MISSISSIPPI RIVER PARKWAY COMMISSION 2ND QUARTER …mrpcmembers.com/mississippi/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MRPC-… · reached, 497 reactions, 7 comments May 23 (“Did you know there’s

MISSISSIPPI RIVER PARKWAY COMMISSION

2ND QUARTER MARKETING REPORT

April-June, 2016

Mississippi River Parkway Commission

2nd Quarter Marketing Report

April-June, 2016

2

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



April-June, 2016

3

E-NEWSLETTERS

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

10,748 11,155

13,426

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

April May June

Subscribers



April-June, 2016

4

SOCIAL MEDIA

April

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

April 20 (“Happy 125th 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

May


17,260 1,161 18


492 17 805 57 13

16,099

17,260

19,040

April May June

Facebook Fan Growth



April-June, 2016

5

Facebook Top Posts

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

June


19,040 1,780 15


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)


Clicks: 4,929




April-June, 2016

6

Birding Bonanza Giveaway – page clicks

Campaign summary: Page clicks campaign associated with Birding Bonanza Giveaway — ran 3/21-5/30 (stats for full campaign)


Clicks: 3,257


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


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

Top cities: Dubuque, IA; Davenport, IA; St. Louis, MO; Alton, IL; La Crosse, WI

Takeaways

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 (click-through 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.



April-June, 2016

7

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

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

Total entries

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



April-June, 2016

8

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

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)

14,151

17,287

3/21/2016 5/31/2016

Facebook Fan Growth - Contest Timeframe

1,693

4,324

3/21-5/31/15 3/21-5/31/16

Facebook Engagement - Contest Timeframe



April-June, 2016

9

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.



April-June, 2016

10

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.



April-June, 2016

11

WEB REPORT AND MAINTENANCE



April-June, 2016

12

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 SitesPage 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: 2613Top 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 AreasMetro 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



April-June, 2016

13

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

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 SitesPage 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: 2613Top 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 AreasMetro 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



April-June, 2016

14

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

Documents

MISSISSIPPI RIVER PARKWAY COMMISSION 2ND QUARTER …mrpcmembers.com/mississippi/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/MRPC-… · reached, 497 reactions, 7 comments May 23 (“Did you know there’s