Get Started with Data-Driven Marketing: Reactivate Visitors!
Reactivate Visitors and Travelers Based on Real Data
Data-driven marketing sounds like a massive concept, and massive concepts can be scary. But the reality is often a lot more straightforward than dreamland, and once you get to grips with the idea you’ll find yourself slipping into the world a lot more easily than you thought was possible.
For the novice, here’s your quick rundown on data-driven marketing for beginners. Let’s imagine a customer, she’s called Jane Doe. Jane is a lovely lady, and she wants to buy some new leggings for her Tuesday night yoga sessions.
She goes onto the website of her favourite brand (it could be you), and browses the options. Thanks to data-driven marketing, these options are generated based on her previous visits, the visits of users with profiles like Jane’s, and the style of pants most frequently purchased on the day she’s browsing.
This is data-driven marketing point one.
Data-Driven Marketing Works
Now she’s found the perfect pair of pants and made a purchase, Jane will receive a follow-up email with a funky theme that entices her to open it. She does and is engaged with the brand.
Next week, a text appears on her phone. It’s from the same brand she likes and has engaged with previously. This text is a discount offer for 24 hours only, which Jane takes advantage of.
Boom you’ve just reactivated a visitor based on their real-time data. That’s pure, 100%
data-driven marketing for you and it works.
The above example is e-commerce based rather than looking at the experiences industry, but the main points still stand. The fictitious business was able to make a sale they never would have due to a data-driven approach that reactivated a previous customer based on their past experiences.
Reactivate Visitors And Travelers
You could easily take that and convince a potential customer to purchase a holiday or experience in the times leading up to peak months. Because let’s face it, the tourism and events industry needs all the help it can get.
Reactivating customers is good because it’s cheaper than finding new ones. In fact, data suggests that it costs up to five times more to attract a new customer then it does to retain one. Five times! That’s crazy. For small businesses, that’s money that could be spent on a whole mess of things that could drive you forward.
As well as this, only 18% of companies have a greater focus on customer retention than customer acquisition. That means there’s a great opportunity for you to stand out from the crowd and really impress your customers, who are most likely ignored by the places they like to shop.
Existing customers spend more money and are easier to sell to, which makes reactivating them even more important.
Real Data Everywhere
One of the good things about being in the travel industry, especially for hotels and guest houses, is that there’s a lot of potentially useful data floating about. CRMs will include some data that will make it easy to build customer personas, which will help you to understand what makes them tick.
Once you know that, you can segment customers to make sure your marketing messages are directed at the right person.
- Did they stay in an expensive room
- Did they pay for extras such as a spa treatment
- Did they make use of the concierge
All these are data points that you can use to shape your marketing message to each old customer.
Personalise Those Subject Lines
You can use data to reactivate these people via email. This is an effective way to win back those dormant customers because you can allow for personalisation, which every customer loves, and they can be really targeted. For best results, try to do the following:
- Identify customers who haven’t had an experience with you in the last 12 months
- Prepare your message using personalised copy and a funky subject line
- Test it
- Send it
You can also make use of some virtual magic by tempting old customers back with a few select photos and videos that help them to relive the magic of their stay. A 360-degree video or virtual reality experience is even better.
Force them to remember those good times, and to want them again. After the year we’ve all had, we’re going to want to get away when those borders open!
Can You Get Quizzicle?
Another way you can reactivate visitors and travelers based on real data is through a quiz. No really, you heard me right. There are heaps of examples of hotel brands and travel websites using quizzes to bring home the bacon.
Priceline.com ran a good one. They published a category quiz on their site, as well as a wall of social media that displayed their followers’ trips to Texas. Based on responses, Priceline provided each user with a location and description of their ideal city break - while followers were automatically entered into a sweepstake for a chance to win a trip.
Air New Zealand did something similar. They invited users to select from a multiple choice image gallery, enter in a few personal details, and were given the chance to opt-in for future marketing communications.
At the end of the quiz, users were given their ideal holiday destination. At the end of it all, Air New Zealand engaged with a bunch of potential customers and managed to grab some personal information as well.
Data-Driven Marketing Works, So Use It
The travel and hotel industry has been hard hit by COVID-19. Everywhere has, but especially the tourism sector. How can businesses expect to make money when nobody is allowed to go anywhere or do anything?
But that means you’ve got to turn towards data insights and data-driven marketing to reactivate visitors and travellers based on real data. When borders are finally opened, you’re going to want to make every cent count and that means reactivating old visitors and guests, not going for new ones.
Remember to use personalisation, emails with funky subject lines, interactive quizzes and a multimedia approach to win back customers and start earning those bucks again.
