Waikato Business News November/December 2017

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36 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS November/December 2017 Record year comes as new attractions launched For the first time in recorded history, Hamilton and the Waikato region have surpassed $1.45bn in visitor expenditure (for the year ended September 2017). This is a seven percent growth on the same period last year and very exciting news. The latest statistics released from the Ministry for Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE) show the region collected $107m for the month of September, with the majority coming from domestic visitors ($85m), placing the region fourth behind Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington for domestic spend. This comes at a time when we have a selection of new activities, accommodation options and tourism attractions being launched in time for the summer months. New to the region The investment made by some of these operators is substantial and very welcome, in what has been a record year for Hamilton and the Waikato region. New accommodation options being launched include Karapiro’s luxury Lakeview Lodge; the freshly-launched and already popular Waitomo Hilltop Glamping; and the recently reopened and refurbished five-bedroom B&B, The Monastery in Tamahere. Plus, in December we will see the grand opening of Cambridge’s Henley Hotel – formerly the Sarnia Park boutique lodge. The business model around another new operator, the Podium Lodge in Cambridge, is one to be commended by the Perry Group. The lodge will be run as a not for profit and will have 86 beds in a range of options from dormitory, pods to 2-bedroom apartments, with all proceeds going directly to their Good Sports programme, supporting local sportspeople and teams. Hamilton’s Sudima Hotel and Distinction Hotel are both undergoing major revamps, while Novotel Hamilton Tainui is about to start its $13 million extension which will bring with it 40 extra rooms. Hampton Downs have just announced news of a 68-room, 4-star hotel build which will be completed in 2019. The outdoors feature heavily in the new offerings, including a tour and self-guide The 40-room expansion of the Novotel Tainui Hamilton is one of many tourism-related investments being made across the region. kayak option with Te Aroha Adventures; the new extension to the Te Awa River Ride has also been launched, connecting Ngaruawahia to Horotiu; Waikato Aviation is now offering scenic flights to Raglan; and one of our most scenic spots, Wairēinga, is now home to the new Bridal Veil Falls Maaori Guided Walk. Megafamil on its way Our Business Events team is gearing up to host a megafamil of about 15 high-value conference organisers and company representatives from around the country coming to experience the magic we have to offer in our region. As one of the top three destinations in the country for business events, this famil is a way to further showcase the great operators and experiences we have here. And finally – congratulations! Huge congratulations to Michelle Baillie, SkyCity Hamilton general manager and Hobbiton Movie Set chief operating officer Kirsten Madill TELLING WAIKATO’S STORY > BY JASON DAWSON Chief Executive, Hamilton & Waikato Tourism who both gained recognition at the 2017 Westpac Waikato Business Awards. Michelle won CEO of the Year, while Kirsten won the Emerging Leader of the Year award. We are fortunate to have such talented women leaders in the industry – ka pai to mahi! Hamilton & Waikato Tourism is the regional tourism organisation charged with increasing international and domestic visitor numbers, expenditure and stay. The organisation is funded through a public/private partnership and covers the heartland Waikato areas of Hamilton City, Matamata-Piako, Otorohanga, South Waikato, Waipa, South Waikato and Waitomo Districts. Find out more: www. hamiltonwaikato.com Christmas communications checklist Christmas is coming and for many of us that means a long summer break is on the horizon. But before you turn out the lights and head off, take a few moments to ensure you’ve got your communications sorted. Here’s a list of five communications actions to tick off your list before your break. MARKETING AND PR > BY HEATHER CLAYCOMB HMC Communications Distribute good news With a dearth of business news coming out over the Christmas and New Year break, journalists are often looking for good news stories to fill space. This creates an opportunity to provide media with stories which are not time-bound. Providing these proactively allows publications to drop your story in when space opens up. And remember, more people pick up a paper or troll their news feeds over the holidays, so the opportunity is amplified. Remember that a lot of regional publications or magazines will be placing stories well before Christmas as time will be short in January – so get in early. And make sure you add a great photo or two – great images increase your chance of publication by nearly 50 percent. Actions: brainstorm list of current news, write your stories in a news format, provide to journalists with a personalised message in plenty of time. Nominate spokespeople Remember, despite the Silly Season, the media doesn’t take a break from chasing issues. And if your business is still operational over this time, issues and incidents that pique the media’s attention can still arise. So, if your CEO is on an island cruise with her phone off, who is your spokesperson during the break? Who is the alternative if your normal spokesperson is out of action? Are they easily accessible for staff or media if something arises? Actions: determine your spokesperson for the holiday period, nominate a deputy or two, create an on-call spokesperson roster, ensure your