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West Midlands Growth Company commissioned CTConsults to deliver the DVE strand of work through to March 2023 as part of the wider BATP to support and enhance the visitor experience around the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and leave a lasting legacy.
The DVE strand will enable visitors to discover and book cultural, leisure, sporting, and tourism products through the channels that are most convenient for them and that offer them the best value. At the same time, it will provide you as destinations or cultural partners with the digital capabilities and insights you need to operate more efficiently and to grow.
This newsletter includes latest updates from the project as we work together to develop the Digital Visitor Information Network (DVIN), Integrated Digital Engagement Analytics (IDEA) for the West Midlands region, outlining how and when you can participate, as well as how we will support you through the process.
The new digital partner marketing pilot launched on the 8th November and will run until 28th November 2021 with partners sharing events across the region across their digital channels. There are currently 22 partners signed up to the pilot and taking part. To find out who’s part of the pilot see the partner list.
The free pilot is open to any cultural partners in the West Midlands Combined Authority area to join.
Partners must complete all campaign activity by 23:59 on 28th November 2021.
Follow our handy guide to deliver your campaign online and check out our FAQs for questions you asked in the briefing sessions.
Analytics from the pilot will be presented along with plans for 2022, during a workshop in early January 2022. Dates will be confirmed in December – so keep a look out.
Partners are invited to share the opportunity to join the DVE programme in 2022 with other cultural organisations and visitor attractions in their local area.
Organisations joining DVE will be taking part in one of the biggest sub-regional digital engagement projects in the UK. The programme funded by West Midlands Growth Company will provide:
• Training and experience in setting up and using Google Analytics, including building Google Analytics tracking links
• Traffic will be driven to your events through online promotion
• Insights will be generated into user behaviour and the effectiveness of digital marketing using IDEA
• Collaborative learning through regular reporting meetings and digital training sessions
A series of briefing and onboarding sessions will take place in January 2022. If you would like to nominate any organisations to join the programme or would like us to talk at any local meetings you’re hosting, please email us at: wmgcdigital@theaudienceagency.org
Why do we use tracking links?
Tracking your web URLs enables you to manage your online campaigns more effectively. It enables you to decide where to spend time and money and get the most out of your digital marketing budgets.
You may already be tracking other metrics like page views but tracking data from your links we can tell much more and help you to make better digital marketing decisions.
How does URL tracking work?
URL tracking allows you to set up campaigns for referral traffic. Referral traffic is the segment of traffic that arrives on your website through another source, (i.e. a link on another organisations website)
Tracking links are created by providing a final destination URL or landing page – this is the original link you want to track – and labelling where this link will be placed (i.e. social, newsletter)
Once the unique link is created, they can be shared anywhere on social media accounts, in blogs posts, in emails or e-newsletters. These are then tracked to see the traffic coming from every source.
Each time someone clicks on a tracking link they will be redirected to the destination page that you picked – in the case of the regional campaign – this will be another organisations event they want help promoting!
Data such as which website or source the user is coming from, is then collected and visible in your analytics dashboard.
Why use tracking links?
Although it takes some time to set up, URL tracking is useful to help understand where you may have higher audience cross over and where there may be value in other forms of co-promotions and collaboration with other cultural sector organisations. This will be presented to you in our new dashboard report feature.
Also remember that recommendations made by a trusted source such as yourselves are more likely to be engaged with by audiences. Effectively you’re helping your audiences to engage more with culture in the region!
How to use Google Campaign URL Builder?
Set up your campaign links using Google Campaign URL Builder
Step 1: Enter the link you want to use to take visitors to your website.
Step 2: Add the three main parameters that you'll want to track. Add the source (i.e. rsc-facebook) medium (i.e. social) and campaign name (wm-winter-2021)
Step 3: Click on “Copy URL” and paste it into your email newsletter (ad, social, etc…) instead of your regular “untagged” link.
Help!
If you need help with Google Campaign Builder make a request by emailing wmgcdigital@theaudienceagency.org
The Digital Visitor Information Network is ready for you to upload your events and venue information, with the Partner Portal now accessible on the Visit Birmingham website.
This is where you can upload your events and venue listings, in order to have them hosted on the Visit Birmingham website, and shortly on other destination websites catering for regions and districts across the West Midlands.
If you would like your events to be available for publishing and have not yet done so, please access the Partner Portal and select “create a new account” to get started.
If you have a Destination website, and have not yet spoken to CTConsults about integrating your website with this DVIN platform, please reach out to ollie@ctconsults.com
For assistance in using the platform, download the user guide here, or email wmgcdigital@theaudienceagency.org
Partners of DVIN or IDEA can contact the dedicated Support Desk to access advice from the digital specialist team. Hosted by The Audience Agency, the support desk will be open Monday to Friday 10am – 6pm.
When you contact the support desk you will generate a Support Ticket which will be responded to by one of the Project Support Team within 24 hours.
If you require a call back and would like to talk to someone in person please send a request with a brief description of your query. A member of the Project Support Team will then arrange a time to call you back.
The Audience Agency can also request support on your behalf from the project lead CTConsults and West Midlands Growth Company.
The Audience Agency has also collated a really useful guide to help you get started. We would encourage you to check here in the first instance.
To get in touch contact wmgcdigital@theaudienceagency.org
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