EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES FOR TRAVEL MARKETING

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES FOR TRAVEL MARKETING

Transcript of EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES FOR TRAVEL MARKETING

Page 1: EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES FOR TRAVEL MARKETING

EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES FOR TRAVEL MARKETING

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 2 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

EMAIL MARKETING IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY

If you are a travel marketer, you are always looking for better ways to reach your

customers in a unique and effective way. WhatCounts is here to help! The purpose of

this eBook is to provide tips and best practices to help you improve your email and other

digital marketing practices. When you have finished this journey, you will know how to

apply lifecycle marketing principles to travel and tourism marketing.

Pack your marketing bags! You’ve just booked a trip with WhatCounts for a tour of the

best travel marketing how-tos.

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 3 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

CONTEXT

THE SEARCH ENGINES HAVE WON Google is doing its best to monetize the travel industry. Would you go to a specific CVB

or destination website to get information for a vacation, or would you simply type a

query into the search engine bar to find out basic information about a destination?

It is more important than ever for marketers to have engaging, updated content in their

emails. This is because people want authentic information upon which they can rely.

WHAT SHOULD MARKETERS DO? First, marketers should engage subscribers in all

phases of the travel cycle, including pre-trip, during

the trip and post-trip.

Next, marketers should identify the audience with

whom they are engaging and what message they are

sending to that audience. For example, is there a

clear message of what you want that audience to do

when they have received your message?

Travel marketing is all about communication with

the right person, at the right time, with the right

message.

As a result of travel marketing, your goal is to get people to use your company’s services

or buy your company’s products before, during or after their travels. It is important to

make it easy and attractive for people to find your company, as well as to receive and act

on your messages.

DID YOU KNOW More than 25 percent of desti-

nation website traffic is coming

from a mobile device today.

62 percent of mobile device

traffic comes directly from

mobile search, and 90 percent

of that mobile searching is done

via Google.

Source: Travel 2.0 Consulting

Group/ The Mark Report

(www.travel2dot0.com)

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 4 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

THE ONE QUESTION EVERYONE ASKS

“WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?” People want to know what benefits they will receive from your marketing proposition.

For example, picture your marketing as a gift bag. If your customer opens that gift bag,

and there is nothing inside, he or she will be turned off and turned away from your

company. This attitude applies to every stage of the travel process:

• The idea, when someone considers going on a trip.

• The plan, when someone figures out where he or she is going on a trip.

• Time spent on the trip.

• The aftermath, or return from the trip.

• The return and your potential reactivation of the customer.

HOW NOT TO ANSWER THE QUESTION Descriptive approach, which is telling rather than showing: “This is what the product is.”

The descriptive approach focuses on quantitative features of a product or service. For

example, this phone has this screen size and can hold this much memory.

HOW TO ANSWER THE QUESTION

Aspirational approach, which is showing what the product or service can do: “This is

what you can do at this destination or with this product.”

The aspirational approach focuses on what the person will experience when they use a

product or service. For example, this phone is going to make you feel in control and

important.

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 5 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

THE FIVE PHASES OF TRAVEL MARKETING

THE IDEA When someone starts to think about taking a trip, everywhere in the world is a

possibility. People make decisions based on what they want to do and what is available

at different places.

At this stage, your information needs to be prominent and easy to find. You should do

this by having strong SEO content and a presence on social media. Your messaging

needs to be present whenever and wherever people are looking for your products or

services.

EMAIL SIGN UP Put your email signup anywhere that you can. Include it on your homepage, online

forms, emails and newsletters. Make sure the ask is in the top half of the webpage and

stands out. Also include it on your email signature - an unexpected, but significant,

place to garner a subscriber. Consider including an option to sign up on social media

pages, as well.

SOCIAL MEDIA Why is social media a great place to post information? Because over 50 percent of

people decide where they want to travel by browsing social media sites and 76 percent of

them post travel updates and photos on social media. This encourages other people to

try the same products and services.

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 6 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

CYCLICAL TRAVEL MESSAGES Travel is not seasonal as with other eCommerce items. This is because people may travel

year round. However, people may have cyclical travel schedules, when they travel to a

certain place at the same time every year.

BE UP FRONT When you ask for a sign up, state what the subscriber is going to get out of the emails he

or she will receive. Is it going to be travel tips, updates, deals or perks?

BE THERE BEFORE THE SALE Set expectations for your readers about your email marketing:

• Frequency- daily, weekly or monthly

• Day- the day of the week they will receive these emails

• Time- evening, morning or afternoon

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 7 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

EXERCISE BEST PRACTICES FROM THE START From address

• Have a from email address that is legitimate and tells readers who you are. Done

consistently, good from addresses build trust with subscribers.

Subject line

• Personalize it with travel topics and destinations.

• Keep it short so it can be easily read and understood.

• Make sure it is relevant to the content of the email.

Pre-header

• Having a text preview makes your email stand out in a crowded inbox.

• Make it a call to action.

• Make it interesting enough so if images aren’t turned on, the subscriber will want

to read and see more.

GATHER YOUR INTELLIGENCE If marketers don’t collect anything else from subscribers, they should at least collect zip

codes. Then they can send readers targeted emails that have to do with the areas in and

near which they live.

