Effective Email Case Study – Expedia
Checking my email last night I noticed some ingenious, personalized email marketing campaigns that I think more businesses should consider (including my own). I felt the need to share these as case studies. There’s a lot to cover, so I’ll split them up. Hopefully I can continue to do these case studies to give props to what works in marketing and why.
The Company: Expedia.com: I’ve always had great service and luck with Expedia
, so they’re my go-to travel site when referencing flight prices, hotels, etc.
The User History: a few days ago I booked a cruise vacation with some friends out of Port Canaveral, 60 minutes or so outside of Orlando. The trip isn’t for almost a full year, so I wanted to just get an idea of flight prices from Oakland to Orlando. I headed over to Expedia to just check out the price ranges and get a feel for how much I’ll have to put aside for a flight. Since the trip is next February, I don’t plan on actually making this purchase until sometime this summer or next fall.
The Subject Line: Find your flight to Orlando backed by our Best Price Guarantee.
The E-Mail:
The Effectiveness: It’s directing a sale that they’re already running to me, a person who has already shown that they are interested in this particular destination. The email contains just enough text to show that it’s paid attention to my user habits and is offering it’s help without trying to make a super hard sale. The links are targeted and there’s not much in the email that’s off topic (see the Seattle to San Francisco rates in the yellow box – unrelated but I don’t blame them for throwing it out there). I do acknowledge that this may be a total coincidence that I happened to be in the market for a flight to Orlando and this routine email may just be perfectly timed, but at least it shows that they do know their audience.
The Result: I honestly think that I may be a bit more likely to make this purchase sooner than I had anticipated because of this email. I am a little bummed that the sale advertised doestn’t lower the price any more than I’d already found on the website (which was probably a sale price in the first place). I will definitely keep an eye out in regards to their Best Price Guarantee, a service that I never realized they offered until receiving the email.
So in conclusion, email marketing can be effective, even when sending to other marketers. It’s always a great learning experience to pay attention to the emails you get and think to yourself, “What can I learn from this?” and apply what you’ve learned to your own job. It’ll improve your performance and you’ll be better off.
Read MoreQuote of the Day
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
-Steven Wright
I shouldn’t be this apprehensive about flying home to Oakland, but I always am!
Read MoreCalifornia Association of Realtors Expo THIS WEEK!
Realtors® in California, come on down! You’re the next contestant on Name That Expo! Yes, it’s finally here.. the California Association of Realtors® Expo starts tomorrow at the Anaheim City Convention Center in lovely Anaheim, CA. Weather.com predicts highs between 75°F and 78°F for the three day convention, two of which I’ll be in attendance.
From the CAR.org website: CALIFORNIA REALTOR® EXPO 2007, the state’s largest real estate trade show, draws thousands of California’s key franchise execs, top producers, and movers and shakers every year for educational, networking and professional development opportunities.In addition, hundreds of top industry vendors
(like PsPrint) and service providers showcase their latest products and information in the Exhibit Hall. And, a special pre-EXPO event, Tech Tuesday, features a full day of comprehensive training geared toward assisting today’s REALTOR® to stay on the cutting edge of real estate technology.
This should be a good event. I’ll be up here in Oakland staffing our virtual booth for eComXpo tomorrow, then jetting down tomorrow night to relieve our senior marketing director of booth duties and taking over Wednesday and Thursday. Not a lot of seminars this time around that I’m overly interested in, but I will be attending a seminar called Brand Yourself: Podcasting, Vodcasting and Vidmail and another later that same day called Feng Shui: Top Secrets (okay… admittedly that one is just for my own personal enlightenment). Most of my time will be spent schmoozing in our booth. I’d tell you the booth number so you could stop by and say Hi, but then I’d have to kill you.
Okay, I really can’t remember it and there’s nothing on CAR’s website that has a map of exhibitors or anything. That being said, seek us out! A little birdie told me that prizes in the genre of gift cards, booze, and the Apple (and not the fruit) variety may grace our booth so we’ll make it worth your time.
Pulling double duty on trade shows this week, I’ll be taking the laptop with me and blogging with a recap of the show as well. Wish me luck!
