The 2017 data-driven marketing report Travel and Leisure Summary Report
Data-driven marketing survey Introduction Top three travel and leisure data-driven priorities There has been a huge shift in the travel and leisure industry. Customers are no longer making decisions based on the cheapest flight or holiday but looking for key factors such as brand loyalty, a wealth of choices and excellent service. This means brands need to do much more to keep customers coming back. 1. Improving the customer contact strategy 67% 62% marketers recognise the importance of data to their current and future marketing success, yet they have only just scratched the surface of what s possible. A steady shift to data-driven marketing will revolutionise every aspect of marketing, providing brands with opportunities to provide personalised and seamless peoplebased marketing to stand out from the competition. Jaywing commissioned a study to evaluate brands maturity in data-driven marketing by capturing the views of over 250 Managerial to C-level marketers, within medium to large-sized businesses. This report is a summary of the results for the travel and leisure sector. marketers follow the growing trend of becoming customer obsessed, with 67% stating improving the customer contact strategy as the top priority for data-driven marketing. But in order to satisfy customer needs, marketers need to take advantage of data science. The travel and leisure industry is changing rapidly and those that have adapted to making decisions using modern data science techniques already have a competitive advantage. Data science techniques help marketers to understand their customers intent, behaviour and full path to purchase. 2. Improving customer retention strategies 43% 56% 3. Acquiring more high value customers 43% 62%
67% of travel and leisure marketers say improving the customer contact strategy is their top data-driven priority. risk.jaywing.com
Data-driven marketing survey The travel and leisure sector s data-driven marketing maturity How advanced are travel and leisure at measuring attribution? How does the travel and leisure sector compare? marketers rank higher than all other sectors in their use of datadriven marketing, with 69% saying they are ahead or about the same as their competitors and peers in the use of datadriven marketing. Yet despite this claim, as with other sectors, they are lagging behind with the adoption of personalisation and attribution techniques. The maturity of personalisation Only 5% of travel and leisure marketers (the second lowest sector) adopt full crosschannel personalisation, indicating a flaw in the overall customer experience. What s more, the majority (66%) of travel and leisure marketers are only using basic personalisation techniques across some of their channels. Email is the most commonly personalised channel for travel and leisure marketers with nearly all (98%) personalising their email programmes. The maturity of measuring ROI and attribution In line with the overall average, the majority of travel and leisure marketers (72%) agree that accurately attributing value across channels is vitally important to their organisation. Yet a significant number are still using basic methods to calculate attribution and only 12% are using advanced attribution techniques. Yet surprisingly, we found that over half of travel and leisure marketers (59%) believed they were using the right approach to attribution. This may indicate a lack of knowledge of the latest data science techniques. Using advanced attribution techniques 12% 18% Channel most engaged with before purchase 21% 25% First interaction 33% 31% Last interaction 34% 26%
Only 1 in 10 travel and leisure marketers are using advanced attribution techniques. Yet 6 in 10 think they are using the best approach. risk.jaywing.com
Data-driven marketing survey Key data challenges for travel and leisure Top three data challenges The importance of data management is well known, with 93% of travel and leisure marketers saying data management is a priority for their marketing function this year. But there are still obstacles to its collection, understanding and management. A skills gap is impeding data management improvements Accessing, defining and using customer data is one of the most difficult challenges faced by the travel and leisure sector today, as marketers struggle with a skills gap. Nearly half (48%) of travel and leisure marketers say a lack of skills and capability is the biggest obstacle to improving data management in their organisation. 1. Lack of data skills/capability 48% 47% 2. Organisational structure 40% 36% 3. Data infrastructure While a lack of data skills is impeding the improvement of data management, in terms of the most important skills it s Customer Relationship Management that comes out top. Yet without the right data skills and capability, CRM will become increasingly difficult. 35% 32%
Nearly all (98%) travel and leisure marketers say data management is vitally important to their organisation. risk.jaywing.com
Data-driven marketing survey Summary Empowered consumers and the digital era is demanding significant change. As data becomes plentiful, it is becoming increasingly difficult to transform it into value. In order to generate a meaningful relationship with customers, travel and leisure marketers need to improve the maturity of their data-driven marketing across all channels from personalising messages across the channel mix, to accurately measuring ROI and attribution across online and offline channels. Yet marketers in this sector have some major hurdles to overcome, from closing the data science and analytics skills gap through to improved infrastructures and bringing together data across channels. In order for travel and leisure marketers to achieve the ultimate customer experience, they must refocus their priorities on eight key areas: 1. Start with best practice data management 2. Ensure your strategy is informed by data and insight 3. Get the right technology and tools to collect intelligent data 4. Combine online and offline data 5. Personalise your entire customer contact strategy 6. Achieve the right blend of creativity and data 7. Adopt advanced attribution techniques 8. Find the right experts to fill your data skills gap To read the full research report and benchmark your organisation, visit jaywing.com
