OPPORTUNITIES
Expressions of Interest for September 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 September: The guide receives around 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.
The following new articles are available for EOI’s:
- Wildflower Season
- International Cabernet Day
We will be refreshing the following evergreen articles, which are available for EOI’s.
- Itinerary: 7 Days of Spring
- The Guide to Masterclasses and Workshops
- Family Friendly Fishing Spots
- The Ultimate Wedding Venue Guide
- 10 Ways to Discover Margaret River
- Affordable Accommodation to Book for Summer
- The Spring Bucket List
MRBTA Marketing & Visitor Servicing Channels
Margaretriver.com
June Insights
In June there were 102,703 sessions to margaretriver.com, with the average session duration increasing from 2:50 mins up to 3:01 mins.
Interestingly we saw a jump in sessions from Sydney when comparing to May, up 57% from 7,058 to 11,128. Traffic from VIC and SA is also up 11% and 23% respectively.
Member page views remained steady at 84,000 compared with 88,000 from the previous month.
Top 5 pages in June (excluding the Home page) were:
Top 5 blog posts in June were:
- Night Time Dining
- Which Cave Is Best For Me
- Family Friendly Wineries
- Cosy Places To Stay In Winter
- The Dog Friendly Guide
June Blog Stories
174 members were featured across 16 new and refreshed blogs curated by MRBTA in June.
In total there were 50,240 blog story page views. Website visitors spent an average time of 2:21 minutes on the page.
NEW
Margaret River is WA’s First Certified Eco Destination – The Margaret River Region
7 Day Welcoming Travel Itinerary | The Margaret River Region (Collab with Husbands That Travel)
The Virtuous Circle of Farm to Table Eating | The Margaret River Region
Endurance Events With a Sense of Adventure | The Margaret River Region
10 New Winter Experiences | The Margaret River Region
What’s On in June | The Margaret River Region
Local Favourites: Ryan Pollock | The Margaret River Region
REFRESHED
Whale Spotting: See the Annual Migration in the Margaret River Region
Rainy Day Fun for Kids in the Margaret River Region
A Comprehensive List Of Night Time Dining | The Margaret River Region
5 Amazing Adventure Tours | The Margaret River Region
10 Cosy Places To Stay This Winter | The Margaret River Region
10 Reasons Margaret River Region is the Ultimate Mid-Year Getaway
Six Seasons of Wadandi Boodja | The Margaret River Region
7 Days of Winter in the Margaret River Region | The Margaret River Region
MAGAZINE
Eco Explorations: Dunsborough & Yallingup | The Margaret River Region
Campaigns
Drive Journeys
The Drive Your Story campaign promoting our five new iconic drive trails has received over 10,300 views on margaretriver.com
The paid social component of the campaign has delivered 876,872 impressions and 5,053 clicks. The WIN Your Story Instagram competition reached 19,225 people, received 2,444 comments, 207 shares and 92 saves.
The Australian Traveller partnership was very successful delivering: 2,152 unique views/236 clicks/click through rate: 10.97% (very high click through rate shows engagement).The Display Advertising banners delivered: 169,198 impressions/1,021 clicks (+226% above target, currently second highest client click through rate within the Road Trips campaign). Plus a beautiful full-page spread in print to their national audience of 168,000.
The campaign will continue to be promoted across our owned channels, through paid digital, famils and content partnerships.
South West Wanderer Pass
The South West Wanderer Pass is entering Phase 2 of the campaign. With over $200,000 of vouchers remaining, the voucher value will be increased to $200 and will be opened up to intrastate visitors for a special winter offer to assist the industry in a typically quieter period.
Accommodation providers are encouraged to promote the campaign to all upcoming and future bookings by using this banner in post-booking and pre-arrival emails to customers travelling from now until 16 December 2022 and linking to the redemption landing page https://www.margaretriver.com/wanderer-pass-redeem/. Consumers will then register to receive their unique code via email and will be able to book a tour or experience using the $200 voucher.
Winter Deals
The Winter Deals Promotion has received 647 page views since launch. We’ve received positive feedback from operators indicating some direct bookings as a result of the listings.
Social Media
It was a successful month for Facebook and Instagram, further boosted by the Drive Your Story campaign spend showing big increases in engagement and impressions across both platforms.
Sharing a mixture of content including ‘lo fi’ reels, professional videos, User Generated Content (UGC) and professional images from the MRR image library is proving to be a successful formula. We’ve noted that Instagram Reach is low on photos that have already been shared by other accounts so this is worth keeping in mind for your own social media strategy.
Instagram: Gained 590 new followers. Impressions and reach were up 59% and 41% respectively.
What we learnt: Instagram is prioritising original content, which makes it harder for accounts like ours that re-share UGC. Reels are getting nice viewing numbers, but they don’t always result in lots of new followers.
Facebook: Gained 650 new followers. Engagement and impressions were both up MoM at 164% and 85%.
What we learnt: While Instagram is having an identity crisis, Facebook is steadily delivering great engagement with our followers.
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.
As part of our ongoing EDM strategy we are currently in the process of segmenting and cleaning our email database, in order to maintain these strong engagement rates.
June Consumer Newsletter Sent to 45,091 subscribers. 28.94% open rate and 2% click rate (CR).
There were 1,244 sessions to the website from this EDM.
*CR= Click Rate
The most popular stories in the EDM this month were:
- 7 Day Welcoming Itinerary
- 10 Reasons To Visit The MRR In Winter
- The Virtuous Circle Of Farm To Table Eating
- Whale Spotting: Where To See The Annual Migration
Hot tip: Consider sharing these stories to your email database.
- What’s On in June Sent to 436 subscribers. 38.55% open rate, and 6.78% click rate. There were 52 sessions to the website from this EDM.
Media Coverage
A snapshot of media coverage featuring the Margaret River Region across June included:
- Australian Traveller – Five Greatest Margaret River Trails + Print Coverage (MRBTA paid partnership as part of the Interstate Drive Trails Project)
- Australian Traveller – The Central Coast and Margaret River Become Certified Eco Destinations
- Australian Traveller – Eco-Conscious Experiences in Margaret River
Event Support
The MRBTA annually supports over 30 major events to drive off-peak visitation to our region.
In June we supported the Down South MTB Festival and Cabin Fever.
Marketing Resources
Margaret River Region Snapshot: A three-page document in presentation format that can be used for media and trade. The summary includes a regional map overview, top 10 natural attractions, town anchor points, signature experiences and iconic drive trails.
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.
Autumn / Winter Image Library: Members can access our Autumn / Winter 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.