Hello everyone
I’m Quie Ying, my team and I head up the digital marketing for Tourism WA
and I am here to let you know what the online’s going on.
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In the last 30 years, mankind has produced more information than in the
previous 5000.
At the same time attention spans are down to 8 seconds and falling.
On that note, I hope you can all bear with me as I race through the next 20 to
tell you about…(go to next slide)
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Who we are
What we do
How to get involved
Tips and trends
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So who are we?
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We’re a team of 4
We sit alongside our colleagues in campaigns and brand marketing,
destination PR and the famils team. Collectively we’re known as the
marketing services team.
Marketing services, domestic and international marketing make up the
marketing division.
And of course, marketing is one of the divisions at Tourism WA. The other
divisions include Events (Daisy presented earlier), Investment & Infrastructure
(Claire who talked about all things aviation is from this division) and corporate
business services (the guys who literally keep the lights on and pay the
invoices).
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What do we do in digital marketing?
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In a nutshell, we are responsible for managing our owned, earned and some
of our paid channels.
Our consumer facing website and our email marketing falls under owned.
Social media – both community management and social advertising falls
under earned.
And we are active in Google and Baid search under paid.
Online advertising such as leaderboards etc falls under our campaigns team
as part of a campaign media buy. Which already goes to show that digital is
not an exclusive activity.
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WACOM is our consumer facing website.
Year on year it attracts from 2.5m – 3m visits a year.
It is our key call to action for all our marketing and is a source of high level
information for potential travelers.
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It is available in 5 different languages.
Geo targeted to our key markets.
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In Sep / Aug last year (2014) we released a redeveloped version and made
our site responsive.
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With full bleed imagery to inspire our audience
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And 100’s of Destinations, attractions, accommodation and events listings to
provide potential travelers with information about WA
(A lot of these come from the national tourism database but more about this a
little later)
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On our website, we also have around 70 itineraries.
We know that this is popular amongst consumers – both qualitative research
and our stats tell us so.
We work with our RTO partners to establish what these should be so that
potential travelers can be inspired and better informed on how they can
holiday in Western Australia. Our itineraries, include key highlights, breaks
down day to day journeys and provides useful information such as distances
between places alongside beautiful images of our beautiful State.
Key calls to action on these pages include links to the relevant RTO partner
and Visitor Centre.
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Staying in the owned category….
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Our monthly email newsletter is called The Westerly
We also send out ad hoc eDMs as part of our tactical campaigns with co-
operative partners. Toni who is talking after me will tell you more about our co-
operative partners.
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We have a database of 120,000
Although a small list, we have fairly healthy open rates (around 25%) and click rates (8-11%). n
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Our newsletters predominantly focus on destinations, attractions and experiences.
We also include key events and tactical partner deals to align with our co-operative campaigns.
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In the earned space...
We’re active in Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more recently on Instagram.
This space is constantly changing and how we use these channels in the
future is likely to change too as we incorporate learnings into our daily
operational activities.
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But for now…
For Facebook
- We have over 300,000 likes
- As at 30 Jun our monthly paid reach was 122k
- As at 30 Jun our monthly organic reach 61k
- Top 5 countries by way of community size is: AU (142k), UK (29k),
Singapore (28k), USA (25k), MY (15k)
For Instagram
- 153 grams posted
- 185k+ likes received
- 5k+ comments
On Twitter
- 1.45m impressions in last 28 days (as at 13.08.15)
- Ave number of tweets is 5
- Ave daily mentions is 30
Over to YouTube
- 262 videos in total
- 2600 subscribers to channel
- Ave view duration is 37”
- Top videos are: sunset bar perth @385k, Cottesloe @339k, Karijini national
park @290k
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We’ve found that to have a presence on social media we need to advertise.
Our media strategy for Facebook and Twitter can be divided into acquisition
and engagement.
What this means is that we split our budget to growing new likes and at the
same time investing in ensuring that we get comments, likes and shares on
Facebook or retweets and favourites for Twitter.
Engagement tactics are important for us because we can have a large
community but if they are not engaged they simply will not see our posts
thanks to Facebooks Edgeranking system.
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Our approach to content follows the following basic rules
• Themes
• Image led
• Test, test, test and test
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We adhere to the following brand framework and ensure our content is fit for
purpose.
