Explore Minnesota Travel Website
Category
National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > Travel Website
Description
National State Tourism Directors Mercury Awards > Travel Website
Explore Minnesota Travel Website
About This Entry:
ExploreMinnesota.com plays a huge role in helping Explore Minnesota Tourism fulfill its mission—attracting leisure travelers to visit the state. The core target audience is domestic leisure travelers from drive markets and beyond. Secondary audiences include international travelers and local industry partners, although the pandemic caused the international travel audience to all but disappear for the majority of 2020. In its place came a stronger focus on local (in-state) and nearby markets.
In February of 2020, just prior to the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the newly redesigned Explore Minnnesota Tourism website launched with the goal of brand-building, inspiration and destination education.
An aging platform was a catalyst for change. After 10 years on the same CMS, the website had lost adaptability and EMT’s team was unable to keep up with changing expectations for a modern DMO website. Rigid page templates thwarted efforts to highlight inspirational content, and the site structure prioritized directory-style listings over destination storytelling. Responsive design had been retrofitted, and the highly customized, monolithic system made it difficult to be agile in responding to a rapidly changing tourism environment. It was time for an overhaul.
Easy access to business-level information remains a key part of Minnesota’s UX strategy, but the role of a statewide DMO reaches far beyond that, into building awareness and affinity.
Marketing objectives included:
1. Support and engage travelers in the inspiration and consideration stages of their travel journey.
2. Empower site editors to: make quick, easy changes to page layouts; accommodate a variety of media formats; and respond to changing situations with agility – with minimal need for developer intervention.
3. Reflect the diversity, inclusivity and accessibility of Minnesota’s brand in the website experience.
4. Provide robust, relevant and equitable advertising opportunities for industry partners to reach a highly qualified audience.
5. Ensure each stage of the website journey contains avenues allowing visitors to move laterally (to related content) or vertically up and down (to broader inspirational or more focused, intent-driven content). No dead ends.
Campaign Strategy:
Five tactics guided the work.
#1 / DATA AS THE FOUNDATION
An analysis of Explore Minnesota’s digital marketing ecosystem was completed prior to project kickoff. It included an in-depth content and SEO audit, a UX audit, a systems and technology audit and more. These outputs guided the approach and provided the measurement framework.
#2 / STORYTELLING AS DNA
Our goal was to create a powerful sense of place and spark travel interest, then provide clear avenues to connect inspiration to action. We created snackable content experiences and curated 467 travel articles, listicles and itineraries, surfacing them across 124 topically or geographically focused landing pages. Every piece of content is tagged so it can be served contextually throughout the site. Rich visual displays include immersive photos, videos and interactive maps.
#3 / DIVERSITY, INCLUSIVITY & ACCESSIBILITY
Rich content honors Minnesota’s indigenous heritage and celebrates the state’s cultural diversity from around the world, including African, Southeast Asian and Scandinavian influences. Robust human-translated landing pages were created for seven international markets. The site was built with inclusivity in mind and features dedicated pages for accessible, pet-friendly and LGBTQ+ travel and other travel styles. The team is dedicated to achieving sitewide WCAG AA conformance.
#4 / DETAILS WITH PURPOSE
Carefully crafted design details reflect Minnesota’s brand and add visual interest. Unique crops and textures play on destination attributes, and design accents are inspired by everything from the state’s iconic border to cultural elements such as authentic Ojibwe beadwork.
#5 / RIGHT INFO, RIGHT TIME
During the pandemic, the content strategy shifted to (1) Provide essential information and inspire dreaming during shutdown; (2) Promote content on responsible travel during recovery and reopening; and (3) Use personalization to speak to various markets. During shutdown, the COVID-19 information page launched with essential travel and safety resources; content was also developed to highlight virtual experiences and activities such as Minnesota-themed digital jigsaw puzzles. As markets opened, we promoted responsible travel, such as outdoor experiences, as well as content highlighting local tourism and hospitality businesses. Personalization enabled us to serve content based on geographic market, boosting relevance.
Results:
The initial project cost of $501,000 included the following:
-Website content plan
-Website design and build
-Partner extranet build
-Migration of partner data to the new extranet
-Platform selection and setup of all third-party integrations
-Planning and setup of revamped partner advertising program
-Third-party user testing
The following were completed within the project’s inital 12.5-month development timeline:
-467 pages of editorial content refreshed and migrated into new content architecture
-124 new topical, geographic or international landing pages, written and curated from scratch
-7 languages serviced (in addition to English)
-9 integrated third-party web services
-3 new partner advertising products
The COVID-19 outbreak began impacting travel within a month of site launch. Comparing the most recent five-month period against the same five months of 2019 gives the best window into how the new site is performing against the old site outside of a crisis period. While overall visits were down 9% due to lingering effects from the pandemic and lower paid traffic, organic visits rose 15%. Notably, all major engagement metrics were strong, with time on site seeing the most growth.
JAN-MAY 2021 (compared to JAN-MAY 2019):
-Organic visits: 1,112,657 968,928 +15%
-Pageviews: 3,706,461 3,440,387 +8%
-Pages/session: 1.90 1.60 +18%
-Time on site: 1:52 1:29 +26%
-Bounce rate: 57.83% 70.56% -18%
Note: While this time frame represents the most recent “normal” data we have, COVID-19 restrictions weren't fully lifted and travel demand wasn't solidly back on its feet until June.
Pandemic-related content provided a major boost to site traffic, driving more than half a million visits. Newly created or updated Covid-related content generated at least 543,427 pageviews. Key pages included:
-COVID-19 Information page: 325,147 pageviews
-Road Trips & Scenic Byways landing page: 140,823 pageviews
-Explore Minnesota at a Safe Distance article: 28,085 pageviews
-Minnesota Digital Puzzles landing page: 21,553 pageviews
-Individual puzzle pages (6): 15,839 pageviews
-State of Gratitude landing page: 11,980 pageviews
Explore Minnesota’s team has been able to rapidly respond and deploy content experiences to respond to the changes in visitor interests and needs, and that’s exactly what we set out to make possible.
Why This Is A Finalist:
The campaign is a great example of a well-thought, purposeful digital strategy. Stemming from the need to replace an outdated platform, the initiative became a strong destination for locals and potential visitors to explore Minnesota in a way that's authentic and truly connects with its people and culture. The results were very good and onsite time spent was the strongest metric.
Great focus on the whole experience of the site, taking into account an accessible solution for the users and the editors.
Great as they researched and determined their audience and work upon data analytics to reach their goals.
When the objectives are clear, a strategy structured in an impeccable way, great results are achieved and this is the case. Something that seemed very interesting to me was long-term thinking, how to solve in an easy, simple, fast and above all autonomous way, the possible adjustments in such a changing industry.
Winner Status
- Finalist