Building Long-Lasting Relationships through

Building Long-Lasting Relationships
through Email, Social and Mobile
John Mast
Vice President Marketing
Expedia CruiseShipCenters
Friday, January 22, 2010
Who We Are
OUR VISION: The #1 Cruise Vacation Specialist in the World
OUR MISSION: Making Dreams Come True
We Sell Cruise Vacations
• Cruise Vacations appeals to a wide variety of
people – Baby Boomers, in particular
• 60% of the market is interested in a cruise
• Cruisers are far more likely to use a Travel
Agent (83%) – It’s Complicated
• 9 out of 10 people who cruise say they will
cruise again – high repeat factor
About Us
• Began franchising in 1987
• Rebranded Expedia® CruiseShipCenters® in 2007
• 115 retail locations and 2,500 Cruise Consultants
• 2009 – USA 4 New Retail and 350 Consultants
• 75+ Person Partner Support Team including:
o Marketing and Sales
o Education and Training
o Business Development
o Product & Supplier Relations
o Information Technology
Michael Drever, CEO & Founder
Sales Growth
Average Annual Growth 21% - 3 times the industry average
Booked Sales ($)
350,000,000
300,000,000
Continuous Growth
250,000,000
200,000,000
150,000,000
100,000,000
50,000,000
0
2003
Customers
47,290
2004
58,753
2005
69,383
2006
89,500
2007
105,930
2008
114,246
How We Do It
“Bricks and Clicks” Strategy:
• Bricks and Mortar locations staffed
with teams of professional Cruise Sales
Consultants
• Plus traditional advertising
• Plus interactive marketing
• Plus tri-messaging
- email
- social
- mobile integration
B2C Marketing
Objectives:
• Grow the database
• Attract 1st time cruisers
• Attract existing cruisers
• Retain customers
• Create advocates
Customers for Life System
Referrals
Permission Marketing
Retention
Marketing
Customers for Life
Professional Sales
Customer Service
Customers for Life
Personal Selling
Direct Marketing
Advertising
Promotional Sales
Public Relations
Inner Circle
Referral Program
Cruise Line Promotions
Establish Rapport
Permission
Marketing
Qualify Customer Needs
Enter into 7SEAS Club Data Base
with
Tri-Messaging
Build Rapport and Trust through email
®
7SEAS® Email Marketing
Dream Voyages® Magazine
Customers
for Life
Aeroplan® Program
Welcome Home Call
Receive Buying Signal
Research and Present
Welcome Home Email
Answer Questions / Overcome Objections
Thank You Card
Complete the Sale
Add-on Sales
Customer Communication
Back Office
From Attraction to Permission
Goal:
• To have people join our
7SEAS® Club database and
subscribe to email
• With their permission, we then send only the cruise and
vacation information that interests them via email
What is Tri-Messaging?
More Engagement & Interaction
Higher Propensity to Commit
(blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, networks, etc.)
More Content (Focus on Value)
Email
(email campaigns, landing pages, offers,
video, etc.)
Opt-in
Orchestrated and Unleashed
Messages
Social
Mobile
More Empowered People & Businesses
(subject lines, tweets, SMS, links)
Tri-Messaging Effect
More Engagement & Interaction
Higher Propensity to Commit
(blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, networks, etc.)
More Content (Focus on Value)
Email
(email campaigns, landing pages, offers,
video, etc.)
Opt-in
Orchestrated and Choreographed
Messages
Social
Mobile
More Empowered People & Businesses
(subject lines, tweets, SMS, links)
Opt-In
Member
Email
•Outbound
•Widely Used and Accepted
•Catalyst for other channels
•Measurable
Mary
Mary’s
Network
•Inbound
•Customer comments
•Service requests
TriMessaging
in Action
Social
Mobile
•Outbound
•Relevant content encourages
sharing
•Removes friction in content
consumption
•Target prospects based on
propensity to engage with social
media sites
•Inbound
•Grow opt-in database
•Real-time interaction
•Voice of customer impacts
product and marketing decisions
•Outbound
•Deliver content dynamically when it’s
relevant (location, time of day, etc.)
•Coupons, Promotions, Alerts, Invitations
•Inbound
•Location based SMS texts / responses
•Sweepstakes, polling, etc.
Mary shares
with her
network
New opt-in
members
Permission Marketing
Build rapport with
personalized email / social
They follow-up and sell
Linked to agent’s
personal website
To agent’s email inbox,
phone or mobile device
Website features all details,
Virtual Tours, video, etc.
Client contacts agent
via call or click (mobile)
Email Marketing
Permission Marketing is a load of CRAP!
• Customized - to your clients’ preferences
• Relevant - clients will receive Caribbean weekly once they’ve
expressed interest in that destination by subscribing
• Anticipated - asked for permission to send = expected
• Personalized - To “John Client” From “Mary Consultant”
2010 B2C Email Program
CruiseShipNews Newsletter
•
•
Cruise information newsletter
Special product offers
3 Unique CruiseShipWeekly eflyers
•
•
•
Caribbean/Mexico deals
Alaska deals
Europe/Exotic deals
CruiseShipFlash eflyer
•
Tactical offers when deal is excellent
Each Piece
•
•
•
Dual currency (CAD and USD)
Dual language (FR and EN)
Personalized and linked to consultant specific
websites for click through
Permission Level Website
• Custom built to support the ECSC
sales structure and strategy
• www.cruiseshipcenters.com
– Drives business to Centers
• www.cruiseshipcenters.com/miami
– Drives business to specific location
• www.cruiseshipcenters.com/Janesmith
– Drives business to Cruise Consultant
Welcome Home Email
• Fully personalized welcome home email
• Powers Cruise Review system
• Sent via email 7 days post cruise end
• Surveys clients’ cruise experiences
• Drives web database of cruise reviews
• Encourages clients to update their
subscription status to tell us where they
want to go next!
