Expressions of Interest for May and June 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 This Month: 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:
- Tour Packages / Fully Inclusive Tours
We will be refreshing the following evergreen articles, which are available for EOI’s.
- 3 Art Gallery Crawls
- Secret Cellar Doors
- The Virtuous Circle of Farm to Table Eating
- Busselton’s Culinary Renaissance
- Thoughtful Travel- Beautiful & Sustainable Accommodation
- Winter Bucket List – 50 of the Best Things to do in Winter
- Sustainable Shopping Trail – Eco, Ethical, Antique and Vintage products
- Rainy Day Activities for Families
- Cosy Places to Stay in Winter
- New Experiences this Winter
- Warming Winery Experiences
- Itineraries:
- 3 Day Eco Traveller Trail
- 7 Days of Winter
- Welcoming Travel
Social Media
Impressions on Facebook were particularly strong in March, growing by 115% to 1.4M. This is the number of times our content has been displayed on a screen, including posts, stories, ads and check-ins. We also saw a 203% increase in Engagement, resulting in 65.5k Engaged Users. The strategy is focussing more on sharing links back to blogs and itineraries on margaretriver.com, and it’s positive to see that these are some of the top posts of the month. On Instagram the Total Daily Reach jumped up 47% to 386k and Impressions also increased by 40% to 509k, however we did see a drop in the Engagement rates. There were 798 new followers to the page, and we are getting very close to hitting 70k total followers which is a great milestone.
The first of our paid member social posts went live in March for Hippo Lakes with some great results, and it was fantastic to see lots of positive comments coming through.
Best Performing Facebook Posts
Best Performing Instagram Posts
Margaretriver.com
March & April report
With the changing of seasons we have switched out the homepage video to showcase some of the more cooler weather activities in the region, along with beautiful natural scenery and friendly faces. We continued to see an upwards trend in page views on margaretriver.com in March and April, with an increase of 10% compared to last year. In particular, the Accommodation, Attractions and Things to Do pages saw increases in traffic. The Self Drive Itineraries pages saw significant increases in traffic due to campaign activity underway.
Outside of Australia, the highest number of website users came from Singapore, who were spending time on the Things To Do and Attractions pages along with the Family Friendly Wineries and Best Farm Stays blog posts.
Over the summer period we ran a website user satisfaction survey, with three audience groups of general site visitors, MRBTA members, and MRBTA staff. Overall feedback on the website was very positive, with areas for improvement mostly limited to specific topics. It was also reassuring to see that the priorities for the site according to these groups are aligned with what the marketing and digital teams have been focussing on, in order to continue improving and delivering the best possible user experience.
Top 5 pages in March and April (excluding the Homepage) were:
Top 5 blog posts in March were:
- How to Experience the Margaret River Pro | The Margaret River Region
- Which Cave is Best For Me
- Guide To Dog Friendly Touring
- Family Friendly Breweries with Playgrounds
- What’s On In April | The Margaret River Region
MARCH BLOG STORIES
There were 13 new and refreshed blogs curated by MRBTA in March.
In total there were 48,842 blog story page views, which is up 10.6% compared to last year. Visitors spent an average of 2:37 mins on the page.
NEW
What’s On in March | The Margaret River Region
Local Favourites: John Miller | The Margaret River Region
Gravel Biking in the Margaret River Region | The Margaret River Region
REFRESHED
48 Hours in Cowaramup & Gracetown | The Margaret River Region
9 of the Best Farm Stays | The Margaret River Region
6 of the Best Cafés with Playgrounds | The Margaret River Region
A Gin Lovers Guide | The Margaret River Region
Margaret River Wine’s Connection to Coast | The Margaret River Region
Through The Lens: Margaret River Vintage | The Margaret River Region
9 Underrated Foodie Surprises | The Margaret River Region
How to Experience the Margaret River Pro | The Margaret River Region
How To: Experience the Margaret River Region’s Surf Scene
Craft Beer Trail – The Margaret River Region
Monthly EDMs
Monthly newsletters to consumers 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.
March
March Consumer Newsletter
Sent to 35,661 subscribers. 40% open rate and 2.73% click rate (CR).
There were 1,643 sessions to the website from this EDM.
*CR= Click Rate
The most popular stories in the EDM this month were:
- Underrated Foodie Surprises
- 48 Hours in Cowaramup & Gracetown
- Gravel Biking in the Margaret River Region
- How To Experience the Margaret River Pro
- The Craft Beer Trail
Hot tip: Consider sharing these stories to your email database or social channels.
What’s On In March
Sent to 394 subscribers. 48.98% open rate, and a very strong 7.91% click rate.
April
April Consumer Newsletter
Sent to 35,831 subscribers. 41% open rate and 2.47% click rate (CR).
*CR= Click Rate
The most popular stories in the EDM this month were:
- Guide to: Dog-Friendly Touring
- Best Breakfasts is Dunsborough & Yallingup
- How to: Experience the Margaret River Region’s Surf Scene
- Guide to: Biking and Hiking at Meelup Regional Park
- What’s New This Autumn?
Hot tip: Consider sharing these stories to your email database or social channels.
What’s on In April
Sent to 470 subscribers. 50.86% open rate, and a fantastic 7.94% click rate.
Media Coverage
A snapshot of some of the media featuring our region recently.
The major PR and Media event of the month was the announcement of the 2023 Wotif Aussie Town of the Year Awards, highlighting the best of Australia’s diverse destinations, to encourage Aussies to make the most of the year ahead and explore their own backyard. Dunsborough was named at number 8 and was included in campaign coverage which consisted of over 900 stories in the media, including a feature on The Project, and 94K engagements, 7.7M video views, and 11M impressions across social.
- 2023 Wotif Aussie Town of the Year Awards
- Busselton Jetty the latest in WA ‘icons’ being given the Lego treatment | The West Australian
Event Support
The MRBTA annually supports over 30 major events to drive off-peak visitation to our region.
In March we supported the Augusta River Festival and Undalup Bunuru Festival.
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 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.