2024 Braxton County CVB Accomplishments

Every year, the Braxton County Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) must complete a multifaceted report to submit to the state, county, and towns in order to remain compliant with the state code which governs CVBs in West Virginia. A part of that report consists of an overview of activity and accomplishments. Below please find that presented below!

2024 Accomplishments – Braxton County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (CVB)

Advertising: In 2024 the CVB continued efforts in paid digital marketing across social media and display ad networks, which resulted in 88,394 impressions, and 6,263 unique trackable website visits. The number of visits, or “clicks”, as compared to the number of impressions is known as “click thru rate” or CTR. The CTR for these efforts is 7.1% which is higher than the national average of 6.6% for similar tourism marketing.

The CVB created and re-printed various rack cards highlighting the Flatwoods Monster, Bigfoot, Motorcycling, and a general Braxton County infopiece. In total, generating 110,000 printed pieces to distribute to the traveling public via interstate rest areas, WV Welcome Centers, mail, local tourism destinations, related tourism destinations all over the United States, and our office.

In June of 2024, the CVB partnered with a printed material distributer to distribute 40,000 racks cards to promote Braxton County, WV to the DC and Pittsburg areas. In total, those printed materials are hosted at over 170 locations in key travel areas and are checked and stocked weekly by the distributer.

Print advertising included several ads placed in lower priced yet highly targeted printed media, such as Hidden Ohio, Map in Black, and a Motor Sports Touring map; to name a few. These publications combined represent over 40,000 pieces, nationwide.

The CVB advertised with several podcasts in 2024. These efforts resulted in an estimated 125,000 impressions and 84 tracked clicks/visits to the CVB’s website. The CVB estimates that for every one person who used a traceable method there were five to ten others who used more direct and untraceable routes.

The CVB owns two sets of attraction signs on I-79 at exit 62. The average daily traffic is around 19,400 vehicles. The signs produce a possible 19,400+ impressions per day. This number could skew more or less since we cannot account for multiple passengers, etc. In a year these signs could generate 10,940,000 or more impressions.

Earned Media: The CVB worked with several production companies in 2024 to create an estimated 9 pieces of entertainment content for various media outlets. YouTube, Instagram, and magazines were chief among these media outlets. In total these projects have earned Braxton County about 350,000 free impressions internationally. This exposure was given at no cost to the CVB. The value of these impressions would equal roughly $3,500 in advertising spending.

Social Media: The CVB actively markets on social media through many platforms including Facebook, X(Twitter), Instagram, and YouTube. All of these platforms are utilized to make users aware of attractions and events in the Braxton County area. On all platforms, the CVB has a combined audience of over 30,000 followers. On Facebook alone, in 2024, the CVB has generated 419,938 Impressions and 2,670 link clicks to our website.

Website: The Braxton County CVB website saw visitation increase by 30%, compared to 2023, with 66,900 visitors whogenerated 157,690 page-views in 2024. The webpage dedicated to the Flatwoods Monster was the most viewed, followed by the page dedicated to the Flatwoods Monster Museum, then 2024 Bigfoot Festival, the Home page, then Events. The website also generated over 1,000 outbound clicks to partner websites and social media accounts.

Having a state-of-the-art website is key in an age where web search algorithms not only assess content relating to a search, but also website functionality and security. Much of CVB marketing efforts drive traffic to this website, it must be the CVB’s strongest asset in order to perform well for Braxton County tourism partners, many of whom have little to no web presence themselves.

Events: The CVB sponsors several events in 2024. These events included the WV Bigfoot Fest, Braxton County Fair, Burnsville Freedom Fest, WV Emergency Management Conference, Flatwoods Monster Convention, Christian Motorcycle Association’s Annual Rally, Elk River Float, and Kings of the Lake. These events attracted over 10,000 visitors to the area, most for more than one day.

Education: The CVB’s executive Director, Andrew Smith, attended continued education at the West Virginia Governor’s Conference on Tourism in 2024. At the Governor’s Conference on Tour Smith learned several cutting-edge and budget-friendly marketing and content creation techniques to utilize for Braxton County.

Special Projects: The CVB partnered with area citizens and the WV Division of Tourism to build and erect an Almost Heaven swing near the Gassaway Train Depot along the Elk River Rail Trail. This small investment adds value to the depot and the Elk River Trails. The swing adds a new tourism destination for the Town of Gassaway. Finally, the swing allows Braxton County to be mentioned anytime the Department of Tourism promoted all the swings that exist throughout the state. The amount of added earned media value far exceeds the swings costs ($5,000 split 50/50 with the Division of Tourism) and the scope of coverage will reach farther and wider then the CVB could possibly track.

Accreditation/Membership: In 2023 the Braxton County CVB successfully applied for and received accreditation from the West Virginia Association of CVBs (WVACVB). The process of accreditation is highly involved and takes place once every three years. In order to become accredited by the WVACVB an applying CVB must illustrate best practices for CVB’s. In 2023 the Braxton County CVB also became a member of West Virginia Association of Museums. The CVB did this in order to receive the benefit of the experience of that organization and its other members. The Braxton County CVB has operated the Flatwoods Monster Museum as one of its special projects for over six years. Through its efforts with the Flatwoods Monster Museum, the CVB and director Andrew Smith, was awarded 2024 Museum Impact Service Award by the West Virginia Association of Museums.

CVB Office/Flatwoods Monster Museum: The CVB office and Flatwoods Monster Museum greeted many visitors to Braxton County In 2024. The visitation led to significant traffic throughout Braxton County, especially to downtown Sutton. In the calendar year of 2024, visitation totaled 11,875. Additionally, the CVB made over $110,000 in sales of souvenirs, $20k more than in 2023. This additional revenue helped further bolster the CVB’s efforts in marketing Braxton County as an ideal West Virginia destination.