EMAIL MARKETING IN A MOBILE WORLD
WHO I AM Ten years digital marketing experience Extensive background in travel / tourism, media / publishing and agency verticals Tim Brechlin Inbound Marketing Manager WhatCounts, Inc. @timbrechlin Lover of life, living and deep-fried cheese 2
CONTEXT 3
CONTEXT 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 Inboxing is always a challenge 4
ARE YOU PERSONALIZED? 5
ARE YOU PERSONALIZED? The game has changed Using dedicated ESPs, segmentations, first-name values was good at first But personalization goes deeper than that
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 7
BE EVERYWHERE YOU CAN BE 8
BE EVERYWHERE 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, 1 st Saturday, 15 th of the month ) What time (overnight, morning, afternoon, evening ) Content (news, special offers, promotions, announcements ) 9
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! 10
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 11
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 12
EMBRACE REVIEWS 13
EMBRACE REVIEWS Online review sites (TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.) are your friends Reviews have huge impact upon search Digital Marketing World 14
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 15
CONVERGE 16
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 17
CROWDSOURCE YOUR CONTENT 18
CROWDSOURCE YOUR CONTENT Remember the adage: We Are Not Our Audience We may think our content / web design / email design / social messaging is great, but if it doesn t resonate Your customers and subscribers are, by far, your greatest source of intelligence about how effective your marketing efforts are Crowdsourcing can take may different avenues 19
MY FAVORITE CROWDSOURCING TACTIC Analytics! 20
ANALYTICS Though all Google searches are now encrypted, Google Webmaster Tools stores search data for the last 90 days If you have queries with high CTR, but low impressions (possibly due to low positioning), it s time to start pumping out that kind of content! Use this to determine what kind of language to use in your subject lines 21
YOUR OPT-OUTS ARE SPEAKING TO YOU Your email opt-outs can be a valuable gauge to the value of your content If your opt-outs are due to lack of interest or frequency, perhaps it s time to revise your strategy? 22
GET INTO THE INBOX 23
GET INTO THE INBOX 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! 24
GET INTO THE INBOX: GMAIL 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 25
GET INTO THE INBOX: YAHOO! 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 26
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 27
QUESTIONS? 28
THANK YOU! 29