Durham Tourism has been operating an e-newsletter via the Constant Contact platform since 2014. Growth has been steady over that time driven by in-person event sign ups and ballots for contests. However, during the pandemic years, growth slowed, and the list reach started to decline. Limited opportunity for in-person engagement was a factor. Additionally, changes in the Meta and Twitter/X platforms started to affect reach on social platforms, and it was determined that a renewed focus on the e-newsletter would revitalize the platform, achieve new growth, and invigorate readers. This was required for long term sustainability and growth of the Durham Tourism audience.
Several approaches were taken to achieve two ends. First, to stop the decline in subscribers, and secondly to revitalize the newsletter to keep readers engaged. To stop the decline in subscribers a few tactics were used to onboard new readers, which included: a contest run on Instagram that required entrants to be newsletter subscribers, the addition of a pop up to the DurhamTourism.ca website encouraging sign ups, the introduction of an iPad at events where subscribers could be instantly added, the option to sign up when registering for any webinars or virtual events hosted by Durham Tourism, and a new single page sign up form for only Durham Tourism/Invest Durham newsletters that was shared via bit.ly/DurhamEnews. This helped overcome the challenge of competing with dozens of other newsletter sign up options on the main Region of Durham newsletter page, which includes options like waste collection or children’s services.
Our key e-newsletter target audience is family travelers, particularly women aged 25-45. We have identified this audience is interested in small business, outdoor adventure, cooking and recipes, weekend activities, festivals, and agri-tourism.
To ensure new subscribers and existing readers were engaged with the content a newsletter template and content strategy update was taken on as well. This included significantly more original content as top stories, the inclusion of vibrant full-size images, exclusive recipes created by a local chef and featuring local ingredients, as well as a visual redesign that brought in more graphic elements and vibrant colours.
The visitor e-news started January 2023 with 7618 subscribers, and as of June 2024 has 7820 subscribers, achieving 2.7% growth. This is contrasted against 2022, where the newsletter saw a decline from 7760 to 7629 readers, or a decline of -1.6%. Over the last year, not only has the newsletter audience stopped declining and made up for the loss in readers, it has also grown nearly 1% over its previous peak. This effort to ‘right the ship’ is also reflected in open rate. The 2022 open rate averaged at 38.5%. The 2023 and 2024 to date open rate is averaging 41%. Intuit reports average open rates by industry of 33% (Travel and Transportation), 40% (Government) and 37% (Entertainment and Events). Our goal is to consistently sit above these averages, which has been achieved with a renewed focus on content, visual experience, and sustainable growth of the list.