You can also monitor the search queries people are using to find your company. Use

these keywords in your marketing copy to boost your SEO.

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 8 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

THE PLAN

STAY RELEVANT DURING THE PLANNING PROCESS Be awesome. How?

DRIP CAMPAIGNS

Drip campaigns are a great strategy and possible to set up if you are a WhatCounts

client. Please contact your Technical Account Manager for more information.

NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

Get people to sign up for your newsletters. Travel is not always a single-visit purchase,

and you can offer subscribers tips, tricks and insider information that will keep them

coming back to you for more.

HOLIDAY EMAIL CAMPAIGNS

Employ holiday email campaigns, and not

just for the standard holidays. For

example, you could plan a campaign for

people to travel to Louisiana and purchase

something on the day the Louisiana

Purchase was signed. On the right is a

holiday email that Alaska Airlines sent out

to its subscribers (design by Shaw + Scott):

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 9 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

SEGMENTATION

Don’t forget about segmentation. Target people’s interests when they sign up, including

psychographic information and specific types of travel in which they are interested. Now

you can send more targeted emails and drive engagement.

PRE-TRIP INFORMATION

If you know a customer’s travel dates, then send pre-trip emails reminding him or her to

locate his or her passport. Send packing lists and create lists of things to do and see

while travelers are at their destinations.

STAY IN TOUCH

When the trip is over, you can send customers emails asking for reviews of where they

visited, the hotel they stayed in and the restaurants they visited.

You can also ask them to connect with your company on social media and share stories

and photos of their trips.

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 10 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

THE TRIP

YOUR WORK ISN’T OVER When the traveler leaves for his or her trip, your job is far from over. Since travelers are

using their mobile phones more and more, you can send them text messages for special

offers or deals at their destinations. Connecting with them via social media to see how

the trip is going is also a good idea.

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 11 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

THE AFTERMATH

THE CHAPTER IS OVER, BUT THE STORY DOESN’T END After the trip is over, build loyalty so customers keep coming back to you. If you have

discounts or specials of your own, offer another company’s deals to subscribers,

monetizing your emails by selling ad space. You can also join affiliate programs to offer

complimentary products and services.

MAINTAIN GOOD LIST PRACTICES

How do search engines rate inbox placement? By the engagement those emails receive.

To do this, marketers must properly segment their lists. Building segmentations is

possible in the WhatCounts platform:

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 12 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

CONSTANTLY TEST If you aren’t testing your emails, you are not doing email marketing well. Different

aspects of the same email need to be changed once in a while in order for those emails to

stand out to readers. This is what testing is for, and it is easy to do in the WhatCounts

platform. Testing gives you specific direction about where you need to go with your

email marketing.

Make sure you give subscribers the option to update their preferences: how, when and

what kind of emails they want to receive. Also, make it easy for readers to opt out of

receiving communications from you.

Below is a sample of the A/B testing that is available through the WhatCounts platform:

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 13 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

PREFERENCES Make sure you give subscribers the option to update their preferences: how, when and

what kind of emails they want to receive. Also, make it easy for readers to opt out of

receiving communications from you.

DON’T FORGET: WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME?

• A subscriber’s inbox is crowded, so remind them why he or she signed up for your

emails.

• Travel is cyclical; create messaging that speaks to the possibility that a subscriber

may not be traveling for another year.

• Have someone who’s been disengaged for a while? Offer them a discount or deal.

Page 14: EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES FOR TRAVEL MARKETING

EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 14 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

THE RETURN

If you’ve done your job right, you’ve inspired people with the idea of travel. At its core,

travel is aspirational, so you want people to come back from their travels with the idea of

wanting to do more and see more of the world. At this point in your messaging,

emphasize how much more there is for your customers to do and see.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Email has a place in every phase of travel email marketing.

• Be everywhere.

• Gather as much information as you can: The more personalized your emails are,

the more effective your marketing will be.

• Never stop testing.

• Now is the perfect time to email, especially for travel marketers!

LEARN MORE

Want to learn even more about effective strategies for travel marketing?

Watch the free webinar!

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EFFECTIVE EMAIL STRATEGIES

Copyright © 2013 WhatCounts, Inc. 3630 Peachtree Rd. Toll Free: 1.866.804.0076 16 All Rights Reserved. Suite 900 Email: [email protected] Atlanta, GA 30326 Website: www.whatcounts.com

ABOUT US

WhatCounts provides data management, software,

and services to marketing professionals seeking to

deliver smart personalized digital messages to their

target audiences. Each day our team partners with

over 800 customers to leverage email, social media,

mobile devices, and the web to drive revenue. We

believe that smart marketing equals personalization

which requires marketers to have the right data, a

content strategy and automation. Using smart

technology, some of our customers are seeing email

marketing ROI as high as $200 returned for every $1

invested. We’re headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia,

with offices in Seattle, Sydney, Baltimore, and other

regional locations. Learn more

at http://www.whatcounts.com/.

WHATCOUNTS, Inc.

3630 Peachtree Rd. Telephone: 404.995.8600

Suite 900 Toll Free: 866.804.0076

Atlanta, GA 30326 Fax: 404.995.8611

www.whatcounts.com

Email: [email protected]

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