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Paid search is an effective means for us to gain traffic to our site and its
content.
We are active in AU, UK, NZ, US, SN + MY as well as DE and China.
We made one key change in the last 12 – 18 months: we changed our KPI
from CPC to Engagement on site.
So, although we’re paying more per click we’re confident that we’re reaching a
more optimal audience.
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So that’s a quick snapshot of our owned, earned and paid channels.
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This is a simple visual to demonstrate that allow I’ve talked about them as
owned, earned and paid they are actually all interconnected.
Our social content feeds into our website, our website is the key call to action
for our email marketing, we grow our email database through social channels
and our search activity spans across our site and our social activity.
Keep this interconnectedness in mind as I talk about how you can get
involved in our digital marketing activities.
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In one simple answer: content.
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Really I hear you say?
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Yes, you heard me right.
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Let’s start with social media (everyone’s favourite!)
1. Use our hashtag #thisisWA on Instagram in your caption so that we can
see what you are posting.
2. This means we can pick it up and either repost or select it for our social
stack on WACOM.
3. Like / Follow us so you can see what we are doing and join in the
conversation
4. @mention us on Twitter / Facebook
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To something a little less everyday….
1. Our consumer website is our key call to action for all our marketing
activities
2. So, it’s important that we have accurate and up to date content
What can you do?
1. Update your ATDW listing (more information on how can be found on
our corporate website)
2. Use a great image for your listing and share any great images with us
so we can show case them for you
3. You’re living and breathing the very product we sell. If you spot
something outdated or inaccurate on our site – tell us.
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What is ATDW?
It’s the national database of tourism product. Supported by all the STOs it’s a
dynamic source of content for our websites and 100s of distributors including
Tourism Australia.
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Total page views for FY1415
By national distributors 367,263
By Experience Extraordinary App 1,426,805
By westernaustralia.com 1,198,029
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This categories of content in the database are:
• Destinations
• Attractions – free and paid
• Accommodation
• Events
• Tours
• Information services
• Hire
• Transport
• Restaurants (De Groots)
Most of these categories have been translated into Simple and Traditional
Chinese (exceptions are restaurants and events).
Total page views for FY1415
By national distributors 367,263
By Experience Extraordinary App 1,426,805
By westernaustralia.com 1,198,029
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So if you are an accommodation provider, tour operator, transport, hire,
information service or event organizer and accredited we’d love you to list on
the database. It’s free.
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We are heavily dependent on great imagery for our site.
We draw these off our image library as a reliable source as well as from social
media.
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It’s important that we have up to date and accurate information. If you spot
something that is not quite right then do let us know.
Stay tuned for our articles functionality.
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As you will hear from Toni – TWA works with a variety of cooperative partners
to promote WA. If you are not online bookable then do seriously consider it, if
you are online bookable then do make sure that your products are distributed.
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A quick summary on how to get involved:
- Social media feeds our social activity and our website
- ATDW a dynamic source of tourism product for our site
- Online distribution to get your product out there with our key partners
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I’d love to hear from you on how else we can possibly work together. Come
and chat to me later.
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Three key trends in 2015
Mobile
Seamless
Experiential
No longer a headline but a trendline, mobile is indeed making booking
ubiquitous especially bookings become more nimble and social. The
consumer’s experience playing a determining factor in decision making.
By 2020 the travel world and digital will be
Unbundled
On demand
Truly mobile
Giving rise to the ‘silent traveler’. Fully independent and enabled through
connectivity this traveler does not want to be sold to. Instead they are seeking
a deeper connection and for authenticity in their experiences.
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Skift 2020
Future of travel is at the intersection of technology + marketing and user
experience + design
Forward thinking travel brands are delivering deeper experiences to travelers
by focusing on inspiration, personalization and a path towards self discovery
Rise of the silent traveler (because they don’t want to be sold anymore)
The on demand economy and its impacts on unbundling travel services
(ubiquity, efficiency, ease of use, connection and conversation)
Ubiquitous booking
2020 = the unbundling of everything, the on-demandification of everything,
the mobility of everything.
