Six-Month Marketing & Digital Implementation Plan
September 1, 2026 – February 28, 2027
SEPTEMBER — Build, Organize & Create
September will be the most intensive infrastructure month. Our immediate priority is creating everything necessary to begin promoting the museum opening while simultaneously building the long-term digital foundation.
We will establish the three-site website structure for Southampton County Historical Society, the Rebecca Vaughn House museum, and the Nat Turner Trail, using a coordinated architecture and design system while allowing each property to have its own purpose and search identity.
The existing Nat Turner Trail content will be captured and organized for migration from WordPress to Squarespace. Wireframes for all three websites will be developed, and content requirements will be identified with Julie, Tricia, and the historical team.
September will also include:
On-site professional photography, video, and drone capture
Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube establishment
Flodesk setup and domain authentication
Email database organization and segmentation
Domain and DNS review
Professional email configuration assistance
Google and search infrastructure
September 13 lecture promotion (via social media/email)
Museum grand-opening press release
Grand-opening invitation communications
Membership workflow recommendations
Initial teaser campaign for the museum
Content calendar development
September Goal: By September 30, the Society has a functioning marketing infrastructure and an active promotional campaign leading toward October.
OCTOBER — Launch & Grand Opening
October is our launch month.
The three (3) websites will move from development into final production, testing, search optimization, mobile review, domain connection, and launch. Our target should be to have the primary digital ecosystem live no later than the third week of October, providing a buffer before the October 29 donor event and public grand opening. Website will include:
Nat Turner Trail
Southampton County Museum
Southampton County Historical Society
Marketing will progressively increase throughout the month, using photography, video, historical storytelling, teasers, email, social media, public relations, and partner communications to build anticipation without prematurely revealing sensitive exhibit content.
Special emphasis will be placed on presenting the Rebecca Vaughn House as something new to discover while simultaneously establishing the Nat Turner Trail as a nationally significant historical experience.
We will coordinate:
Three (3) website launches
Grand-opening campaign
Media outreach
Email campaign
Social media campaign
Donor communications
Event information and updates
Visitor information
Calls to action
Membership and donation pathways
Photography/video rollout
Google visibility
Tourism partner communications
October Goal: Successfully launch the Society's new digital presence and use the Rebecca Vaughn House opening as the first major public demonstration of the new Southampton County historical tourism brand.
NOVEMBER — Capture Momentum
November should not feel like the campaign ended when the ribbon was cut. In many ways, this is when the long-term campaign begins.
We will capture photographs, reactions, media coverage, attendance information, testimonials, and stories generated by the opening and repurpose them into ongoing content.
The websites will be evaluated based on actual visitor behavior, and we will begin making adjustments to navigation, content, search optimization, calls to action, memberships, donations, and visitor planning.
November will also begin the transition from "museum opening" marketing toward the larger story of Southampton County as a historical tourism destination.
November Goal: Convert the attention generated by the grand opening into continued visitation, memberships, donations, email subscribers, and regional awareness.
DECEMBER — Tell the Bigger Story
December begins expanding the narrative beyond the museum itself.
Content will increasingly connect the Rebecca Vaughn House, Nat Turner Trail, archives, genealogy, communities, agriculture, industry, African American history, lost towns, churches, historic properties, and other assets into one larger Southampton County story.
This is also an ideal month to introduce year-end donor communications and begin building a more intentional annual giving strategy.
We will continue website, social, email, public relations, SEO, and content development while identifying stories and assets that can fuel the 2027 tourism calendar.
December Goal: Begin transforming three individual digital properties into one interconnected historical tourism ecosystem while using year-end communications to strengthen donor and membership relationships.
JANUARY 2027 — Build the Tourism Engine
January shifts the focus toward intentional tourism development.
Using data and lessons from the first four months, we will begin building campaigns around the audiences identified through Brandiscover™, particularly history-minded travelers, African American heritage travelers, genealogists, educational groups, retirees, homeschool families, and cultural tourists.
This phase will also focus more heavily on partnerships, search visibility, tourism referrals, educational opportunities, and creating reasons to visit Southampton County throughout the year rather than for individual events.
We will begin identifying opportunities for guided experiences, self-guided tours, historical itineraries, educational programs, group visits, and the developing Freedom Trail concept.
January Goal: Move from promoting individual attractions to actively marketing Southampton County as a historical destination.
FEBRUARY 2027 — Optimize, Document & Begin Training
By February, the basic marketing machine should be operating consistently.
We will evaluate six months of website analytics, email performance, social engagement, search visibility, membership activity, visitation trends, and campaign performance to determine what is generating the greatest response.
At this stage, volunteer training begins becoming more formal. Rather than simply handing over passwords, we will teach selected volunteers and staff how the system works and establish procedures for maintaining it.
Training will begin covering:
Squarespace website management
Social media publishing
Flodesk email marketing
Content collection
Photography and asset organization
Event promotion
Basic SEO practices
Brand and messaging standards
February Goal: Complete the first six months with a functioning marketing ecosystem, measurable results, documented procedures, and the beginning of an internal team capable of supporting the work.
Investment
Monthly Fractional CMO & Marketing Retainer: $6,300 $5,500
What the Monthly Retainer Covers
The $5,500 monthly retainer will cover The Addison Group's professional services associated with strategy and execution, including Fractional CMO leadership, website design and development, ongoing website management, graphic design, social media strategy and content, email marketing, public relations, SEO, campaign development, photography/video production and editing, tourism marketing strategy, membership marketing, meetings, reporting, and volunteer training.
That "all-inclusive" positioning is important. It gives the board a predictable number and gives you flexibility to move effort from one discipline to another as priorities change.
Third-Party Expenses
We will keep on-going outside hard costs separate from the professional-services budget. This protects your margin and prevents an advertising campaign or software decision from quietly eating the retainer.
Potential direct expenses may include Squarespace subscriptions, domain registrations or transfers, Flodesk, professional email/Google Workspace, telephone/voicemail services, paid advertising, printing, postage, signage, specialty software, event expenses, and other third-party purchases. These should be paid directly by the Historical Society whenever practical or approved in advance before being billed.
What We Should Have Built by February 28
At the six-month mark, the Society should have three coordinated websites, an authoritative digital identity, established Facebook/Instagram/YouTube channels, a segmented email database, professional email infrastructure, a repeatable content program, improved search visibility, an organized membership pathway, active donor communications, a growing library of professional photography and video, and a documented marketing process that volunteers can begin learning to manage.
More importantly, the Society will have moved from having scattered historical assets to having an actual marketing system.
The First Six Months in One Sentence
September builds it. October launches it. November captures the momentum. December expands the story. January builds tourism. February begins the transfer of knowledge.
This gives us a very clean six-month narrative to use still preserving the larger vision. The first six months create the engine. After this, we tune it, grow the audience, expand tourism and fundraising, and gradually put trained people behind the wheel.
The first six months will establish the digital and marketing infrastructure necessary to support the opening of the museum, elevate the Nat Turner Trail, strengthen the Southampton County Historical Society brand, and begin building a sustainable tourism and communications program.
Rather than treating the website, social media, email, public relations, photography, video, membership, and tourism marketing as separate projects, The Addison Group will manage them as one coordinated brand-building initiative.