MISSISSIPPI RIVER PARKWAY COMMISSION 2ND QUARTER MARKETING REPORT
MEETINGS Semi-Annual Meeting April 27-29 Wrap up o Collected meeting minutes and uploaded to mrpcmembers.com o Sent wrap up enewsletter (see enewsletters section) Updated mprcmembers.com o Meeting minutes o Presentations Annual Meeting September 14-16 Event prep (Susanne) o Booking o Speakers o Pricing o Trips o Etc Registration o Set pricing o Created registration form (hard copy and electronically) o Printed and mailed form out to members o Emailed registration information Updated mprcmembers.com o Agenda o Post o Meeting materials 2
E-NEWSLETTERS Subscribers 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 10,748 11,155 13,426 April May June Subscribers Tourism list Subscribers (as of 06/30/16): 13,426 Average subscriber rate: 54 per month Average open rate: 33% (industry average: 18%) Average click rate: 11% (industry average: 3%) Bike the Great River Road Giveaway Tourism e-newsletter Subject line: Win $250 for your next Great River Road trip! Topics: Giveaway info Subscribers: 11,626 Open rate: 29% Click rate: 7% MRPC Member e-newsletters 4/8 Semi-Annual Meeting early bird registration ending soon reminder. Reminder to submit State events and bicycling events. 5/17 Semi-Annual Meeting wrap up with powerpoint presentations and minutes. Reminder to submit events. Call for photos. Promotions update. Nomination deadlines. 6/30 Annual Meeting registration announcement 3
SOCIAL MEDIA Facebook Fan Growth 19,040 17,260 16,099 April April May June Facebook fans New Facebook fans Facebook updates 16,099 1,510 16 Pinterest followers New Pinterest followers Pinterest pins Pinterest repins Pinterest boards 475 9 797 N/A 13 Facebook Top Posts May April 20 ( Happy 125 th birthday to the park that houses the headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River! w/shared post about Itasca State Park): 17,084 people reached, 521 reactions, 38 comments, 989 post clicks April 13 ( Birdwatching hotspot: Itasca State Park w/link to MN DNR website): 5,795 people reached, 170 reactions, 26 comments, 22 shares, 191 post clicks Facebook fans New Facebook fans Facebook updates 17,260 1,161 18 Pinterest followers New Pinterest followers Pinterest pins Pinterest repins Pinterest boards 492 17 805 57 13 4
Facebook Top Posts June May 4 ( Great photo from along the Mississippi River in Illinois! w/shared fan photo): 8,366 people reached, 497 reactions, 7 comments May 23 ( Did you know there s a webcam at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Itasca State Park in Minnesota? Check it out! w/link to MNDNR site): 10,665 people reached, 274 reactions, 26 comments, 64 shares Facebook fans New Facebook fans Facebook updates 19,040 1,780 15 Pinterest followers New Pinterest followers Pinterest pins Pinterest repins Pinterest boards 513 21 839 80 14 Facebook Top Posts June 27 ( Amazing photo from the Great River Road near All Around Alton, Illinois! ): 4,157 people reached, 208 reactions, 3 comments June 28 ( Bike the Great River Road this summer! w/link to blog on experiencemississippiriver.com): 6,486 people reached, 138 reactions, 11 comments, 36 shares Facebook Advertising Page likes Campaign summary: Page likes campaign runs through 12/31 (stats 4/1-6/30) Impressions: 129,131 Clicks: 4,268 Click-through rate: 3.31% Fans added: 3,239 experiencemississippiriver.com page clicks Campaign summary: clicks to experiencemississippiriver.com (spring 2016) ran 1/27-4/30 (stats for full campaign) Impressions: 296,928 Clicks: 4,929 Click-through rate: 1.66% 5
Birding Bonanza Giveaway page clicks Campaign summary: Page clicks campaign associated with Birding Bonanza Giveaway ran 3/21-5/30 (stats for full campaign) Impressions: 131,518 Clicks: 3,257 Click-through rate: 2.48% Bike the Great River Road Giveaway page clicks Campaign summary: Page clicks campaign associated with Bike the Great River Road Giveaway runs 6/6-7/29 (stats for through 6/30) Impressions: 69,136 Clicks: 1,076 Click-through rate: 1.56% Facebook Audience 72% women/28% men 29% ages 55-64; 28% ages 45-54, 18% ages 35-44; 14% ages 65+; 8% ages 25-34; 0.865% 18-24; 0.0506% ages 13-17 Takeaways Top cities: Dubuque, IA; Davenport, IA; St. Louis, MO; Alton, IL; La Crosse, WI We saw a significant increase in our fan numbers