The document outlines a research project by Bournemouth University aimed at enhancing the local tourism economy through the adoption of digital technologies by businesses. It details the case study of a small company, Enjoy Discovering Wine, highlighting their efforts to improve their online marketing strategy, particularly focusing on Facebook and website engagement. Despite some successes in raising their profile, the business did not achieve the expected benefits in terms of course bookings from digital marketing efforts, indicating a need for a more structured approach moving forward.

1. DIGITAL DESTINATIONS
Dr Philip Alford
Bournemouth University
www.digitalhub.co.uk
www.pinterest.com/digitaldest
www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub
ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk
@schooloftourism | @philipalford
#DDBU

2. Digital Destinations project is an ESRC funded research project,
delivered by Bournemouth University,
with an overarching aim to:
‘capture change in the adoption and use of digital technologies
and to develop a strong, competitive local tourism economy.
Through increased understanding and use of emerging digital
technologies, visitor economy businesses will be in a position to
increase their marketing and management effectiveness, and
develop new products and services that will provide an
enhanced experience for visitors to their destinations’

3. The businesses benefited from 4 workshops which covered:
 Background to on line marketing
 Individual Business objectives
 Developing the strategy
 Measuring impact
 Reporting outcomes via case studies
All course material can be found at http://www.slideshare.net/DigitalHub
All business outcomes and blogs can be found at http://www.budigitalhub.co.uk/

4. The following presentation is the case study provided by Enjoy Discovering
Wine
Enjoy Discovering Wine had an active website including weekly blogs; facebook
page; and regular mailings to subscribers, but not so active with Twitter and LinkedIn.
We knew we needed a more targeted campaign and to work harder at driving traffic
to our website, but in turn to improve our website’s look to keep viewers interested
and reduce bounces. The main areas of improvement were around facebook and
enhancing the look of our website; we increased our knowledge of and, therefore,
influence with facebook, and are aware this is a good platform for PR, and have done
a lot of work on our website and learnt which direction we need to take it further to
give us more brand presence and returning customers.

5. BACKGROUND
• Enjoy Discovering Wine are a small company offering
Government Approved Wine & Spirit Education Trust
(WSET) courses in the Hampshire/Dorset area
• Customers include Hospitality businesses, Distance learners
(e.g. Superyacht staff), and Hospitality students
• Our existing online marketing included a website, a
Facebook page, Blogs (once or twice a month), Erica
(Director of Enjoy Discovering Wine) has a Twitter account,
and LinkedIn Page
• We also have an online subscriber list held on AWeber
which we use for monthly newsletters and a weekly update
about upcoming courses
• Whilst using the digital marketing, we were not using them
effectively with no clear strategy or plan

6. AREA OF FOCUS
• To increase bookings on the upcoming WSET Level 2
courses (in particular the course scheduled to run in
March 2013)
• Focusing primarily on Bournemouth University
students leading us towards a Facebook-focused
project
• For this course to be financially viable we needed a
minimum of 12 attendees
• Increase engagement on Facebook and drive traffic
to the website

7. CHALLENGES
• Continual changing of objectives meant that final
objectives were not agreed until 7th February
– Initial objective was email campaign with our current
subscriber list on AWeber
– Due to limitations with AWeber this proved unworkable
– Advised to use a more relaxed system such as MailChimp
by BU, but advised by external marketing expert to stick
with AWeber, as issues would remain with an alternative
system

8. OBJECTIVES
• To create more engaging content on Facebook,
increasing awareness, interest, conversion and reach
amongst Bournemouth University students
• To create more informative content on the website
relating to Bournemouth University students, driving
the traffic to conversion

9. TACTICS - Facebook
• Daily plan of posts:
– Monday – News article
– Tuesday – Photo of the week
– Wednesday – Interesting Story
– Thursday – Blog of the week
– Friday – Weekend question
• Increase ‘tagging in’ on posts to increase
virality of posts

11. MAGIC MOMENT
• Voluntary interaction on
Facebook by EDW staff
Helen Evans
posted very
positive &
useful comment
Saw huge response to
number of views (57
organic, 123 viral)

