destinology presentation
TRANSCRIPT
Destinology have just taken delivery of a new City Break product from IT. The product has been delayed and now needs to be implemented into the business asap.
What actions would I take as Head of Marketing to make this product work?
Assumptions
most if not all of the actions I would take would have been planned in / initiated prior to delay with delay putting some of this activity on hold
We have 400 more city breaks ready to go live asap
Budget has been agreed for online and offline launch
An integrated online and offline campaign promoting the new city breaks range and our expanded product offer
1 Offline element will focus on brochure mailshot to existing customer base plus key media placements promoting new range
2 Online element will take the extended product offering and use a combination of recruitment channels to engage with our audience profile to recruit new customers cost effectively
3 Social media will be a big player in the campaign and activity will be co-ordinated across all platforms
4 Campaign long incentivised competition will drive qualified new customer leads
5 RAF discount given for any customer whose friends purchase a city break
Website Dev changes may be required for the campaign however depends if we can add to dev list in time – may be a nice to have
The Campaign – City Breaks
- Easy to implement, minimal IT resource, minimal cost- Personalisation and localisation will be key in next few years - Provides great info from customers which we can use to expand / improve offer
Main message Competition message
Over 800 city breaks now available from Detsinlogy... Win a luxury break for 2 worth x
Whats the competition doing?
Inspiring and good graphics with clear price points and savings = live chat also visible
Whats the competition doing?
Again inspiring and a different take on city breaks
Let us inspire you – music cities, national parks, China for exotic explorers etc
Provides inspiring solutions for travellers
What are we doing?
Slider needs better trading
USPs?
Savings, Price points etc – do we want to be shouting?
Main content is buried BTF
Ned to improve how we trade category
Why do I have to select somewhere – inspire me!
What may we need to address on site pre launch?
Mobile – no switch to mobile on desktop site Live chat – buried / in top nav – not prominentSlider – too many options – can we trade offers betterFeefo – add overlay Category images – not clickable Star ratings – clarify / change colour / lost a little Search filter – need more attributes longer term to provide better UXEmail signup – do we want more prominence / incentivised overlay?UGC on hotel pages – great content and good SEO / staff answers Awards – TTG 2014 awards not listedMeet team page – cant find / do we have / got a question – ask one of our DestinologistsHoliday Extras – shout more / buried / we take care of everything Testimonials – can we start collecting / if even manually from FB to start Discounts – can we make more prominent / add as attributeSort filters – need to add more options in line with competition Sort filters – why do I need to enter a destination?
What does the cotemporary luxury traveller want in 2015? “A new breed of traveller” Report by HVS highlights 3 major factors
Rising Affluence / changing attitudes - Rise of the Millenial – modern travellers no longer focused on 5 star experience but more on time experiences. .
Globalisation - The world is getting smaller – people want their own unique experiences. Luxury travellers are looking for their own “Finds” - how can we help the? Come up with truly unique finds
Technology
The selfie, social media, connected world etc brings technology into every stage of the experienceConnect with your customer regularly and provide technology to do it
Again and again unique experiences, new destinations, technology and sharing come out strongly – I would be looking at these longer term
Given this research I would look ta trying to integrate into City Break launch campaign ….
Understand the Product Functionality, price, quality, margins etc – staff need to fully understand
Understand the Competition SWOT – us vs them, how can we get a steal, what is missing, what is additional
Targeting our audience Best customers, existing city break customers etc
Unique Value Proposition Why buy from us? What is special? USP?
Marketing Strategy Online and Offline, consistency of message, TOV and relevant channels
Internal briefing All staff handout, Pen portraits, targets, inform staff weekly
Timelines and Rollout All parties have been advised and testing complete re tagging/ KPIS agreed etc etc
Product launch SEE NEXT SLIDES
Before launch, following work to be undertaken for staff handouts etc
Offline Collateral Online Collateral
Test DM mailshot to top customersTest DM brochure to top customersPress / Affiliate / PR / Blogger handouts Insert campaign – conde nast traveller etcAd creative – spot media buys
Banner creative re GDN / AffiliatesEmail creative plus retargetting Email RAF creative PPC campaign – ad groups set up Social imagery – all channels Rich media video – Youtube rollovers etc
Industry influencers - who are our influencers and how can we use them effectively on launch? 3rd party partnerships, CEOs, top tweeters etc
Customer base – who are top customers? Can we get their testimonials on site and use them for endorsements etc. Exclusive discount – for 1 month only – off all City Breaks identify and offer 'exclusive” discounts for any RAFs. Who engages a lot with us on Social – get them more involved..
