My Summer as a Digital Marketing Intern in Tourism
Located a little over an hour north of Atlanta, Dahlonega is the site of the first major U.S. Gold Rush as well as the heart of Georgia’s wine country. During June and July, I spent forty hours per week as a digital marketing intern with the Dahlonega-Lumpkin Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau. Using email newsletters, Facebook, and blog posts, I developed social media campaigns and monitored analytics to promote Dahlonega, local businesses, and Chamber commerce events.
Tourism Meet Our Member Site Visits
Each week I was able to analyze marketing strategy during visits to members of the Chamber of Commerce, during Tourism Meet Our Members (TMOM) site visits. I learned about their business models, promotion strategies, missions, and services in order to help market them via social media as an element of Dahlonega’s tourism industry.
My Role in Digital Marketing Campaigns
Tourism Newsletter
While at the Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau , I redesigned, managed, and optimized the monthly tourism newsletter using Constant Contact. During my six weeks as an inten, I reached a circulation of 12,530 readers on average per newsletter, increased our open rate by 9%, increased our delivery rate by 2%, decreased our bounce rate by 2%, and decreased our did not open rate by 9%.
Facebook Page
While at the Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau, I managed and optimized the “Visit Dahlonega” Facebook page. By actively posting, responding to messages, and creating original content, I increased average post reactions by 304.55%, average organic page content reach by 149.77%, followers by 3.13%, and likes by 2.82%.
Dahlonega Tourism Website
Additionally, I researched, wrote, and designed visuals for 12 feature stories for tourism website Dahlonega.org using content management system Joomla!, which increased website average new users by 39.95%.
Evaluating Success
All of these digital marketing duties and their corresponding metrics worked together to create the Visitors Bureau’s digital marketing strategy. Each week, the Director of Tourism and I would evaluate the success of these campaigns in meetings with a consultant from digital marketing firm Reach Local. We used the software ReachEdge and Google Analytics to evaluate our for search engine advertising, Facebook advertising, retargeting, and display advertising. These weekly meetings taught me how digital marketing metrics can impact strategy.
Take Aways
My six weeks as a digital marketing intern cemented my interested in working in social media marketing. It provided me with invaluable experience in data analytics, content creation, and marketing strategy.
