The average traveller now spends time browsing an average of 38 websites before making a purchase, so personalised marketing could be the key to attracting consumer attention, eliminating their need to search elsewhere.
Today’s travel marketers focus on likes, follows, open rates and click-through rates; the average email open rate is 20.03% in the sector, while the click rate is only 2%1. What if campaign success was instead measured through revenue generated? Which channels would produce the best concrete results? And how can these channels be optimised to produce maximal results?
As a media-neutral observer, Go Inspire Insight set about designing randomised controlled trials (RCT) to tackle these questions. The first trial aimed to put an end to the sterile debate of direct email versus direct mail, and found that mail actually produces greater incremental revenue than email, while combining these two channels produced the highest results.
Marketers should therefore be strategizing to determine which combination of mail and email works best for their target audience, and how these channels can be optimised to generate the most favourable results – measured through concrete outcomes.
The average traveller now spends time browsing an average of 38 websites before making a purchase2, so personalised marketing could be the key to attracting consumer attention, eliminating their need to search elsewhere. Go Inspire’s second RCT focused on the print channel, aiming to provide objective evidence on net revenue uplift from personalised direct mail.
The partner client selected for the RCT offers a product range that appeals broadly across the population. Four consumer segments were defined according to their value to the client and their loyalty, and two levels of variability were tested in sequential months against a control.
The first variable tested different levels of design ‘vibrancy’ with no segmentation. The second tested photographic and messaging creative variants tailored to recipients’ areas of product interest, historical behaviour and their propensity to purchase.
The results show that personalisation has a resounding impact on the likelihood of purchase. Increased design vibrancy (but no segmented messaging) produced an overall incremental revenue uplift of 20%. However, it is crucial not to take this revenue increase for granted as the most loyal and valuable customers were put off by this vibrancy and reduced revenue by 50%.
The second variable yielded substantially higher results; imagery tailored to the individual area(s) of interest produced a 128% uplift, overall, in incremental revenue. Again, an understanding of customer preferences proved crucial, as revenue uplift varied between product categories from 72% to 197%.
When it comes to travel, consumers are looking for an experience that corresponds to their tastes and interests, so if they don’t receive this from a company, they will certainly look to other brands. In fact, two thirds (67%) of people want travel companies to personalise their communications3; today’s travellers are looking for unique experiences which they will then share with friends, family and fellow travellers over social media platforms, peer review sites or simply word-of-mouth.
Travel marketers stand to gain huge rewards through optimising mail communications, based on a sound understanding of their customers. Personalisation has the potential to transform response rates into concrete purchases; in fact, the RCT found that greater personalisation did not produce higher response rates, but it did impact consumer behaviour. Careful tailoring, such as selecting the right visuals and the most suitable offer, therefore goes a long way.
Today’s technology allows for the personalisation of any aspect of direct mail, from the external envelope and the recipient name, to the products featured. An analysis of customer profiles and intelligent data use can be used to select products that reflect individual purchasing aspiration and potential, extend offers based on loyalty profiles or send out event invites to people with similar profiles. Variable content selection therefore enables a truly personal experience; this is especially significant when you consider that 27% of direct mail is still ‘live’ within the household after 28 days , so each piece has a longer lifespan than email in which to capture and retain attention. However, using both mail and email channels to complement each other is the recipe for optimal success.
1 Email Marketing Benchmarks, Mailchimp, March 2018
2 How travel industry trends are fragmenting the customer journey, Econsultancy, 16 July 2018
3 How travel industry trends are fragmenting the customer journey, Econsultancy, 16 July 2018
With over 30 years of experience, Paul Sumner is currently overseeing the creative and marketing teams at the Go Inspire Group in Leicester, Kettering and London. Working across retail, finance and government, Paul uses insight into customer objectives to provide new creative solutions and ideas for direct and digital campaigns.