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Data-driven marketing survey Eight tips to transform data into value 1. Start with best practice data management If customer insight is key to competitive advantage in the digital age, then data will be the fuel to provide this insight. But you will only gain the right insights if you have the right data infrastructures and processes in place that capture individual interactions as they happen. 2. Ensure your retention and acquisition strategy is informed by insight The competitive nature of the travel and leisure industry today, means marketers need to place equal focus on acquiring and retaining customers. Data can inform the whole marketing mix. By ensuring your strategy is based on data and insight you are already steps ahead of the competition by offering the best customer experience and personalised offers and rewards. 3. Get the right technology in place Establishing a data-driven strategy requires you to collect, connect and understand the vast amounts of data your customers are providing. Emerging marketing intelligence platforms are now bringing tools and analysis together, integrating rich and disparate customer and market data into a single data-driven model. 4. Connect online and offline channels Many travel and leisure providers operate an omnichannel model with both online and offline stores, yet they struggle to understand their customers behaviours across channels. In addition, given the rise in customers hopping between channels and devices, improving cross-channel marketing and measuring its effectiveness is harder to achieve. By joining the dots between online and offline customer journeys you can create a single customer view, improve the customer experience and improve ROI at the same time. 5. Personalisation that goes beyond Hello [first name] The majority of travel and leisure marketers (98%) personalise email campaigns. But personalising customer communications doesn t have to stop at email campaigns. Providing customers with a personalised experience across all channels means you can provide customers with a consistent customer journey that satisfies their individual needs, to the letter. 6. Achieve the right blend of data and creativity The competitive and crowded nature of the travel and leisure market means that it is difficult for brands to set themselves apart. Yet we now live in an era of data- driven creativity, where data is being harnessed to realise the value of a brand, to shape personal relationships and drive more effective communications. 7. Model advanced attribution across channels at an individual-level While 72% of travel and leisure marketers realise the value of atribution, only 12% are using advanced attribution models. This means that travel and leisure marketers are still struggling to understand ROI, and are unable to attribute revenue across all channels. While digital platforms have enabled brands to collect more data about customer behaviours, marketers are still not joining this data together with their offline data to see the full path to purchase at an individual-level. 8. Partner with the data experts A skills shortage is often the biggest barrier to marketing programmes, with 48% of travel and leisure marketers citing this as their top challenge. With the lack of skilled data scientists, organisations are increasingly turning to external experts to help them to understand, manage and manipulate data. Expert data scientists will not only discover new insights, but they have the ability to make it actionable and meaningful for your specific strategy or campaign.
Competing with data science About Jaywing As travel and leisure companies evolve from product to customer centricity, the challenge will be moving away from growing networks to winning individual hearts and minds. In order to consistently make the most informed decisions, travel and leisure brands need to take advantage of data science. However it s clear there are a variety of challenges hindering travel and leisure marketers ability to make the transition from data-driven marketing immaturity to enjoying a competitive advantage over their rivals. For now though, too many travel and leisure brands are hindered by a skills gap and organisational siloes. In order to use data as a way to grow the business, marketers need to integrate data into a single customer view, as well as capturing and consolidating online and offline data. The focus on using data to create value for customers before trying to extract value from them, is the key to winning the data-driven marketing race. Jaywing has a long-standing heritage in data. From developing and delivering data-driven solutions across both marketing and credit risk functions, everything we do is grounded in data. Over the past 17 years, we have worked extensively across a variety of industry sectors, including retail, financial services, travel and leisure, and telecoms and utilities to transform data into value. With our heritage in data science, we deliver exceptional results, creating briliant work that s impossible to ignore. We have a solid reputation for developing complex analytical and modelling approaches that underpin major investment decisions across many industry sectors, where accuracy and rigour are critical to success. Jaywing has a team of over 70 data, analysis and modelling experts. Many of these people have held senior positions in client organisations, and our focus is very much on the commercial application of analysis and data-driven decisions.
Data-driven marketing survey Best practice case study Jet2 Increasing sales by 30% by personalising the customer journey When we started working with friendly low fares airline, Jet2.com, in 2010, they only had operational ticketing systems. They wanted to increase their marketing and needed a single customer view. Quickly. So, in three months, we built a fully functioning marketing database. From this success, we were asked to help understand this newly available data and implement their first CRM programme. Which we achieved in just 12 months. Now, through advanced data science and machine learning techniques, we understand what motivates each customer, how to use their previous buying behaviour to predict future preferences and how to make the most of the best buying windows when they are counting down to or returning from their trip. We use this deep insight to make personal offers for destinations, hotels, activities and travel add-ons with pinpoint accuracy. Right through to up-to-the-minute prices in emails at the point of opening. Our insight was even used to reshape Jet2 s inventory. All of which has increased cross and repeat sales across their portfolio and made a significant contribution to profit and the bottom line. And we ve recently broadened our relationship to creative services too. With great passenger benefits, Jet2.com is growing into one of the UK s best airlines, winning Best Short Haul Airline at the Globe Travel Awards for the last three years.
risk.jaywing.com Best practice case study Hoseasons How personalisation delivered a 245% ROI Hoseasons holiday cottage brochure was bursting at the seams and in danger of becoming too big for the letterbox. They needed a new approach but any change to the successful big book mailing meant a major strategic shift, so we had to prove the case. Using English Country Cottages to test our idea, we developed a statistical model that meant we could match customers with the cottages most likely to appeal to them, based on attributes of previous booking behaviour. We tested two new slim-line brochures, a Standard Half Book of randomly selected properties and a model-driven Tailored Half Book, against the standard 660-page book. With each half-book at 244 pages, they cost 64% less than the standard brochure. What s more, the tailored half book achieved a 10% lower cost of sale than the standard half book. That amounted to an initial 245% return on the investment. We extended and refined the approach across all of Hoseasons holiday cottage brands and introduced hyper-personalised emails showing evocative photos of previous holidays and matching suggested properties based on attributes (such as local interests, price or facilities). The hyper-personalised emails increased click-throughs five-fold and the work won Gold at the Travel Marketing Awards, among other commendations.
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