with the local market
CHALLENGES
Setting EJC a part from other Jersey City websites
Reaching the community of Jersey City and finding our audience
Equally representing all wards and areas of Jersey City
Find local photographers, writers and videographers
Making our intentions for EJC clear?
Strategy
By starting EverythingJerseyCity.com from scratch, we had to do everything from concept to execution. That includes brand recognition and establishment, web development, SEO, email marketing, content marketing and social media.
Our main strategy to grow EJC was rooted in building community relationships. As life-long Jersey City residents, Sam and Francince, had cultivated years worth of friends in the community including business owners, neighbors and community leaders. Initially, we reached out to them to spread the word of the website launch as well as source good news stories and possible new members to join our team. Shortly after the initial launch we also initiated interviews with all of the Jersey City council people to build upon our JC connections and give the local community a better look at who’s representing them.
Utilizing social media was a huge priority for growing EJC because it was the easiest way for us to connect with Jersey City and more effectively spread good news. We started by aligning ourselves with already established Jersey City focused accounts or organizations and utilized their audience to grow ours through collaborative contests, guest posts and lives. As we gained more traction online we started implementing videos on Facebook, Instagram and Youtube highlighting the amazing initiatives, businesses and people that Jersey City has to offer.
Starting from 0 not even 2 years ago EverythingJerseyCity.com has since been transformed into a staple website in Jersey City. On the website alone we’ve amassed nearly 50,000 users, over 13,000 organic keywords, over 100 backlinks and over 1,000 subscribers to our newsletter. During the last few months we’ve also had organic inquiries for advertising on our website and social media!
On social media we now have 3,500 followers on Facebook, over 5,500 followers on Instagram, 46 videos on Youtube and growing. Coping with the COVID-19 pandemic during the first full year of EJC being launched was challenging but with a full marketing team at it’s back EJC pivoted and pushed on to virtually connect with Jersey City and expand our reach.
