Expressions of Interest for March 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 March: 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:
- Gravel Biking: What it is, and where to give it a try
We will be refreshing the following evergreen articles, which are available for EOI’s.
- Underrated Foodie Surprises
- A Gin Lover’s Guide
- Coffee Spots With Playgrounds
- 48 Hours in Cowaramup / Gracetown
- The Best Farm Stays
Additionally we will be sharing and promoting the page ‘What’s Open This Easter’, so now is the time to make sure that your business information is up to date in your member console to ensure inclusion. You can view the Easter page on the website here.
Social Media
We have been testing some new content styles recently, and in particular the branded carousel featuring information on Yallingup Lagoon performed very well, with by far the most comments and saves. This is a format that we will be continuing to trial moving forward, highlighting natural attractions with the infrastructure to support visitors along with information on how to interact with the environment and tread lightly.
We have also received a very positive response on our posts sharing information on Wadandi culture, and this is an area that we will be continuing to weave into our content strategy.
On Instagram it was fantastic to see a 102% increase in new followers, and profile link clicks are also up 49% as we focus on driving engaged traffic through to our website.
In February and March we will be running a new Drive Your Story campaign, using the video content created by Jarrad Seng and Rachel Claire during their content famil completed at the end of last year. This campaign will run across Facebook and Instagram, with paid spend targeting the interstate market.
We have also seen a positive response from members to the new paid social post offering, and these will start to be published each month starting in February.
Margaretriver.com
Overall website traffic has seen an increase this year, with visitors up by 11.95% compared to December 2021 – January 2022. We have also seen traffic increase by over 9% compared to the pre-Covid period of December 2019 – January 2020, which is great to see.
We have created a new seasonal video using footage from the Jarrad Seng and Rachel Claire content famil, which is playing as the homepage banner. This video is very eye catching and tells a story of summer across our region, hopefully inspiring those who land on the page.
Click here to view >
We are also running a website survey asking visitors to tell us which content and features are most important to them. This data will be collated for another few weeks before being analysed by the digital team to assist in our continual reviews of the website to ensure it is delivering an experience that is useful, beautiful, and communicates to the visitor what is special about the Margaret River Region.
Top 5 pages in January (excluding the Homepage) were:
Top 5 blog posts in January were:
- Which Cave is Best For Me
- Family Friendly Wineries
- Guide To Dog Friendly Touring
- Breweries With Playgrounds
- What’s On In January
JANUARY BLOG STORIES
There were 12 new and refreshed blogs curated by MRBTA in January.
In total there were 63,037 blog story page views, a significant uplift of 27% compared to last year. Visitors spent an average of 2:27 mins on the page.
NEW
New Year, New Experiences | The Margaret River Region
Local Favourites: Rob Webster | The Margaret River Region
South West Cruises’ Decadent Floating Dinner | The Margaret River Region
Sweet Summer Nostalgia: A Day at the Beach | The Margaret River Region
Plates with Mates: Where to Book Lunch with a Group | The Margaret River Region
6 Best Camping Spots Along the Coast | The Margaret River Region
Fieldnotes: A Lone Surfer on the Cape to Cape – The Margaret River Region
What’s On in January in Margaret River | The Margaret River Region
REFRESHED
The Margaret River Region Summer Bucket List | The Margaret River Region
Five Unique Retreats | The Margaret River Region
The Indelible Buzz of Margaret River’s Main Street | The Margaret River Region
Organic & Biodynamic Wine Discovery – The Margaret River Region
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.
January Consumer Newsletter
Sent to 36,356 subscribers. 42.46% open rate and 2.4% click rate (CR).
There were 1,291 sessions to the website from this EDM.
*CR= Click Rate
The most popular stories in the EDM this month were:
- Plates With Mates – Where To Book Lunch With A Group
- The Summer Bucket List
- Five Unique Retreats
- New Year, New Experiences
- 6 Best Camping Spots On The Coast
Hot tip: Consider sharing these stories to your email database or social channels.
What’s On In January
Sent to 437 subscribers. 47.56% open rate, and a 6.73% click rate.
Media Coverage
A snapshot of some of the media featuring our region over December & January.
- Spirited Awards: Our best of 2022 in drinks, dining and travel – SPIRITED/SG (spiritedsingapore.com) – The Margaret River Region was voted Favourite Travel Destination of the Year 2022.
- 100 Most Loved Destinations | Sentiment Index (sentiment-index.com) – Margaret River was named #66 in the 2023 edition of most loved places around the world.
- https://soperth.com.au/perthnews/cape-leeuwin-lighthouse-in-lego-78183
- 8 of Our Favourite Places to Visit in the South West | So Perth | Feed
- Glamping WA: Where to Stay in Style | Sitchu Australia
Event Support
The MRBTA annually supports over 30 major events to drive off-peak visitation to our region.
In January we supported Karnidale Circus Festival, who had another fantastic (sold-out) year, along with the Festival of Busselton.
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.
Spring / 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.