communications manager knows everyone’s schedules and contact details. Sort your social calendar Your audience will be on social in a big way over the holiday period because people have more time to engage online. So, that means your social channels can’t afford to take time off. Keep your social wheels spinning by loading up and scheduling future posts for the whole holiday period. Remember to make sure someone is checking your channels daily in case you need to answer any questions or respond to any issues posted. Actions: create a calendar and weekly posts, be creative to relate posts to your audience’s holiday mindset, consider promoted posts to keep your brand in front of customers and prospects and roster staff to check the channels daily. Book planning session December is the ideal time to book in your annual planning to review what you achieved last year and plan for the next. Book a planning session in your diary now to give yourself a great sense of direction when you return in January. And once you’ve got your business plan finalised, set aside time to determine the communications actions you’ll take to help you achieve those business goals. Do you need to raise awareness of your company, launch a new product, educate audiences, build relationships, get in front of your audiences in a creative way? If yes, then plan to make sure it happens in 2018. If you don’t plan, it either won’t happen or you’ll risk implementing communications in a haphazard way. Actions: book your leadership team a meeting to discuss your communications strategy for 2018. Take time to give time For most of us, December is crazy busy. And when things get manic, we often drop the ball on doing the ‘little things’ that mean a lot. Don’t forget Christmas is the time to thank your staff, customers, partners, suppliers and community for their support during the year. One of the best ways to demonstrate your thanks is with your time. Put on a barbeque for staff, phone up key customers and wish them a great holiday, hand-write Christmas cards or deliver gifts to clients yourself. Taking a bit of time to do something extra special for those people who are important to your business will return dividends many times over. And if you’re a business that sends corporate gifts, give some thoughts to how you can support local charities or businesses. Consider donating to a local charity in lieu of corporate gifts and let your clients know what you’re doing on their behalf. Or, consider buying meaningful gifts through local businesses. Actions: determine who deserves a personal thank you or special holiday message, decide how you’ll recognise their contribution, deliver your thanks with a personal approach, and think local!
WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS November/December 2017 37 Digital marketing tips for Christmas So, with just a few weeks remaining until Christmas, there’s just enough time to make sure your business digital marketing initiatives are prepared for the Christmas season. Regardless of whether your business sells gifts, professional services or trades, here are some digital marketing tips that can be useful in the final weeks before Christmas. For Social media campaigns There are more posts, shares, and comments during the Christmas holidays than any other time of year and each passing year more people are using mobile devices to shop online, access websites and find deals and gift ideas. If your business sells products or services that can be bought as gifts, make a social media schedule, and prepare Christmas themed social media images and advertising. This will include special Christmas deals, season countdowns, and feel-good festive stories. Queuing your social media posts in advance is a great option for decreasing your stress. Social media platforms offer the option of future queuing your posts. This will help you keep in touch with your customers throughout the crazy season without manually posting each time. You may want to continue it into the New Year so that you aren’t working over Christmas. If your business will be closed for a period, you can set an auto-reply in Facebook Messenger to inform people when they send a Facebook message to your business. For AdWords campaigns If your business will be closed over the Christmas break, or running on skeleton staff, remember to turn off your Adwords ads or scale them down during that time. However, if you do have staff available, AdWords campaigns can be highly profitable during that time, as many businesses turn off their campaigns. This means you can often gain cheaper and more profitable leads during that time. If your business sells gifts, you should consider adjusting your AdWords budget to match increased search queries before Christmas. Search growth peaks in this season for products and services. Evaluate your historical performances in Google AdWords & Analytics from last year and accordingly adjust the budget to build on your best-seller campaigns. Adapt text ad content to advertise Christmas promotions. Ensure remarketing tags are active and conversion tracking is all working in the place for Christmas campaigns. Also, make sure you measure ROI so that you can analyse what worked, what didn’t and do more of whatever worked! If you need to allow for shipping times, it’s a good idea to promote strongly near the start of December – don’t wait until it’s too late. Shipping timeframes become a major concern for almost every online customer leading up to Christmas, so advertise early to get those sales. For email campaigns People are looking for last-minute bargains around this time and emails can be effective to attract your subscribers/listed customers. According to McKinsey & Company, email marketing is three times more effective than social media, and the average customer