12. • Time
– Initial plan meant impact on ALL staff members time to create
content i.e. blogs, photo’s, requesting comments from students,
monitoring, finding newsworthy articles
• Struggling to find five topics for five-day plan
– Not wanting to increase numbers to subscriber list just for the
sake of it (competitions aimed at students would get us quantity
but not quality?) as per Philip’s Google Analytics presentation –
“think about quality of traffic, not just quantity”
– Monday – News article – time to research
– Tuesday – Photo of the week – difficult to maintain
– Wednesday – Interesting Story – too similar to Monday
– Thursday – Blog of the week – VERY time consuming
– Friday – Weekend question - worked
CHALLENGES - FACEBOOK

13. • Create area on website targeted at University
Students already studying for a hospitality-related
degree including:
– Why Study for WSET?
– Student Testimonials
– Student Booking Procedure
– Student Discount
– Course Dates by University
– Frequently Asked Questions
TACTICS - Website
www.enjoydiscoveringwine.com

15. CHALLENGES - WEBSITE
• Time
– Small business with part time workers
– Additional time (100%) required to complete website
updates
– Contacting students for new testimonials
– Restrictions due to level of staff expertise
– Lack of knowledge of Google Analytics

16. OUTCOME - Facebook
• 4th January – 5th February
– Total Likes - 126
– People talking about this – 58
– Weekly total reach - 108
• 8th May – 28th May
– Total Likes – 160
– People talking about this - 10
– Weekly total reach – 232
• We are seeing more viral views to our posts

17. OUTCOME – Facebook - Website
• We paid to boost this post – yet during the
period of 8th –
29th May we
received just 6
referrals from
Facebook to our
website

18. • Saw an increase in traffic directed from Facebook to
Website during peak of campaign, despite sustaining
regular content now tailed off
– Jan to Feb – 13 referred from Facebook
– Feb to Mar – 28 referred from Facebook
– Mar to Apr – 51 referred from Facebook
– Apr to May – 15 referred from Facebook
– May to Jun - 8 referred from Facebook
OUTCOME – Facebook to Website

19. Statistics 1 Jan – 28 Feb 2013 1 Mar – 30 Apr 2013
Visits 996 1212
Unique visits 709 784
New Visits 65.56% 60.4%
Page Views 2411 3116
Average Visit Duration 2:23 3:45
Bounce Rates 57.83% 59.57%
OUTCOME - Website

20. • Level 2 course was full
• But NOT due to Digital Marketing
• Due to upselling by Erica on previous Level 1 course
• Digital Marketing useful, particularly in raising the
profile of Enjoy Discovering Wine but not provided
the benefits we hope to see so far
• We need to continue to utilise our Digital Marketing
and measure the effectiveness
OUTCOME - Overall

21. LEARNING
• We need a set plan for future Digital Marketing, less
sporadic posts and tweets although spontaneity is
good to remain current
• Need a better understanding of Google Analytics to
set goals and monitor them

22. • Working out what works best
– Friday weekend question often gets a few comments, and
then receives a higher number than usual views and viral
views
– Blog drives traffic to website – how do we increase this?
– Some posts very popular – why?
– Utilise Facebook Insights to see which posts are most
popular
NEXT STEPS - Facebook

23. NEXT STEPS – Website
• Creating webpages specific to other Target Markets
– Hospitality Businesses
– Superyacht Staff
• Adding more user friendly content
– Clearer ‘Upcoming Events’ list
– FAQ’s
– Related Links
• Add more visual content wherever possible
• Aim to reduce Bounce Rate
• Utilise Google Analytics and set goals to measure
successes on website (possible staff training required)

24. • Based on recommendations from Stephanie Waller:
– Create a 5 day plan for EDW Twitter account
– Generate Content and Connection on LinkedIn
NEXT STEPS – Other
• Also, regular, weekly mailings using our AWeber
subscriber list
– Content, Content, Content, Promotion format
– i.e. Blog, Newsworthy story, Newsletter, Course details

25. For more information on DIGITAL DESTINATIONS contact:
Dr Philip Alford, Bournemouth University
ddp@bournemouth.ac.uk
@schooloftourism | @philipalford
#DDBU