Digital Marketing Brief

Survey Reveals Email Marketing Insights for the Travel Industry

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The travel industry has been seriously challenged by disruptive technologies as more and more travel providers deal directly with customers and as services have become commoditized. Therefore, it’s more critical than ever for digital marketing executives in the travel industry to differentiate their brands.

Lyris recently sponsored a survey by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to examine trends in digital marketing and identify any gaps in understanding between consumers and marketing executives in various industries, including travel. The EIU survey shows that, compared to five years ago, travel marketers are now placing greater emphasis on analyzing data for individual customers, collected in part through Web analytics software available in email marketing solutions like those from Lyris. Additionally, cultivating influencers has become a key strategy for travel marketers.

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Lyris (@Lyris ) is a leading global provider of digital marketing solutions that help companies engage with customers in more meaningful ways. Lyris products and services empower marketers to design, automate, and optimize data- driven interactive marketing campaigns that facilitate superior engagement, increase conversions, and deliver measurable business value. Lyris’ high-performance, secure, and flexible digital marketing platforms improve marketing efficiency by providing automated digital message delivery, robust segmentation, and real-time digital channel analytics. The Lyris solutions portfolio is comprised of both in-the-cloud and on-premises offerings – Lyris HQ and Lyris LM – combined with customer-focused services and support. More than 5,000 companies worldwide partner with Lyris to manage and execute sophisticated digital marketing campaigns across email, social, Web, and mobile channels. Learn more at www.lyris.com.

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This dovetails with findings from the consumer side. Email was designated as consumers’ most preferred channel for post-purchase brand exchanges generated through email list software. In this state of a purchasing cycle, email communications must be highly relevant and reflective of the relationship the consumer has already established with the brand. Understanding past purchase history, product preferences, and interaction with promotions provide vital input for email message relevance.

Here is a summary of results from the survey that provide insights and recommendations for how travel industry marketing executives can deliver what consumers want.

Key findings for consumers of travel services:

• Email was listed as the top channel for pre- and post-purchase communications by 35% and 51% of respondents, respectively.

• 55% of consumers prefer to engage with travel brands via company websites, followed by email at 19%.

• 77% of consumers actively seek travel price comparisons.

Key findings for travel marketers:

• The travel industry has shifted its emphasis from disseminating messages across multiple touchpoints toward collecting and analyzing detailed data for individual customer profiles (ranks among industry highest: 87% deem data analysis very important/moderately important).

• Cultivating influencers has remained a leading marketing objective (ranks highest among industries).

• Marketers in travel are paying the most attention to consumer repeat purchases and the value of the transaction (85% deem very important or moderately important).

To be equipped to compete and increase conversions across all customer touchpoints, travel marketers need digital marketing solutions that cover all the bases, and that enable a deep understanding of consumers’ online behaviors and preferences across digital channels in order to map marketing strategies, tactics, and budget to meet consumer expectations. To learn more about how Lyris solutions can help, visit www.lyris.com/solutions.

Summary