order is 17 percent higher. If you’re selling products or services that can be gifts, then send at least two emails during December (preferably more) to promote the products or services you’re featuring over the Christmas season and spread the word. Have a look at what other businesses in your field are doing. Sign up for mailing lists of your competitors and visit websites. This season is competitive time for email marketers. Customers in boxes will be full of offers and updates, so you will have to be prepared to compete for attention. Look at your data and see what tactics yielded the best open and clickthrough rates last year. The subject line is a key factor in whether a recipient will even open your email, so make it punchy and intriguing enough to get those opens. And if you’ll be closed over the Christmas holidays, make sure you send an email to your customers to let them know what dates you’ll be closed, and emergency contact details if needed. Google My Business hours and posts If your business is listed on THE DIGITAL WORLD > BY POOJA GUPTA Pooja Gupta is Digital Marketing Manager at Duoplus pooja@duoplus.nz . www.duoplus.nz Google Maps (and it should be!) then you’ll have a Google My Business listing. If you have special opening hours leading up to Christmas, or have dates that you’ll be closed over the Christmas break, make sure you enter these details into your listing. When you login to Google My Business just enter these different times in the “Special Hours” section. There is also a little-known feature that Google realised earlier this year that is perfect for highlighting announcements. It’s called Google My Business Posts. Google My Business posts last for a week, making it perfect for events, guides, products and more. Small businesses can use these posts to announce new daily promotions, highlight newest products or best-sellers and even holiday closing periods. These posts can have up to 300 words of text, an image, a title and a range of call to action buttons. These posts show up on Google search as well as Google Maps, depending on the nature of the query and the nature of the post. So, if you have special promotions or events leading up to Christmas, you should use this feature. It’s free – just log into Google My Business and click on dashboard to make a post. Embrace digital marketing in the festive season Christmas is an important time for small businesses. If you’re selling gifts, then be sure to apply these tips to get the most out of your digital channels to increase sales and revenue during this season. If you’re not selling gifts, these tips can still help you keep strong relationships with your customers. Embrace the festive season and its spirit, and keep winning customers with wellplanned digital marketing… MERRY CHRISTMAS! Hamilton Monthly Property Report SNAP SHOT OF WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN THE MARKET PLACE OVER THE PAST MONTH. The median price across the Waikato region rose $45,000 compared to October 2016. Compared to September 2017 the median price increased $20,000 to hit the half a million-dollar mark for the first time. The median price rose 9% in Matamata- Piako. Compared to September, sales volumes rose 3%. Compared to October 2016, sales across the region fell 15% with sales falling 55% in Matamata-Piako District and 36% in South Waikato District. The number of days to sell eased by one day compared to September 2017, from 35 days in September to 36 days in October. The number of days to sell eased by five days compared to October 2016. Over the past 10 years the average number of days to sell during October for Waikato has been 44 days. “Whilst sales volumes are down, activity in the market is somewhat encouraging particularly with the record median price this month. We have seen the delayed spring increase in listings, however, there is only just over three months’ supply available. Buyer demand is still evident and auction rooms in the city are still active. We expect the next month to be reasonably busy as we approach Christmas. There is a possibility that there might be some downwards price pressure as a knee-jerk reaction to the new Government but only time will tell. The New Year should see renewed activity and interest in Hamilton as Auckland struggles with the comparatively high median price.” Philip Searle, REINZ Regional Director. Obviously the statistics contained within this article represent only a small fraction of the data I have at my fingertips. For more information relevant to your street or your property, call and ask for one of our team. Hamilton City By Greg Petrin Rototuna branch manager Local market facts Sales October 2017 Sales October 2016 Under $200k* 0 2 $200 - $299k* 1 8 $300 - $399k* 26 42 $400 - $499k* 69 75 $500 - $599k* 56 54 $600 - $699k* 44 45 $700 - $999k* 16 32 $800 - $999k* 18 14 $1,000,000 - $1,999,999* 7 6 $2m+* 0 0 Total number of sales* 237 278 Median sale price* $535,000 $518,000 Median days to sell* 32 32 *Statistical Information Derived From The Real Estate Institute Of New Zealand. Realty Services Ltd/Success Realty Ltd and any contractor/employee is merely passing over the information. We cannot guarantee its accuracy and reliability as we have not checked, audited or reviewed the information and all intending purchasers are advised to conduct their own due diligence investigation into the same. To the maximum extent permitted by law Realty Services Ltd/Success Realty Ltd and its contractors/employees do not accept any responsibility to any person for the accuracy of the information herein. J8903P P 07 834 9570 M 027 801 9962 F 07 854 3837 VISIT www.eves.co.nz
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Waikato Business News November/December 2017

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