Travel brands should know about their email subscribers
10 THINGS
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Travel Emails Are FailingFor many travel brands, email marketing is a vital part of their marketing mix.
Yet, travel brands’ emails are among the least effective when compared with other industries, according to IBM Marketing Cloud research.
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Many travel brands have email marketing strategies that travelers aren’t connecting with and aren’t
working for the companies.Dan Peltier
SKIFT
“ ”
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Our ResearchSo what are subscribers really looking for when signing up for travel emails?
In order to answer that question, Litmus surveyed over 600 Americans that have booked travel within the last year and currently receive regular email from travel brands.
Here are our top 10 findings—and hands-on advice for how travel brands can translate customer expectations into their email strategy.
#1
The desire for better pricing is the most popular motivator to sign up for travel emails.
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To find out about deals and promotions
To get loyalty offers
To get inspiration for new travel ideas
To get educational content or travel tips
To get partner offers
0 % 20 % 40 % 60 % 80 % 100 %
For which of the following reasons do you subscribe to receive email from travel brands?(Select all that apply.)
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Place a prominent option to subscribe to your emails wherever you promote your deals and discounts. This can be on your website as well as on your social media channels.
TIP
45% of consumers read emails from travel brands on their smartphones.
#2
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Desktop or Laptop Smartphone Tablet
74% 45% 12%
What device(s) do you typically use to open emails from travel brands?(Select all that apply.)
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Use responsive or hybrid design to make sure your emails look great, regardless of whether they’re opened on big screens or mobile devices.
TIP
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0 %
10 %
20 %
30 %
40 %
50 %
Up to 2 weeks
2-4 weeks
1-3 months
3-6 months
> 6 months
Typically, how far in advance do you begin planning personal travel such as a vacation?
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Even though there are spontaneous travelers and long-term planners, the majority of travelers plan their trips between 30 and 180 days in advance. Consider these lead times, especially when sending seasonal travel campaigns.
TIP
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35 %
8 %
57 %
Me
My spouse or significant other
My spouse/significant other and I decide together
For personal travel, who typically makes the final purchase decision in your household?
My spouse/significant other and I decide together
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Make your emails easily shareable, so recipients can share with their partners or friends, for example by including social sharing links.
TIP
#5
40% of travelers say weather plays a role when deciding where to travel.
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Average
Subscribers from cold weather states
0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 %
% of travelers that say weather plays a role when booking travel.
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Consider using dynamic content to pull in personalized weather information—either based on the subscriber’s location or the travel destination.
TIP
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Where are your subscribers
located?Get to know your audience
and dive into detailed geolocation data with Litmus
Email Analytics.
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#6
When looking for the perfect hotel, travelers say price and reviews matter most.
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Price
Reviews
Available destinations
Available dates
Loyalty programs
0 % 15 % 30 % 45 % 60 % 75 % 90 %
When booking a hotel, what factors are most important to you?(Select all that apply.)
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Don't neglect reviews and social proof when sending hotel promotions. In addition to ratings and reviews from popular travel forums, consider embedding social media posts from happy customers.
TIP
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Available destinations
Price
Reviews
Available dates
Loyalty programs
0 % 13 % 27 % 40 % 53 % 67 % 80 %
When booking a romantic getaway, what factors are most important to you?(Select all that apply.)
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Use progressive profiling to learn about your subscribers’ travel motivations, then adapt your email program to match the key motivators that drive purchase decisions for this type of travel.
TIP
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Price
Reviews
Available destinations
Available dates
Loyalty programs
0 % 10 % 20 % 30 % 40 % 50 % 60 %
When booking a business trip, what factors are most important to you?(Select all that apply.)
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If your brand serves business travelers, you may want to emphasize travel times, perks, loyalty rewards, and other factors that business travelers may value more.
TIP
#9
Many subscribers say they receive email from travel brands too frequently.
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House rental 32%
Car rental 31%
Cruises 29%
Travel Aggregators 26%
Hotels 22%
Airlines 21%
% of subscribers who report they receive email from travel brands too frequently, by travel brand type.
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Experiment with fewer, but more targeted messages to see if campaign performance and engagement surpasses that of generic high-frequency sends. Plus, use email preference centers where users can easily change the frequency of emails they receive.
TIP
#10
36% of travelers say an email has lead to an immediate purchase that wasn’t planned.
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64 %
36 %I agreeI disagree
An email from a travel company has led me to make an immediate travel purchase I wasn’t planning.
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Optimize the entire customer journey—from subject line and calls-to-action in your emails to landing pages and booking processes on your website—to guarantee a seamless booking experience for prospects coming in via email.
TIP
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