Testing is Key
• New email templates are
tested through our systems
email preview feature
• Shows us how our email looks
in key email readers, and we
can fix any issues before we
send
• On a monthly basis, we check
the deliverability % and
monitor any blacklisting issues
Analytics
Things We’ve Learned Through Testing:
• Personalize!
–
–
–
–
Sending from a real consultant, Cathy Cruiser is better then generic ECSC
5.5% higher open rate
23% higher click through rate
Less likely to be flagged by subscribers as spam or unsubscribed from
• Test Different Subject Lines and learn what works
• Personalize the Subject Line:
– “Dave, Your 7 Day Alaskan Cruise Awaits”
– Increased open rates by 10%
• Know the Frequency to Send
– 2x/week is our max -- any more, and our unsubscribes increase
– In 2010, we will not send more than 1 email set per week
Email Metrics Oct. 09
• ECSC Delivered 1,750,000 Email “Exposures”
Campaign response rates:
– Open Rate: 27% or, 472,000 “Impressions”
– Click Rate 8.9 % or, 157,500 “Interactions”
– Unsubscribe Rate <1%, 2000 “Rejections”
– Web Form Submitted “Leads” approx 7000
– Phone “Leads” 21,000 +
Viral Contest
• Prize: Win 1 of 25 Free Cruises
• Contest Objectives:
– Generate new members into
7SEAS prospects database
– Encourage existing
customers/prospects to update
or verify contact info and
subscriptions
– Tap into current customer
network and generate new
referrals
– Give our consultants a reason to
call their database
2009 Contest Results
• 172,269
• 83%
• 3.5
• 300,000
• CruiseShipNews®
• CruiseShipFlash®
Total # of people who entered
% new subscribed to at least 1 email newsletter
Average # of Newsletters Subscribed To
Increase # of email subscription sent each month
20%
28%
CruiseShipWeekly®
Alaska
Caribbean
Europe/Exotic
18%
25%
19%
Social Media: Facebook
• Launched our ‘Fan Page’ in Aug ‘09
• Now have nearly 2,000 fans
• We use it to leverage the huge
audience base – brand awareness, not
hard-sales call to action
• Over 55% of Facebook users are over
35 years old, with the largest growing
segment being those 55+.
(this is our demographic!)
• Another way to be front-and-center
with our prospects/customers on a
regular basis
• Postings include cruise news, sales and
promotional events and videos
Become a Fan at
www.cruiseshipcenters.com/facebook
Social Media: Twitter
• Launched Feed in Aug ‘09
• Now have 700 followers
• We’ve found our demographic
isn’t quite there... yet
• Currently update it through
Facebook – as we update our
Facebook page, it automatically
updates our Twitter feed
• If/when our demographic
emerges, we’ll put more
emphasis on it
Follow us at @CruiseShipNews
Tiny URL Tip
• Our branded URL is long:
http://www.cruiseshipcenters.com/younameit/more
• On the social media front, we keep our branding
alive by using custom URL shortening
http://goecsc.com/
Mobile
• Emails optimized for
mobile reading
• Key reading area is
easily readable and
zoomable
• Links are highly visible
and easy to click
• Phone numbers can
click to call
Mobile
• Emails optimized for
mobile reading
• Key reading area is
easily readable and
zoomable
• Links are highly visible
and easy to click
• Phone numbers can
click to call
Takeaways
1. Cross-Platform Integration is Key
– (CRM) with Tri-Messaging
• Permission-based email
• Social media
• Mobile integration
– We integrate in-house system with the LyrisHQ API
– Allows us to power our business with our proprietary
software, but use the power of integrated, online marketing
to send out high volume emails easily
– Instantly, uploads, unsubscribe, etc, are handled and sent
up/down API feed keeping everything in sync with no effort
– Allows tracking and testing, save time and money
– Clearly this is a strategic investment– but critical
Takeaways
2. Get Personal with Permission Marketing
• Practice segmentation and send relevant content
• Build relationships (personalized by destination and from
consultant, email, phone, web links, photos, etc)
• Provide a real face and real name behind the system – it’s
tough to unsubscribe from someone you know
• Consumers can do business with a faceless corporation, or
some you know - cruises are complex – our clients buy cruises
from people they trust and know
• Send them what they want, when they want it - don't just
“spam bomb” all offers to whole list
Takeaways
3. Know when enough is enough
• Just because you can, doesn't mean you should send it
• Make sure your messages (email, social and mobile) adhere to a
permission marketing strategy, and be true to a schedule
•
•
•
•
Customized
Relevant
Anticipated
Personalized
• Strive to send quality over quantity
Takeaways
4. Consider how you might monetize your list?
• ECSC has a list of over 500,000 people who have -- or
are interested in -- taking a cruise subscribed to email
marketing
• We sell ad space to our suppliers
(CRUISES ONLY) in the newsletters we send
– Banner sales
– Ad placement Charges
FREE Cruise Winner
• Congratulations
to our lucky
winner of a 7-Day
Caribbean Cruise
for two!
• Giveaway made
possible by:
Credits / Thank You
Big thanks to:
• Dave Mossop,
Interactive Media Specialist,
Expedia CruiseShipCenters
• Interactive Marketing and Dev teams
at Expedia CruiseShipCenters in YVR
• Erick Mott,
Community Practice Leader, Lyris HQ
John Mast, Vice President Marketing
Call or email me at: 604-678-3541, or
[email protected]