Smart new features attracting record views to the All About Whitianga website

It has been an incredibly busy 12 months for the All About Whitianga website team.

There has been a raft of new features, and whole new sections added to the website to benefit both our business customers and our growing number of viewers who are seeking local information. I'm really proud of the way our always tackles new challenges head on, and always work closely with our business customers to support local. 

– Cathy Klouwens, All About Whitianga Sales & Business Development Manager

Highlights from the last 12 months have included:

• excellent new website features to benefit business customers – and the introduction of the Business Connect subscription plan
• unique lockdown level status feature created and promotional campaign implemented to keep businesses connected to their customers throughout each lock-down alert level
• launch of a new Jobs section to connect local businesses to viewers looking for jobs on the Coromandel Peninsula
• refresh of the All About Whitianga Explore and Inspiration pages 
• record audience views of the All About Whitianga website
• important milestones including celebrating eight years of service to the Mercury Bay community. 

Pictured: Kat Neilson-Jones, Dean Klouwens and Cathy Klouwens, All About Whitianga team. 

All About Whitianga 12 month business snapshot

Here’s a snapshot of what the All About Whitianga website and team achieved to benefit our customers and community, and to grow our business into the future.

Record online views

In the last 12 months All About Whitianga had:

• 358,000+ views from local and domestic consumers
• in October 2021 we reached 2.1 million views since the site was launched (October 2013)
• 33,000+ views on the jobs section in the first five months
• overall a 30.28% increase in total website views over the last 12 months
• a whopping 59% increase in views for the month of June 2021, compared to June 2020
• consistently ranking number one and achieving top rankings for organic keyword searches in Google
• key viewing audiences from Waikato, Auckland and Bay of Plenty.

Results for our business listing customers!

All About Whitianga is keeping business listing customers connected to a significant online audience.

Cutting-edge business listing page features

Our team continued to refresh the look and feel of the All About Whitianga digital marketing platform – this included new categories and images to reflect the diversity of new businesses moving to Mercury Bay and the enhancement of listing page features: 

• new business listing layouts designed to encourage customers to connect with you
• introduction of new categories that reflect the diversity and growth of Mercury Bay businesses
• real-time business opening hours
• social media buttons to share your All About Whitianga page to Facebook and Twitter with a simple click
• related links so you can network with your local business mates pages
• a favourite button for your customers to tag their love to your business
• measuring page performance – know your return on investment by seeing how many individual page views, email, phone and website clicks your listing is getting
• customer reviews 
• proximity searches in restaurants, things to do and accommodation – showing what’s nearby
• menu widget for cafes, restaurants and pubs.

Results for our business listing customers!

We’ve packed each of our customer’s business profile pages with a huge amount of added value and functionality to assist with google ranking. And naturally business pages are responsive to different device sizes such as cellphone, tablet, or desktop with key information prominently displayed where it’s most important. View all of the benefits of business listing pages.  

New Jobs section getting the results

The All About Whitianga Jobs section was launched in late April 2021– and it has been proving popular and getting the results ever since! With an average of 6,600 views per month the Jobs section has been providing qualified leads to businesses from an audience already engaged in the Mercury Bay Area. Businesses enjoy the benefit of reporting features on their job listing which provide useful statistics on how many people viewed the job, and how many clicks have been made on the 'apply now' phone, email or website buttons. View the Jobs section or see the video guide on what the Jobs section offers. 

Explore and Inspiration sections – made more beautiful!

The Explore and Inspiration sections of the website were refreshed, and their additional functionality aims to provide more appeal for viewers and links back to business customer listings associated with a particular area. New features in the Explore area include viewer reviews, with the ability for the viewer to attach images and comments to favourite locations in the Mercury Bay. This section of the website has been viewed predominately by domestic tourists but it is anticipated that when international travel is able to resume that the international viewing traffic will increase.

Creation of a unique multi tiered Lock-down alert level status and tags for customers

The ability for business customers to indicate how they were operating during changing alert levels was taken to the next level by our team. We developed backend functionality so that customers can update how they can operate at each Lock-down alert level. We are able to activate special Covid-19 tags and visuals onto the front-end of the All About Whitianga website to show viewers what alert level our region is currently operating in and how each of our business customers are able to operate such as being:

• an essential service
• available for enquires
• working from home
• contactless delivery
• contactless pickup
• online shopping services.

