Abstract
Objective Assess demographic differences for a food website between online newsletter subscribers and general organic website visitors. “Organic” traffic arrives at a website through search engines vs. referring channels. Use of Theory or Research In-person programing is limited and the Internet has become a significant source for disseminating information, making it important to evaluate potential differences in users. Ninety-eight percent of ages 18-65+ use the Internet (Pew Research Center, 2018). Target Audience Adult food newsletter subscribers and organic website visitors interested in consumer food-related issues. Program Description The University's food website connects all Extension food-related areas on one “umbrella” website. Email newsletters are one part of the website. Evaluation Methods To assess online newsletter subscribers, a survey was distributed during 2018. Survey completion incentive was entry into a random gift card drawing. Google Analytics was used to assess 2018 organic website traffic. Results The website had more than 1.6 million users. Google Analytics showed over 80% of visitors found the website through an organic search. The newsletter subscribers survey (21% return rate; n = 992) indicated only 20% of respondents found the website through an organic search; other methods included electronic mailing list announcement (14%), professional conferences (13%), forward from email (13%), other (13%), and co-worker (11%). Though both data sets showed a website visitor age span of 18-65+ years, the highest percent of organic visitors was 25-34-years-old (30%) while 70% of newsletter subscribers fell into the 40-69-year-old range. Most subscribers (94%) were female compared to 65% of general visitors. Similar topics of interest for both groups were: food safety, storage, and cooking. Conclusions Data highlighted how using additional venues to promote website materials, such as newsletters, should be used beyond only placing content online. Newsletters may appeal to a more specific age and gender than organic search traffic. Though general topic interest may be similar, newsletter surveys helped tease out more specific interests. Funding None.
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