Meeting January 18, 2022 at 7:30 a.m., the recently created Cottage Grove Convention and Visitors Bureau took a break from voting Tuesday morning, due to quorum issues.

“So as we do not have a full quorum this morning we will not be doing any votes,” Convention and Visitor’s Bureau Chair Steve Dennis announced, stating that the Bureau with just Dennis, Christine Costello, and Justin Olsen present (two additional members not present) would instead be receiving information and giving feedback.

As it turned out, there was the Convention and Visitor Bureau website launch to report on, launched in December 2020 and kicked off in April in terms of campaigning.

Located online at https:// discovercottagegrove. com, the website seeks to draw attention to Cottage Grove, along with its many amenities and opportunities. Roger Sievers as founder of Sievers Creative out of Red Wing did the presentation.

“Good morning,” Sievers told the Bureau gathered in the St. Croix Room at City Hall as he introduced himself Tuesday morning. “I’m going to present on the website and some of the findings on the website for the past year and some of the advertising and the marketing,” he said. “We launched the website in December 2020. It was really, as you are all aware, a brand new initiative, so there was a lot of planning to do.” With the website getting a kick-off in April with a marketing campaign through money from the Explore Minnesota grant, the web traffic picked up, measured in turn with Google Analytics.

“Prior to that we didn’t have a lot of website traffic,” he shared. “I wouldn’t say that it was a billboard on the Moon, but it was brand new,” he said of the site traffic in early 2020. Then launching into a summary review of statistical site metrics, Sievers shared the following on the Bureau’s website since its April 2020 kick-off:

• Just under a half a million ad impressions (495,301) from when an ad displayed on Facebook during the initial phase from April through August 31

• A total of 17,934 clicks, both to the website or else to “read more”

• Targeted to within a 45-mile range of Cottage Grove Minnesota, “excluding Cottage Grove.”

• Additionally targeted to reach those with “outdoor interests, family related activities, restaurants & dining, wedding planning, biking, and others.

Kicked off with a sweepstakes giveaway that offered a hotel stay and some shopping items from Cottage Grove, statistics show the website launch saw more “click to read (CTR) hits among men than women for the age group of 18 to 24 years, while momentum shifted to women as the age categories changed. Split by age groups into ages going up of 25-34, 35-44, 45-54, 55-64, and 65+, the average engagement for men was between 2.29 percent to 2.59 percent, while CTR engagement for women registered between 3.81 and 4.25 percent.

“One of the reasons why digital marketing is so effective,” Sievers said, was its ability to reach audiences who might be interested in the content.

“In general we targeted a 45-mile radius excluding Cottage Grove,” he said, with ads additionally matched to personal interests. During the giveaway the web campaign sought people interested in day travel, while those with outdoor interests might be shown a kayaking ad instead.

“The results of that first social media campaign…I believe we ended up with about 500 people who signed up to the newsletter and contest giveaway,” Sievers told the Bureau.

“Which is a pretty good start to a list,” he shared. With the list continuing to grow through blogging and other efforts, another campaign had been started in June.

“Starting June 1st we added a second Facebook campaign, he said, with the two simultaneous campaigns (from April and June) running different messaging to those with different interests.

With more men engaging than women on CTR hits across age groups, the new campaign saw men ages 18 through 54 average 1.59 and 3.31 CTR hits, with women between 0.72 percent and 2.92 percent for CTR hits and sustained engagement. While allowing for ages 55 and up, no engagement was made by this age group in the second campaign. Overall the campaign started in June generated 760,249 ad impressions and 20,160 clicks, or 2.65 percent engagement.

Changing in November to a single campaign, Sievers shared how the new strategy had gone, with 149,256 ad impressions and 262 clicks and two “view throughs” along with 4,463 engagements, the last done when someone hovers over the ad with their mouse.

“Something that’s trackable,” Sievers shared of online behavior and user engagement with something like the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau website, “meant to be seen. Websites for ad engagement ranged for iTunes and AppID, to Buzz Feed and the Daily Mail, to the Food Network Kitchen, among others.

“Reputable websites,” Sievers said of ad placement and engagement. “That again is based on behavior,” he went on, with those engaged in the local area targeted to receive ads they might like. Ad impressions generated included those from Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Chanhassen, Eden Prairie, Faribault, Lakeville, Minnetonka, Waconia, and Maple Grove, along with Spring Valley, Wisconsin, a smaller community in terms of population, located across the state border in Pierce County. With a tracking script installed on the website to see if people come back, the campaign was generating engagement with Cottage Grove Minnesota and what it could offer. The bottom line, though?

“It will in the next couple of years become a great asset for engagement,” Sievers said in summary of the website for the Cottage Grove Convention and Visitor’s Bureau.

CG Convention and Visitors Bureau Chair Steve Dennis. Image from City of Cottage Grove YouTube channel.

The Cottage Grove Convention and Bureau website launched in April, with almost half a million impressions from when Facebook ads played. Image from presentation to Convention Bureau members at January 18 meeting.