How Zartico Fuels Destination Madison's Data-Driven Campaign Success

With the expertise of Project and Data Manager Hannah Gott, Destination Madison leverages Zartico’s platform to transform their marketing and content strategies through data-driven decision-making.

The Challenge: Moving Beyond Assumptions

Before Zartico, Destination Madison, like many Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs), relied on assumptions and traditional methods for content and campaign development. While they had a strong content and creative team, they needed a way to validate their ideas with concrete data and ensure their efforts were reaching the right audiences at the right time. 

"We always lead with the data, specifically in content in our campaign developments - a data deep dive before we make any decisions." 
- Hannah Gott, Project and Data Manager, Destination Madison

This commitment to data necessitated a robust platform that could provide deep, actionable insights.

The Solution: Zartico's Comprehensive Visitor Intelligence

Destination Madison integrated Zartico into their core strategy, utilizing its capabilities in several key areas:

1. Audience Definition and Refinement
  • Direct Flight Markets: Zartico's visitor profiling allowed Destination Madison to dive deep into specific direct flight markets, informing the creation of tailored landing pages.
  • Drive Markets: The platform enabled them to identify subtle differences in what resonated with various drive market audiences, optimizing messaging for maximum impact.
2. Validating Consumer Behavior

Destination Madison conducted a consumer behavior study in 2022 to test assumptions. This combination of stated intent and actual behavior provided a more complete picture.

"The survey really showed us what people say they do when they travel, but we knew that the Zartico data would show us what people actually do when they travel."

Destination Madison also analyzed their key Points of Interest (POIs), breaking down three core mindsets into six more granular sub-mindsets for highly targeted campaigns.

3. Maximizing Content and Campaigns
  • Website Attribution: A crucial element of their content strategy, website attribution data from Zartico helped them understand what content visitors engaged with before their actual visitor journey. This informed which pages to prioritize for updates and maintenance and demonstrated the value of specific pages to partners.
  • Seasonal Planning: As a four-season destination, understanding seasonal personas is vital. Zartico data helped them analyze how POI activity and website attribution ebbed and flowed throughout the year, ensuring solid plans for each season.
  • Continuous Revision: Destination Madison consistently tweaked campaigns, ads, and website page destinations based on the data received from Zartico, ensuring ongoing optimization.
4. Improving Internal Communication and Buy-in
Hannah creates customized monthly reports using Zartico data for internal teams. By asking department leads what information was most helpful, she was able to craft reports that improved cross-team understanding and buy-in, allowing teams to "better tell Madison's data story."

 

The Results: Smart, Data-Backed Decisions

The integration of Zartico has empowered Destination Madison to elevate its marketing efforts significantly:

  • Precision Targeting: They can now define and refine target audiences with unprecedented accuracy, leading to more effective campaigns.
  • Validated Strategies: By combining survey data with Zartico's visitor behavioral insights, they ensure their strategies are based on what visitors actually do, not just what they say they do.
  • Optimized Resource Allocation: Data on website attribution and POI activity helps them prioritize content development, website maintenance, and partner engagement.
  • Enhanced Internal Collaboration: Customized data reports foster a shared understanding of visitor behavior across departments, leading to cohesive and informed decision-making.
“Zartico allows our talented marketing team to go a step beyond to make sure that we're being super smart with where we're placing paid content, what we're focused on, and what season we should be in."

Advice for Other DMOs: Embrace the Data

Hannah's advice for other DMOs or marketers starting with Zartico is simple:

"When the Zartico team says you can't break anything in the platform, they mean it! So get in there, play around a lot." 

She emphasizes framing research as questions that need answers, appreciating how every chart and graph is framed as a question. This approach, combined with a team invested in data-driven decision-making, has been key to Destination Madison's success. With Zartico, they have the buy-in, resources, and platform to make smart decisions that truly impact the visitor journey.

Ready to turn guesswork into precision?
Schedule a demo and discover what’s possible with Zartico.