What if customers had to sit in 7 hours of traffic to work with you?

That’s what’s happening in my area right now.

I live in a small mountain town in California where most businesses make about 70% of their annual revenue from tourists in the winter.

Southern Californians love a good snow day, but they aren’t known for their winter weather driving skills. So when our roads get slippery, travel can get… eventful.

Here’s the twist: We only have three roads in and out of town. And this year, one of them was wiped out by a mudslide.

That means tourists will likely get stuck in SERIOUS traffic — like, 7-8 hours instead of 2-3 — on Fridays and Sundays, our busiest travel days.

When that happens, they’ll post about it, arrive cranky, and tell friends how awful the drive was.

Not exactly the type of buzz local businesses are hoping for.

So today, our Chamber of Commerce hosted a meeting with local marketers and business owners to decide how to handle the impending chaos.

By the end, they'd turned this giant headache into one of the smartest community campaigns I’ve ever seen.

How my town is turning this travel nightmare into a marketing opportunity

The goal is simple: Get more people to travel midweek instead of on weekends.

Easy to say. Hard to pull off.

So here’s what they’re doing:

Putting the visitor experience first:

✨ Setting honest expectations: Being upfront about the traffic and sharing tips to make the drive easier.

✨ Making it fun: Offering discounts for arriving early or leaving late — and even giveaways for taking the longer scenic route.

✨ Creating emotional messaging: Instead of focusing on gridlock, reframing it with lines like “Trade brake lights for starlight.”
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Making it easy for local businesses to get on board:

✨ Focusing on the long game: Short-term discounts may sting, but they’ll pay off through steadier traffic and happier visitors all season.

✨ Providing tools: Businesses are getting shared messaging, marketing assets, and swipe copy so everyone’s communicating the same thing.

✨ Building a united front: When more people visit the mountain — and enjoy it — the whole community wins.

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Curious about other ways to tap into your own community?

Check out these tips for local content marketing — they’ll help you find more customers in your own backyard.​
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3 local marketing ideas

Tip: Your Google Business Profile is a great place to start.​
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Genius of the month: Eddie Shleyner

Eddie is the writer behind VeryGoodCopy (one of the few newsletters I actually read).

He’s mastered the art of short-form storytelling, teaching big copywriting and psychology concepts in just a few paragraphs.

One of my favorite lines from him:

“The more I edit, the better I write.”

Plain ‘n simple.

If you want to become a sharper, more thoughtful writer (without drowning in 1,000-word think pieces), go follow VeryGoodCopy or connect with him on LinkedIn.

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👋 I’m Cassidy — copywriter, content strategist, and founder of Content by Cass.

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And also your super-chill friend who says hi, shares her most embarrassing moments, and cheers you on every Thursday.

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​Follow me on LinkedIn for unfiltered, slightly jaded nonsense and insights

​Check out my services if you need a content or copywriting partner

​Book a free chat to say hi, learn more, and bounce ideas around

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