Hi all,
It’s a different vibe this month as we – at last – welcome visitors back to our region. It was a tough time for all, and well done for weathering the storm (figuratively and literally…what’s up with these damn ‘weather events’?)
Now it’s a matter of making sure that our region performs best in terms of visitation. So far so good: we have the fastest growth of any region in Victoria in the last 12 months. Of course visitation was pretty patchy, but we’ll take it. And it bodes well for the months to come.
Challenges remain: staffing, tensions around vaccinations…and I think most of us are pretty knackered.
All that said, to use a well-worn phrase, it’s time to strike while the iron is hot. The surge in demand as Melbourne (and the rest of Australia) opens up is a massive opportunity. To capitalise on this unprecedented demand, we are marketing the hell out of our region. We share a few insights about this…and importantly provide you with opportunities to leverage our marketing assets at very low costs.
All the best for the coming weeks.
Steve and the team.
Steve Wroe
CEO
0419 574 813
Our channel metrics have again experienced a significant jump over the past month. The number of followers on both our Facebook and Instagram pages has increased and we’ve seen further growth in our subscriber database, which now sits at almost 70k. Our website visitation is also up following the launch of our summer mag and summer competition.
With the easing of restrictions our PR activities will ramp up again. We are already seeing strong interest in the region with some positive media mentions over the past few weeks. We also continue to work closely with Visit Victoria to leverage and support their PR activities. If you have anything new happening, any events coming up or any great stories to share, please email the details to .
Good Food
Daylesford Brewing Co. and Maldon based Table et Terroir were both included in a great round-up of new regional food venues in a Good Food cover story in The Age this week. You can read the online article here.
Coming up
News Corp are launching a new publication ‘Travel + Luxury’. Several of our businesses are set to host one of their writers later this month (after the initial visit was cancelled due to lockdown restrictions).
OUR BUMPER 48 PAGE summer Daylesford Macedon Life mag has gone to the printers! We would like to thank everyone who placed an order and supported us in getting the summer edition of Daylesford Macedon Life to market. This will be the first time that the magazine will placed in the Sunday Herald Sun, in addition to The Saturday Age. We anticipate that at least one million people will see the magazine, so this is a massive marketing push, which is perfectly timed.
Remember to pick up a copy on Saturday 20 November (The Age) or Sunday 28 November (Herald Sun). Copies will also be distributed amongst cafes in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the Mornington Peninsula, as well as locally around Daylesford and the Macedon Ranges.
The autumn magazine is now open for bookings and sells quickly, please action ASAP. This edition will be published on 26 February. If you would like to book an advertisement please click HERE, for Business Listings click HERE and for advertorial click HERE. We are coming into the silly season, so don’t let this opportunity slip away.
View our MEDIA KIT or email for pricing. The advertising deadline for our autumn issue is 17 January.
Autumn mag story ideas
We are currently brainstorming articles for autumn and need your help – we are looking for suitable operators to feature in the following articles (note: this isn’t a comprehensive list of the articles that will be included in the mag, just those we are seeking ideas for):
Rooms with a view – accommodation options with a great view
Venues that feature local artworks on the walls that are available for purchase
Venues offering vegan dishes or ingredients
Ethical eating – producers who are making a conscious effort to farm ethically and sustainably
Detox – operators offering detox treatments, retreats or programs
Retailers selling slow fashion
Classes and workshops taking place during autumn
If you have any options that fit the bill, please share your ideas with .
AUTUMN build you database subscriber competition is now open
Our Summer competition is just about to launch, however we are already on the hunt for prize offerings for our Autumn Competition. We are seeking the following:
The cost to be involved is $800 ex GST. If you are interested please click HERE to submit your prize details.
We handed over 15,000 email subscribers to our spring competition prize partners, and we expect our next competitions to be similar. We can also confirm that we will be partnering with Broadsheet Melbourne for the digital component of the autumn competition driver – meaning that you are guaranteed exposure on Broadsheet, in addition to the exposure you receive through DMT’s marketing channels.
Daylesford Macedon Life monthly email
There is space available in our November EDM, which is distributed to our database of 62,000 with an open rate of 28.3% and a click rate of 9.5%. Every month we highlight all the great things happening in our region – here is an example of our October newsletter.
If you’d like to be featured in one of our emails, the cost is $200ex GST. That’s $3.80 per 1,000 people. If you’d like to get some click throughs to your event, business or product, please email to get involved.
Christmas gift ideas
We are planning on sharing a Christmas gift ideas themed email to our database in early December. If you have a product or online store you would like to promote please contact the cost is $200ex GST.
Let us manage your customer emails
With thousands of email subscribers, and knowing that a significant portion of our website traffic comes from email, we know a thing or two about best practice and consistency. If you’re not doing emails, you should! Email is fast, cheap and gets results. If you are looking for some help to manage your emails please message for more information.