Throughout the different alert levels over the last 12 months our team has shown which alert level was in place (when restrictions were applicable) across the All About Whitianga website and also contacted all of the businesses that advertised with us to ensure their alert level status was up to date. 

Results for our business listing customers!

The additional functionality of being able to click different operating statuses and information as Lock-down alert levels changed keep customers and views up to date with the most relevant business information. 

Keeping your businesses connected to your customers is a priority and we’re proud to have achieved this.

Measuring performance – your return on investment is easy to track

Over the last 12 months our team invested in smart technology that allows each of our business clients to easily see how many:

• individual business listing page views they’ve had
• clicks on their phone, email and website button they have had for the month to date as well as overall totals. 

Results for our business listing customers!

Each business listing customer has access to specific statistics for how their profile page is performing for them.

Supporting and growing the capacity of our local community via Sponsorship

Our team continued to support volunteers and not for profits who put so much of their own time into our local community. An overwhelming number of our local business owners are also a part of this volunteer community.

We’re proud to sponsor 100+ community listings, promote not for profit fundraising initiatives, volunteer job vacancies, and a raft of event promotions in our Mercury Bay News, Jobs and Mercury Bay Events sections – valued at over $84,000 over the last 12 months. 

Results for our business listing customers!

Our team have developed valued relationships with the volunteer, not for profit and event sectors of the community. We’ve connected businesses to community group fundraisers and efforts. We’re proud to raise the online profile of our community groups and to contribute to the community development and economic growth in the Mercury Bay.  

Getting more social on the socials – growing our social media channels 

The All About Whitianga team have certainly become more “social” and aded more channels to our social media toolbox. We increased our presence on Facebook and tailored our brand to engage with our general and business audiences. Our social media strategy includes regular business customer features, shout outs and referrals back to our customer’s business profile pages  on the All About Whitianga website. A new Instagram channel has been developed to connect, support and share with our viewers and business customers. We have also developed a YouTube channel which currently focuses on providing business owners with assistance as part of our How To help guides for managing their listing pages. 

Follow All About Whitianga on these channels: 

• All About Whitianga Business Facebook page
• All About Whitianga – See yourself here Facebook page (general viewing audience).
• Instagram
• YouTube. 

Results for our business listing customers!

Include increased:

• engagement with the All About Whitianga brand
• following on our social media channels
• referrals back to the All About Whitianga website
• visibility for business customers and business categories we promote via our channels
• growing number of useful guides and articles for our business customers. 

Mercury Bay News – relevant quality online news  

The refresh of the popular Mercury Bay News section on the All About Whitianga website has provided more scope for a range of engaging evergreen articles. Mercury Bay News is attracting significant viewer attention - and often achieving top google ranking for key word searches such as Whitianga news. 

Mercury Bay News articles are exclusively published on the All About Whitianga website and offer our business clients:

• excellent evergreen content that remains accessible  over time
• increased exposure via bespoke articles written about them
• a link to their All About Whitianga business page
• an opportunity to share their expertise and skills in helpful articles that can attract new customers.

Mercury Bay News has excellent organic ranking in keyword google searches and is a significant growth area of visitor views to the All About Whitianga website. Importantly it provides a new avenue for businesses, community, events and partners to share their stories. 

Using the rise of the video star to engage audiences

It’s no secret that the power of video can’t be ignored. The average engagement rate for Facebook video posts is higher than static images and video focused YouTube and Vimeo are also very popular video channels. For that reason every All About Whitianga business and events page can now embed YouTube or Vimeo footage on their profile pages.

With this in mind we got busy filming video snippets. Planned or impromptu, serious or a bit of fun, we discovered hidden talents behind and in front of the camera.

Results for our business listing customers!

Lights, camera, action – we’ve been creating and editing video snippets to engage viewers for local, business features, events, handy tips and tricks so now our business listing customers have another tool in their online toolbox to use on the All About Whitianga website digital marketing platform!

Contact the All About Whitianga team

For more information, or to get in touch with the All About Whitianga team use the related link below.