SUCCESS STORY
Reviving a Fatigued Database to Increase Revenue through Email Optimization
A TravelBoom Marketing Case Study on The Coral Beach Resort
After sending emails to their guest history list for several years, one local Myrtle Beach property’s database grew fatigued and the property desired to improve performance.
TravelBoom Marketing sought to not only revive the list through an increased open rate, but also drive more total bookings and revenue through email optimization.
The results? A tremendous increase in major KPIs.
Situation and Background
Coral Beach Resort & Suites, an oceanfront Myrtle Beach hotel, desired to drive more repeat visitation. With a fatigued email database, the property turned to TravelBoom Marketing for help.
The primary objective was to drive more total bookings and revenue by leveraging the existing email database. In order to accomplish this, our expert marketers had the following goals:
- Increase email open rates by 50%
- Increase the overall conversion rate through to booking by 100%
With the understanding that email KPIs can be artificially improved by simply reducing the size of the overall list and removing unengaged profiles – we also set a goal to increase year-over-year revenue from email by 100%.
Methodology
TravelBoom initiated a full analysis of both the subject lines and in-email content from the 12 months prior to determine what messaging led to the highest conversion rate.
The team also analyzed engagement and pinpointed a steady increase in email opens on mobile devices but that the engagement for mobile users was lower compared to desktop.
Based on this information, we identified that the messages that the property had been previously sending were not optimized for mobile devices.
We also found that a large number of users within the list had not engaged (opened an email) for more than 12 months, which can negatively impact deliverability.
We employed the following approach:
- Converted messages from image-based email sends to fully-responsive HTML template
- Coached client on creating stronger offers and more compelling messaging
- Ran a real-time A/B test of the subject line to maximize open rate
- Removed people who were unengaged (had not opened) for more than 12 months
- Optimized landing pages to be more mobile-friendly
“Email is here to stay – it’s time we got better at using it. “
– Shiva Ayyadurai
Results and Analysis
After refocusing the messaging on leveraging the key insights that we had gained from our research, we met or exceeded all of our goals and saw the following year-over-year increases.
125%
Increase in
Open Rate
210%
Increase in
Revenue
149%
Increase in
Orders
654%
Increase in
Conversion Rate
Summary
From overly-saturated inboxes to more aggressive spam filters and everything in between, it’s imperative to ensure you’re one step ahead of your competition (while still following best practices). Hotel email marketing continues to prove relevant, useful and most importantly — cheap. TravelBoom Marketing can help prevent database fatigue and increase your email ROI through email optimization.