Offline – good old fashioned letter to top customers – Tweets wear off but a letter ...Online – who are our best advocates online? Bloggers – Who are our top bloggers? Do we know? We should engage more with them and nurture relationship offer them same discount as above for 1 month – possible London session for bloggers? Get them on board – Luxury Travel Bloggers / weekend away bloggers
Media targets – press pack for media contacts etc. We are a luxury brand and this should be reflected in brand look feel in press packs with selection of top hotels
PR -what PR are we creating in the industry? Do we have PR agency to nurture relationships?
Staff – Use staff – we have an engaged workforce who love the brand – how can they use Social Media etc Young workforce therefore SM savvy – use them
Made by OriginalsCoolhunterFour Seasons MagazineHoosta MagazineLuxique TravelFive Star Alliance InsiderParidizoKuoni i-travelSLH BlogLuxury Travel VietnamArtisans of LeisureKiwi CollectionGourmet ChickOur Man on the GroundGloboratiLuxury Travel MagazineSupertravelPret a voyager
Ask them to follow you on social media and comment on and share what you post.Ask them to write positive reviews and testimonials on your site, review sites like Citysearch, or their blog and social media profiles.Ask them if you can film them talking about their experience with your brand.Ask them to contribute to communities or forums.Ask them for referrals.Ask them to write blog posts or create images for you.Ask them if you can use their experience as a case study.Ask them to speak directly (over the phone or via email or chat) to potential customers.Ask them to come up with FAQ questions and answers or identify improvements for your website
How could we use these advocates to improve conversion?
Eg embedded content at checkout? In return we give discount options at checkout?
How can Brand Advocates help us?
Offline campaign Online Campaign
DM mailshot to top customersDM brochure to top customersPress / Affiliate / PR / Blogger handouts Insert campaign – conde nast traveller etcOffline ads
AffiliatesPPCRetargetting Email VideoSocial
All Affiliates emailed re competition, new creative, new City Breaks addition to inventory etc
Most affiliates are London based – perhaps a launch evening for the new campaign – what we are aiming to achieve etc (something I did for Jacamo launch)
Driven to City breaks landing page – email capture overlay for competition entry
Are we competitive? (Sandals – 4-6%, Luxury Link -same).- review rates and adjust if margin - if not, provide stepped targets and bonuses for each affiliate based on ave sales- if no margin for comm changes, run affiliate competition – for most improved sales during campaign – prize being City Break for 2 of their choice
Affiliates
Landing pages ad specific but not apparent Improve CTR by moving slider? Eg weddings – does not show engaging wedding image / offerReview campaign set ups and review UX for CTR improvements
Paid Search – revise current
Luxury Hotel Cape Town
Paid Search – revise current
Review match types – Luxury hotels cape town is broad matched on luxury – going to homepage BUT have 21 Cape town hotels and better landing page – big opportunity here for bidding at destination level
Paid Search – City Break reach
In Beta in US – real time price inventory fed through Googles API
In effect an adwords for the travel sector Trial performing well – great opportunity for
City Break recruitment
Revise DGN creative and introduce most popular city breaks creative
Add competition details Add price savings test creative
Optimise each Ad campaign for each destination
Ensure each destination landing page have sufficient offer (eg 10 hotels)
Ensure the landing pages are optimised for each ad group (esp image and UX)
Video
Travel industry in particular has seen rise of customers using more video to source holidaysCoupled with improved technology to distribute AND luxury branding and imagery
With video ad networks, we can get across the luxury element of our offering
..
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Competition Lots of opportunity to drive new customer traffic
Have we done before? If not then at least test
Traffic may be less qualified than normal however ROI may prove worth it in long term
Email add capture and follow up asap with City Break offers
Data drops into ECRM program
Bulking up new customer recruitment
Launch offering / competition across all social channels
Integrated creative / message across all channels
Daily updates – today's top city break and why
Make it quirky for better engagement eg
– these are the 5 most unusual things to do in Palermo – create stickiness and get great feedback / engagement
– 5 places the locals suggest in .….