Adobe / eConsultancy Top trends for 2015
Customer experience, content marketing, data driven business,
personalization, mobile and cross channel marketing
Hotwire digital trends 2015
Unified digital experiences.
Multiple screens, multiple methods, one story.
The content car.
Making advertising routine.
Dr Data is around the corner.
No such thing as a digital free lunch.
Tech is not so darling. Talk to the hand ‘cos the phone ain’t listening.
Movings fashion forward.
Going digital: the road to general election.
eConsultancy.
Where to best spend your money research paper.
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Marketing budgets 2015 from eConsultancy
38% of total budget is on digital marketing (same as LY) – more companies
spending more in digital than before, this trend is on the rise
Where are they spending it on?
- Content marketing (including customer experience)
- Lead generation
- SEO
- Digital marketing technology (e.g. multivariate testing, CRM, analytics,
conversion and optimization tools, etc)
Where are they not spending it on?
- Display advertising
- Affiliate marketing
- Paid search
- Digital marketing technology (e.g. multivariate testing, CRM, analytics,
conversion and optimization tools, etc)
Owned, earned and paid
- Paid media still takes large share of pie (39%), but plans are to decrease
share
- Owned media next (35%), but 67% plan to increase spend here
- Earned (26%), but 71% plan to increase budgets
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Why don’t people spend more in digital?
- Decrease in overall budgets
- Company culture as a barrier is lessening
- Other reasons are lack of understanding, reliance on traditional marketing
and lack of staff
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Marketing budgets 2015 from eConsultancy
Where are they not spending it on?
- Display advertising
- Affiliate marketing
- Paid search
Owned, earned and paid
- Paid media still takes large share of pie (39%), but plans are to decrease
share
- Owned media next (35%), but 67% plan to increase spend here
- Earned (26%), but 71% plan to increase budgets
Why don’t people spend more in digital?
- Decrease in overall budgets
- Company culture as a barrier is lessening
- Other reasons are lack of understanding, reliance on traditional marketing
and lack of staff
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So, that’s all well and good to know what the key trends are and where
marketers are investing their budget but how do you know which path to
follow?
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There is no magical answer, no Wizard of Oz.
But you can find your own way through this digital spaghetti by:
1. Putting your thoughts down on paper but in a structured way. A widely
used template is the maturity model. This simple grid can help you map out
what it is that you need to do and can provide a pathway to your goals.
2. Become a modern marketer. Adopt a culture and approach to modern
marketing and take things one step at a time down the right path for you, your
yellow brick road.
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Maturity model
Simple grid to plot things out as you develop your (digital) marketing plan.
1. Strategy, change management, KPIs
2. Data and technology
3. People, teams and culture
4. Working practices, processes and tools
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- Soft skills: ability to embrace change, spot opportunities, passionate to
learn and curious
It is essential for those with more digitally-focused skills to have an
appreciation at least, and ideally good knowledge of, traditional marketing and
brand skills (and vice versa). Whilst digital is changing marketing forever,
classic marketing skills are still essential and those that can combine the two
are well positioned within the broader organisation.
- T-shaped / Pi Shaped people
Those who have a strong vertical expertise but also wider knowledge or
empathy for other digital disciplines
This is not to say that vertical expertise is less important, but more that when
this is combined with that wider understanding it is increasingly valuable in
appreciating the wider context of specialist work, identifying opportunities for
greater collaboration or efficiencies, and seeing the bigger picture.
- Checklist: collaboration, articulation, empathy, data/ insight driven,
adaptability, creativity/ lateral thinking, action-oriented, passionate,
curiosity, technophiles, project / campaign management skills
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How do you take these trends and make them real?
- Invest in digital: you have to do digital marketing to a) get to know it and b)
get better at it
- Start small: empirical learning curve, baby steps, or file bullets not canons
- Never stop learning, there is always something new around the corner
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TCWA have range of eTourism Workshops:
• Getting Started Online
• Websites, SEO/SEM & Analytics
• Facebook Insights
• Building your brand through reputation management and influencers
• Twitter, Instagram, Hashtags and more!
Plus they offer eTourism Coaching (one on one) and Detailed Digital Reviews.
Find out more on their website.
http://www.tourismcouncilwa.com.au/etourism-coaching-and-digital-reviews
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