Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business. You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)

How travel brands can capture their customers

The results showed a number of interesting differences, not just between countries but also between sectors. Email marketing is one of the more mature elements of today's marketing mix, with the majority of consumer brands fully embracing this as a means of engaging with customers and retargeting them.

With everything from special offers to the latest destinations and 'new arrivals', email marketing has become a staple of the online purchasing experience. It is therefore surprising that not one of the categories investigated (UK airlines, US airlines, UK hotels, US hotels) achieved a 100% score for the researcher receiving a welcome email after sign up. While 91% of US airlines investigated sent a welcome email, compared to 88% of UK airlines, it was the UK hotels that fared the worst, with just over half (54%) sending welcome emails, compared to 61% of US hotels.

Encouragingly, all the brands surveyed offered an email newsletter except for one UK airline, showing that the leisure/travel industry very much recognises the value of email marketing. However, by not sending out welcome emails, brands are missing an opportunity to reconnect with and retarget that individual, driving purchasing and building longer term loyalty. When looking at the volume of other follow-up emails sent, (not including the welcome email), less than half of all brands across the board are sending any form of follow-up email communication. Personalisation within these emails was also found to be lacking; there was an overall average of only 59% of personalised follow-up emails received from UK and US airlines and UK hotels.

When it comes to email marketing, there was one UK airline which particularly stood out from the crowd with the quality of its email communications: Monarch. The airline is doing a top job of keeping in contact with its customers using email.

For example, following a flight search on the Monarch website, the brand continued to send follow-up emails for at least three weeks. The nature of the emails wasn't intrusive and they were not so frequent that the recipient felt that his personal space had been breached in anyway. This was because the emails were useful and relevant, for example including information on the in-flight entertainment for the searched for flight and 'Places to Visit' at the destination. Monarch's emails also contained details of special offers and ideas for alternative similar destinations, which the recipient found interesting and did in fact click on - showing that the communication is working.

The company's research suggests that the travel and leisure industry is recognising the value of email marketing. However, brands looking to fully embrace all the benefits of email marketing in driving engagement and sales are missing a trick by not sending welcome and retargeting emails. Regular, useful and personalised email communications has a positive impact on the recipient - as was seen in the Monarch example, and encourages long-term customer loyalty.

A strong online customer experience, complete with personalisation and mobile optimisation will encourage a visitor to make a purchase. When this is combined with effective personalised marketing, it enables the brand to contact customers and visitors after they have left the website and target them with new offers and relevant up-sell opportunities to increase that customer's value. Targeting customers and prospects across a number of marketing channels widens the opportunity, and when carried out in the correct way, will drive customer loyalty and increase profits.

Have you seen The Customer Experience Factbook?

In this 180+ page report, you'll find all the information and support you need to build a profitable, effective CX Improvement Program that spans every part of your business.

You'll be able to implement and manage meaningful and profitable change, and grow your bottom line despite a slowing economy. Grab this goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, technologies, research, suppliers and partners, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid CX strategy.

While most marketers could list maybe a dozen key points for improving their brand's Customer Experience (CX), the researchers and writers at The Marketing Factbook have identified FORTY main 'CX Keys' which will help you drive your customers to new levels of delight, loyalty, advocacy and profitability.

The areas in which customers have direct contact with your organization are perhaps the most obvious places in which CX improvements can be made, and this report addresses all 24 of these 'Direct CX Keys', applicable to offline and online businesses alike.

At the same time there are many other areas that indirectly affect CX (such as the supply chain, policies and processes) in which every business can make simple but far-reaching improvements. This report guides you through the problems and solutions for all 16 of these 'Indirect CX Keys', many of which are often forgotten or under-played even in the best CX strategies.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)