Social Catacombs of Palermo
City breaks email to customer database
Add more USPs to email – awards, Feefo rating etc
Show discounts on creative – save up to X
Price needs to be more visible
RAF email and social offer on all emails throughout campaign
Refer a friend and get X off your next booking with Destinology
Logic – high end market / better experience / happier with service / more likely to recommend
Email – abandoned basket
Travel companies one vertical which is not chasing up lost sales effectively.
Improve contact frequency and logic behind contact
Improve creative message re existing contact – not sufficient
Combine phone with email also – and test uplift in conversion
EG High value abandons get phone call and follow up email
Lower value abandons receive improved email creative
Co-op travel started converting 30% of abandons after dropping off site
Change subject line to more relevant – Can we help … Is there a problem etc
Can we personalise at base level – eg I assume this is simple site re-targetting and not basket?
Basket should be pulling holiday details / name etc
I would also be adding other offers from that category – millenium do good job here
Add more USPs / trust signals and add / trial tel number
Show more city break options (eg in same country or by biggest discount?)
Email – site retargetting
Can we work with VE Interactive to start pulling in more dynamic content into both email creative (ie someone looked at break in Vienna – we pull Viena specific content) and dynamic ads?
Dynamic Content
Partner Advertising
Lots of opportunity to drive brand awareness working with luxury travel partners – blogs, review sites etc. What do we know re our consumer? Pen Portrait profile – match against selection of relevant inventory....
Essential for the success of City Breaks is that we have our post contact strategy lined up and we are doing all we can to get that conversion. In the absence of a proper CRM strategy this is what I would concentrate on..
1 Can we improve on retargetting emails – content, more city breaks, more deals etc better offers
2 Can we make sure we can handle any site visit enquiries in sufficient time and test messaging – christopher ford
3 Wilmslow store not emailed out my package to Sri Lanka – customers need initial greeting and adequate follow up
4 Retargetting segmented by high and medium value – calls made to high value followed by email
Basic ECRM program to be mapped out with above touchpoints as base – suited for luxury travel market – including “HAVE A GREAT TRIP' and 'POST TRIP FOLLOW UP EMAIL
Crowdbooster – focusing on social media engagement FB / TW and helps improve presence
Klout – “Scores” media performance and looks at engagement across all platforms
Reporting - 3rd party tools
Customer base health and trading trading rate YOY – would look at some form of this to esatablish health of database and impact of ECRM
Reporting - trading rate YOY
Channel Specific reporting to agreed KPIs showing YOY growth eg
Traffic, Call Centre enquiries, Email signup, Competition entries, Data capture, Bookings
Reporting – Channel Specific
Ultimately all our city break activity should be fed into overarching Customer lifetime value models – giving us a good idea of how the base is trading and if our acquisition and retention plans are working each year
Reporting – Lifetime Value
Post launch Review
Perfomance – review initial weekly sales vs budget / KPIs and assess good / bad / how can we improve?
Delay – did it come out when we said? If not, why? What can we learn?
Timing – could it have better? City Break apetite in January?
Response – how did market respond? Positive / negative / lukewarm Did we do all we could to push the product? If negative – why? Customer engagement essential
Sales force – how was product perceived / could it have been improved • Feedback -sales tea• Promotional material • Marketing materials • Feedback from customers
Customer Support – products fail regularly due to poor support
• Customer service – educated sufficiently• Product information – did we have enough?
Website – load balancing, server capacity handled etc
TrafficAudience Channels Recruitment AcquisitionBrand reach CPAChannel mixThe Offer
TradeOffers , Deals Merchandising / buyersRange planning Descriptions AttributesPlugins P and PReturns The Offer
ConvertCheckout Multi channel funnels Analytics CRO testing Streamline Make purchase easy
RetainRe-engageECRMCustomer contact Build engagementUpsellCross Sell 2nd, 3rd orders etc
Devices - Across all devices – DT, mobile, tablet, phone etc
Channels - Across all channels if MCR – stores, concessions etc
RETAIL TRADING MODEL
Thank you for your attention!
Dominic Smith Ecommerce Consultant
Www.redleafdigital.co.ukE / [email protected]
T / 07849259033