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Marketing & Visitor Servicing Update – January Insights

Expressions of Interest for February Content

Our full year working content calendar can be viewed here. Expressions of interest are open for the following blogs. Blogs are free for Primary members and $99 per inclusion for Secondary members.

  • What’s On February – The guide receives over 2,000 hits per month, is promoted on our social channels and included in our monthly consumer email marketing with 30,000+ subscribers. For consideration, your event must be submitted and published on margaretriver.com no later than the 15th of each month to appear in the following month.

We will be refreshing the following evergreen articles, which are available for EOI’s.

  • How To Get Your Seafood Fix
  • Margaret River’s Main Street
  • Casual Dining in the MRR
  • Great Country Style B&B’s
  • The Wines of Wilyabrup
  • Itinerary: 7 Days of Autumn

EOI’s must include a brief pitch explaining why your business suits the brief and a high-quality image. Send your EOI to [email protected] by the 20th of the month

MRBTA Marketing & Visitor Servicing Channels

Margaretriver.com

January saw a 25% decline in website visitors compared to the previous year with 92K visitors compared to 122K in 2021. Similar factors are contributing to this decline as reported last month:

  • 2021 was a particularly strong year as a result of pent-up demand following COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions.
  • Interstate website traffic is down significantly likely due to the current state of the pandemic.
  • Organic traffic typically drops following a new site launch. We expect this to recover over the next few months as Google re-evaluates and updates its trust and score of Margaretriver.com

Member pages received 97,047 views up from 79,565 page views in December.

Popular pages included ‘Things to Do’ ‘Events & What’s On’ ‘Festival of ‘Busselton Town Page’ ‘Accommodation’ ‘Dunsborough Town Page’

The most popular blog content included A Guide To Dog-Friendly Touring, 11 Things to Do in Yallingup, Family Friendly Dunsborough, Family Friendly Wineries, Best Family Friendly Breweries with Playgrounds, Night Time Dining in the Margaret River Region, 11 Best Breakfasts.

 New Blog Stories

Social Media

The Instagram stats were slightly down this month following a heavy posting month in December including the successful #BestOf2021 series. We’re continuing to experiment with Reels and the South West Cruises Reel this month was our best performing yet.

33K Reach, 33.8K Plays,1.6K Likes 102 Comments, 211 Shares, 125 Saves. @southwestcruises got 300 new followers. We think the fact that it is a new experience and looks visually stunning helped with the success factor. We’re opening the opportunity up to other members as part of our paid promotional opportunities – if you are interested please contact [email protected]

  • Instagram:Followers grew by 122. Reach and impressions were both down 24% and 20% respectively.
  • Facebook: Gained 80 new followers. Engagement was on par with the previous month at 11,800 and impressions were up 13% MoM.
  • Most followers on our platforms are Perth-based and female, between 25-44 years of age.

Reach is the number of people who may have seen your content, while impressions are the total number of times your content was displayed to people.

Monthly EDMs 

Monthly newsletters to consumers and media have maintained high engagement. The industry benchmark for Travel & Leisure is an open rate of 20.2%.

You can read more about reporting of open and click rates here.

  • Consumer NewsletterSent to 27,067 subscribers. 38.28% open rate and 3.32% click rate (CR).
    There were 1,271 sessions to the website from this EDM, with the most popular link being 9 Underrated Foodie Surprises.

*CR= Click Rate

The most popular stories this month were:

Hot tip: Consider sharing these stories to your email database.

  • What’s On in January Sent to 458 subscribers. 45.15% open rate, and 7.67% click rate. There were 60 sessions to the website from this EDM.

Media Coverage 

A snapshot of media coverage featuring the Margaret River Region across January included:

Event Support

The MRBTA annually supports over 30 major events to drive off-peak visitation to our region. This month saw the activation of partnerships with Festival of Busselton and Karnidale. 

Marketing Resources 

  • 2020/21 domestic market profiles: These have been recently updated and published by Tourism WA, and reveal insights into our interstate and intrastate visitor behaviour.
  • Summer Image Library: Members can access our Spring / Summer image library and share inspirational visuals of the Margaret River Region. Please always credit the photographers when using images.
  • How to Leverage Your Events:  MRBTA regularly supports major events in the region and have noticed a growing demand from members hosting smaller events wanting to gain leverage and build their audience. In response to this, we have put together a guide with useful tips on promoting your event.
  • Rediscover Videos: The regional Rediscover compilation video shares inspirational messaging for a domestic and intrastate market. Members are welcome to share the video across their channels.
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