in the second quarter of 2016, notching an increase of more than 4,000 fans from April to June. This is likely due to a number of factors, including two successful promotions (the Birding Bonanza Giveaway, which started in March, and the Bike the Great River Road Giveaway, which runs through July) and a successful Facebook page likes campaign (clickthrough rate of more than 3 percent). Scenic photos (often shared by fans or other pages we follow) continue to be among the most popular and engaging posts. We also found several posts about Itasca State Park the home to the headwaters of the Mississippi River that proved to be popular in the second quarter of 2016. 6
PROMOTIONS Great River Road Birding Bonanza Giveaway Run dates 3/21-5/31 Overview The Great River Road Birding Bonanza Giveaway was a simple sweepstakes tied to an increased effort to promote birding as a recreational activity along the Great River Road. To enter, fans had to like the Great River Road Facebook page, provide basic contact information (name, e-mail address, city/state) and tell us where they heard about the giveaway. During the promotion period, we used the Great River Road s social media channels and blog to post about the giveaway, birdwatching hotspots along the Great River Road, birdwatching tips and tricks, information on the 2016 Year of Birding and more. One grand-prize winner was selected at random from all entries. Goals To promote birding options and the 2016 Year of Birding along the Great River Road To increase interaction and fan numbers on the Great River Road s social media channels Prizes offered Total entries A $250 prepaid credit card, a men s/women s Great River Road jacket from the Great River Road online shop, copy of the Great River Road 10-state map, copy of Roadtrip with a Raindrop by Gayle Harper 1,234 Top locations for entries Minneapolis-Saint Paul: 27 St. Louis: 18 Milwaukee, WI/Madison, WI: 16 Memphis, TN/Davenport, IA: 12 La Crosse, WI: 11 Means of advertising Facebook ads E-newsletters Press releases 7
Social media channels For full stats on these advertising mediums, see their respective section How did you hear about the sweepstakes? Great River Road Facebook page: 619 Email: 236 Facebook advertising: 129 Great River Road interpretive centers: 42 Other responses included Explore Minnesota, Travel Iowa, friends/family, previous trips on the Great River Road, social media posts by Gayle Harper, Google searches Winner Jean Murray, Quincy, IL Facebook Growth Facebook Fan Growth - Contest Timeframe 17,287 14,151 Contest start (3/21/16) Contest end (5/31/16) Growth Percentage 14,151 17,287 +22.2% (+3,136) Facebook Engagements (Likes, comments, shares) 3/21/2016 5/31/2016 Facebook Engagement - Contest Timeframe 4,324 1,693 3/21-5/31/15 3/21-5/31/16 8
Contest Period (3/21-5/31/16) Previous Period (3/21-5/31/15) Growth Percentage 4,324 1,693 155.4% (+2,631) Takeaways We were able to achieve both of our main goals of the promotion: to raise awareness of birding options along the Great River Road and to increase fan numbers (we increased our fan base by more than 3,000 fans during the promotion period) and interactions (we saw an increase of more than 150% in engagements compared to the same period in 2015) on the Great River Road Facebook page. This was our first niche promotion with the Great River Road in a number of years; previous giveaways were associated with the more general Drive the Great River Road Month promotion in September. The niche targeting of this promotion resulted in fewer entries (1,234 in the birding promo v. 2,132 in the general Drive the Great River Road Month Sweepstakes in September 2015), but that s to be expected with a more specifically targeted promotion (and 1,200+ entries is still and impressive number). It was also nice to see that several states and destinations helped promote the giveaway. In our entry forms, we had several dozen people cite mentions of the contest by tourism organizations in Iowa and Minnesota, as well as author Gayle Harper, who wrote the book we included in our prize package. 9
