For Duval County tourism, it’s Marketing 101 time

The Thursday meeting of the Duval County Tourist Development Council included a discussion of next fiscal year’s media plan, which will be carried forward by the well-connected Dalton Agency in partnership with Visit Jacksonville.

By and large, the discussion would be familiar to anyone who has ever been involved in online marketing. Dalton made a sale for a bigger budget. The question: will that mean bigger results?

The jury is still out on that.

The media plan will include three types of measurement: attitudinal, behavioral, and outcome.

“They’re clearly distinct,” Councilwoman Lori Boyer said, wanting assurance that there would be a drill down separating such components as “brand lift” and specific event-driven marketing, such as for the Jazz Festival.

Attitudinal includes components like “brand lift studies.” Behavioral includes measurements of such things as website bounce rate. And outcome, roughly speaking, translates to conversion.

The conversion funnel includes deliverables, including total visitors, percentage of room occupancy, room nights, and meeting/conference leads.

Quarterly metrics, likewise, are pretty familiar to those who have done any marketing — and will be included via a dashboard.

A by the numbers overview will look at spend and compare it to traffic, including new traffic. Other breakout information will include a look at geography, paid search versus organic search, and so on, allowing refinement of the strategy going forward on a year over year basis.

 Boyer discussed modes beyond the digital sphere, such as print brochures. The speaker from Dalton expressed confidence that metrics could be developed.

Target segments — adults from 25 to 54, including active/outdoor, history/culture/arts, and sports enthusiasts.

Counclman Aaron Bowman, new to the committee, wanted to ensure that strategy would be optimized — and he was assured that, in fact, Dalton Agency will provide action items and suggestions to refine strategy.

With native (longer advertorial content that looks organic on the page), display ads, social, and search engine marketing, the goal is click-through. With video, the goal is completion.

Dalton stressed the need for SEM, with an eye toward cost for conversion — a standard metric.

In any case, Dalton asserts a correlation between site traffic and media spend. FY 2017, which is still going on, sees a $900,000 spend for 1.3M site visits, and sees a 5 percent hike over the previous year.

The benchmark — a 10 percent hike — was described as “ambitious.”

And when Boyer noted a 40 percent hike in media spend (from $900,000 to $1,275M) to get that 10 percent traffic, she initially was not thrilled.

Councilman Bowman likewise didn’t see the ROI in a 40 percent spend increase with a 10 percent hike in site visits.

Dalton wasn’t able to prove a direct correlation between spend, site traffic, and conversion, instead relying on the “customer journey” moving people “through the funnel” and driving down the cost of conversion.

Dalton would tweak the strategy as needed, but offer review of the major changes on a quarterly basis.

Essentially, Marketing 101.

And the question over the next year: will the $375,000 in extra media spend, via a partnership between Visit Jacksonville and the Dalton Agency, bear fruit?

TDC members expressed approval of the presentation.

“You’ve really captured what we’re trying to get,” Boyer said, regarding metrics and allocation of funds.

However, defining the performance measures for the contract itself proved to be more elusive.

Discussion went around to the idea of “fraud prevention,” as one person at the table discussed the possibility of fraudulent clicks; Dalton assured the TDC members that there were protections.

The hope is for a 5 percent increase in tourists and tourism revenue year over year.