Engaging our Audiences

audiencesEngaging our

The Mountainsafety.org.nz website

Increasing awareness

Mountainsafety.org.nz is our primary home to provide information for those looking to explore Aotearoa’s outdoors.

Last year we worked hard to overhaul the homepage experience and make it easier for people to find the information they were looking for. This year we have continued to improve the experience for site visitors through new content, improved digital awareness and ongoing web development to improve Google Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

OUR WEBSITE SEO PERFORMANCE

The internet is extremely full of information with websites competing for traffic. As a result, it is an important aspect of website management to appear as high as possible in search results. Google SEO and general brand awareness that is ‘always on’ is now an ongoing priority for reaching and engaging our target audiences.

We have specifically worked to refine the content on our website to improve overall search engine system crawlability (Google’s systems can find our content faster and present it to those who need it). This includes featuring ongoing paid placements in Google AdWords with our marketing partner GSL Promotus.

The places where our website is linked from (mainly our council member partner sites) will also continue to play an important role in providing healthy traffic to our website.

RESULTS

» Since conducting an SEO overhaul of our website with Somar Digital through

February and March 2022, we have improved our website health from 72% to 82%, now in the top 10% in the industry appearance in searches.

» Our paid Google AdWords brand awareness of mountainsafety.org.nz resulted in 4,756 search ad clicks from 20,763 impressions

Some of our Traffic Acquisition Top Performers (where people come from to get to our site aside from advertising).

» 20,025 users (55% of our website traffic) is from Facebook

» 3,994 users (10.89%) from DOC

» 1,005 users (2.74%) from NZ Police

» 1,001 users (2.73%) from Plan My Walk

Cam Forlong’s hunting stories from the Roar 2022 season Roar hunting season EDM Waitangi weekend EDM

Sharing stories

From the success of launching a ‘story’ section on our website last year we have continued producing stories as part of our communications strategy. We have written fresh content, interviewed real people and generated long-form media to increase audience engagement and provide valuable content for people to digest our key messages.

This year we produced 69 unique stories on our website that cover a range of content from media releases, guest blogs and campaign-related content. This resulted in the ‘Read’ section of our website achieving 93,348* page views, which is 20.4% of our total website page views. This ranked in second place in terms of the highest page views, behind the ‘Learn’ section.

We also had 42,615 unique users visit the ‘Read’ section of our website. The level of engagement with these pages is another important measure, with the average reading time on story pages being over one minute and this is ranked as the highest length of time on any sections of our website, proof that people are reading the content on the page.

HIGHEST PERFORMING STORIES FOR PAGE VIEWS

» A Kiwi hut bagging challenge 5,715 page views (1 July 21 – 30 June 2022)

» Media Release about ISAG for trampers in the Tararua Ranges 4,570 page views (12 August 21 – 30 June 2022)

» This isn’t an easy story to tell, I made a bloody poor call 2,932 page views (1 July 21 – 30 June 2022)

» A lesson with every adventure Braden Currie blog 2,532 page views (26 Jan 22 – 30 June 2022)

» 5 adventures for first timers with Young Adventuress: 2,335 page views (16 March 22 – 30 June 2022)

*Landing page of Read section contributed the following metrics: 7,890 page views and 3,186 unique user views

20.4% Direct connections

We have taken initiatives to engage with our outdoor community through our email subscriber lists.

This community continues to grow as we proactively generate new subscribers from our networks such as our Firearms Course participants, Plan My Walk registered users, interests subscribers and collaboration through sector events. We use this platform of Electronic Direct Email (EDMs) to provide seasonal safety information and relevant updates to these audiences.

Over the course of the year, we have sent out 19 EDMs to either the whole list (about 60,000+ total) or activity specific segments. We’ve continuously achieved strong open rates, which indicates our content is resonating with recipients, and that we are staying well above the industry open rate (industry standard is 25.17%). Below are some highlights of our EDMs:

» Tramping Video Series Launch in November 2021: 40,831 subscribers, 42% opened

» Roar and Duck hunting seasons 2022: 12,505 and 16,428 subscribers, average of 37% opened

» Plan My Walk updates and 1st birthday in May 2022: 35,741, 51% opened

» Queen’s Birthday weekend June 2022: 58,073, 41% opened

» Celebrating Matariki June 2022: 59,255, 40% opened

Another valuable tool these direct emails provide is a way to use this subscriber audience for research purposes. For example, we were able to reach out for our Plan My Walk impact research (currently underway) and Mountaineering Behaviour Research.

60,000+

subscribed to our public mail list (as at July 2022)