Bike the Great River Road Giveaway Run dates 6/6-7/29 Overview The Bike the Great River Road Giveaway is a simple sweepstakes tied to an increased effort to promote biking as a recreational activity along the Great River Road. To enter, fans have to like the Great River Road Facebook page, provide basic contact information (name, e-mail address, city/state) and tell us where they heard about the giveaway. During the promotion period, we will use the Great River Road s social media channels and blog to post about the giveaway, biking opportunities along the Great River Road and more. A full recap will be included in the third-quarter report. PR/PUBLICITY A press release announcing the launch of the Birding Bonanza Giveaway was sent to media in all 10 Great River Road states the week of 3/22. A press release announcing the launch of the Bike the Great River Road Giveaway was sent to the same media list the week of 6/6. 10
WEB REPORT AND MAINTENANCE 11
www.experiencemississippiriver.com/ 2016-04-01 to 2016-06-30 Total sessions 61713 Unique visitors (users) 51786 New users 82% Returning users 18% Pages viewed per session 2.3 Time spent per page visited 1 minutes Avg session duration 2.2 minutes Top 10 most visited pages Page Pageviews sessions Avg time on page (minutes) homepage 19083 1.3 /interactive-tools/order-a-free-great-river-road-10-state-map/ 17319 1.8 /river-attractions/ 15140 2.3 /the-great-river-road-the-best-drive-in-america/ 11817 1.4 /interactive-tools/fun-facts/ 7477 4.7 /itineraries/ 4658 1.1 /states/wisconsin/ 4100 2 /states/illinois/ 3780 1.9 /states/iowa/ 3680 1.9 /app/ 3473 2.9 Top 10 Referring Sites Page Pageviews sessions Avg time on page (minutes) m.facebook.com 2353 0.9 sweetfreestuff.com 1108 1.1 drivethegreatriverroad.com 626 1.5 facebook.com 520 1.5 experiencemississippiriver.com 510 1.1 sampleaday.com 355 1.4 roadtripusa.com 345 5 reddit.com 341 0.8 usatoday.com 309 3.4 hunt4freebies.com 297 1.5 Facebook referrals: 2613 Top 10 Facebook Referrers Source Page Sessions m.facebook.com / referral /mrpc/birding-bonanza/index.php 1002 m.facebook.com / referral homepage 616 m.facebook.com / referral /interactive-tools/order-a-free-great-river-road-10-state-map/ 359 facebook.com / referral /mrpc/birding-bonanza/index.php 127 facebook.com / referral /interactive-tools/order-a-free-great-river-road-10-state-map/ 119 m.facebook.com / referral /app/ 101 l.facebook.com / referral /mrpc/birding-bonanza/index.php 94 facebook.com / referral homepage 79 m.facebook.com / referral /bike-great-river-road-summer/ 59 l.facebook.com / referral /interactive-tools/order-a-free-great-river-road-10-state-map/ 57 Mobile Usage (percent) 35.9% Top 10 Metro Areas Metro Users Chicago IL 4722 12
Mobile Usage (percent) 35.9% Top 10 Metro Areas Metro Users Chicago IL 4722 Minneapolis-St. Paul MN 3913 St. Louis MO 1728 Madison WI 1433 Milwaukee WI 1312 New York NY 1244 Dallas-Ft. Worth TX 1176 Davenport IA-Rock Island-Moline IL 1038 Cedar Rapids-Waterloo-Iowa City & Dubuque IA 965 Los Angeles CA 944 Ongoing web checks & maintenance Monthly website checks o Tested and updated links as necessary o Checked copy and photos, ensured content was current Photo collections o Called interpretive centers/request for photos o Collect/organize photos o Upload site Seasonal flip o Wrote summer copy, updated bounceback, flip photos and Facebook to summer Takeaways Sessions on the site are up by 41% overall, which helped bump up users by 41% and pageviews by 27%. The main source of traffic to the site came from organic search again. A few of the popular search keywords were: Mississippi River Great River Road Mississippi River Facts The Great River Road Great River Road Map 13
Facebook was the top referrer this quarter, bringing almost 3,307 users to the site. That is a 425% increase from last years Facebook referrals. The majority of these referrals came from mobile devices. The Bike the Great River Road Giveaway has been doing well thus far. It has had nearly 3,157 pageviews so far and still has almost a month to run. Mobile Stats: Mobile devices accounted for 52% of the sites traffic this quarter. The mobile bounce rate increased slightly again this quarter, but it is still below 60%, which is around average. WEB AND MOBILE APP Drive the Great River Road App Total of downloads as of 6/30/16: o 1,667 Apple o 1,075 Android o 2,742 total downloads Near 150% increase due to Android downloads Android downloads increased by 662 downloads since last quarter report 14