HOW TRAVEL MARKETERS CAN MARKET SMARTER FOR THE HOLIDAYS

TWEET!

Tweet about this webinar using #SmartTravel Follow: @WhatCounts @timbrechlin @ugigirl

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TODAY’S SPEAKERS

Tim Brechlin Inbound Marketing Manager

WhatCounts, Inc.

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Joy Ugi Digital Marketing Coordinator

WhatCounts, Inc.

CONTEXT

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• Google continues to make inroads into travel (Flight Finder, Hotel Search) – Field Trip app for Android and iOS is a game-changer

• TripAdvisor ranked as “most trusted” website on the Internet

• Budgets are tight

• Next-generation travelers are smart travelers

• Holiday inboxing is always a challenge

CONTEXT

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SO LET’S MARKET SMARTER FOR THE HOLIDAYS!

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ARE YOU PERSONALIZED?

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ARE YOU PERSONALIZED?

• The game has changed…

– Using dedicated ESPs, segmentations, first-name values was good at first

– But “personalization” goes deeper than that

SMART, PERSONALIZED MARKETING

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ENHANCED DATA CLIENT DATA SYSTEM DATA 3RD PARTY ANALYTICS

EMAIL WEB SOCIAL MOBILE

PERSONALIZATION BY AFFINITY • For travel marketers, affinity marketing

is one of your greatest personalization tools – If someone came to your destination at this

time last year, try and get them again

– If you collected information by interest, let subscribers know of anything new and exciting in those particular areas

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BE EVERYWHERE YOU CAN BE

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BE EVERYWHERE

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• By the very definition of marketing, you have many competitors

• If you aren’t everywhere humanly possible, something has gone horribly wrong

• Set expectations - make sure your readers know what to expect from your emails

• Frequency (daily, weekly, monthly…)

• What day (Tuesdays, 1st Saturday, 15th of the month…)

• What time (overnight, morning, afternoon, evening…)

• Content (news, special offers, promotions, announcements…)

MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE TO OPT-IN

• Sign-up form on website

• SMS

• Facebook Page Tab

• Facebook Connect

• QR code at your hotel front desk

• Those addresses are your most valuable asset!

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MAKE IT AS EASY AS POSSIBLE TO OPT-IN

• WhatCounts Client Visit Baltimore did an SMS-to-opt-in promotion for the Sailabration event

• Users who opted-in received Baltimore-area deals and hotel promotions to encourage return bookings

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BE READABLE EVERYWHERE

• Being everywhere means that it’s imperative to be readable everywhere

• It’s finally happened: >50% of emails are opened on mobile

– Source: Experian

• Just because someone is on a mobile device doesn’t mean they’re on the go

– More than 60% of purchases made on mobile actually happen while at home

• Source: PayPal

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EMBRACE THE SEASON

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EMBRACE THE SEASON

• Think back to context (TripAdvisor most trusted site) – Authenticity and authority is what travelers

want

• If you’re marketing the Midwest, the

holidays will be cold and snowy – Don’t cover it up, embrace it – just as some

people like to go to Florida, some people like to vacation in the frozen tundra

• What gives your audience a warm, fuzzy feeling?

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EMBRACE REVIEWS

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EMBRACE REVIEWS

• Online review sites (TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.) are your friends

• Reviews have huge impact upon search

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Digital Marketing World

EMBRACE REVIEWS

• Overcome the “certainty gap”

• Planning a trip isn’t the problem: Having the confidence to pull the trigger is

• “Travel is composed of thousands of questions, challenges and concerns. Your job is to convince the traveler they can overcome them.” – Troy Thompson, Principal, Travel 2.0 Consulting Group

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CONVERGE

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CONVERGE

• Web, email, mobile and social should all be supporting one another

• Identify your success metric and ask yourself how each channel can help you achieve it

• Make sure the cross-channel experience is consistent

• Never forget: At its core, travel is aspirational – “I need to see / do / experience more”

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REWARD

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REWARD

• Identify and reward your top customers

• Airline / travel agency: ID VIPs and give them a discount

• CVB / DMO: ID frequent travelers and social evangelists and offer a “carrot” to entice a return visit

• Solicit customer reviews (drip campaign post-visit) and offer a drawing or discount to support retention – Reminder: Your audience is asking, “What’s in it for me?”

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REWARD

• Ask yourself what gives your audience the warm, fuzzy feeling

• Don’t offer rewards that are incongruent with your branding – A city known for restaurants probably shouldn’t offer a drawing for a quilt

• Don’t offer rewards that are too expensive / valuable to you

– While returning customers are valuable, don’t focus on them at the expense of new customer acquisition

– Also don’t want to train people to only engage with you when there’s a carrot involved

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GET INTO THE INBOX

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• Historically, inbox placement gets more difficult beginning in November

– Email volume increases significantly, putting more strain on servers, hence tightened filters

• Many messages either get bulked or go missing entirely

• There are many reasons for this, but:

– You can still win!

GET INTO THE INBOX

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• Gmail has traditionally been one of the more restrictive B2C filters

• Strongly engagement-based

• Important to suppress inactives – Previous wisdom was 1 year – Now: 6 months

• Keep content fresh

GET INTO THE INBOX: GMAIL

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GET INTO THE INBOX: YAHOO!

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• Yahoo! changed the email marketing landscape last month when it released all unclaimed addresses without a login <1 year

• Though initially it wasn’t thought that old addresses would be recycled into spamtraps, that may no longer be the case

• Essential to suppress inactive Yahoo! addresses and set bounce-outs to 1

ALWAYS, ALWAYS EMPLOY BEST PRACTICES

• Honor opt-outs and unsubscribes

• Monitor your complaint rate and IP reputation

• Don’t send to unengaged subscribers

• Don’t buy a list

• Understand that not all subscribers’ value is equal – it’s OK to say goodbye

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QUESTIONS?

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NEXT WEBINAR

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NEXT WEBINAR

WHATCOUNTS Title: Deliverability: Get Your Emails Into the Inbox! Feat.: Brad Gurley, Director of Deliverability, WhatCounts

Date: October 16, 2013 Time: 2:00 p.m. ET http://www.whatcounts.com/email-marketing-resources/webinars/delivery-webinar/

CONTACT US

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CONTACT WHATCOUNTS

WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Road, NE Suite 900 Atlanta, Georgia 30326 1-866-804-0076 www.whatcounts.com Twitter: @WhatCounts sales@whatcounts.com

THANK YOU FOR ATTENDING!

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