Travel companies risk losing some of their customer base because they fail to send personalised emails when promoting their products to subscribers, according to research by email specialists Return Path.
The company researched 69 companies, 10 of which were travel businesses, over a five-week period in January and February this year.
Return Path senior director of response consulting Margaret Farmakis said travel companies were missing opportunities to tailor emails to holidaymakers’ needs.
Not one of the travel companies sent out personalised messages on their first marketing email, even though 70% of them required more than just an email address to complete the sign-up process.
Thomson was the only company to use personalised information, but in a welcome message, as opposed to a promotional email, to direct customers to their local agency branch by using their postcode details.
In total, 55% of companies studied did not send a welcome message at all.
The travel companies surveyed were:
- Opodo
- Thomson
- Kuoni
- Virgin Holidays
- British Airways
- easyJet
- Thomas Cook
- lastminute.com
- expedia.co.uk
- travelsupermarket.com