In the old days, Club ABC Tours mailed out thick booklets filled with travel packages, hoping members would flip through and book a trip.
Now, the Bloomfield, N.J.-based travel club has a new way of marketing, thanks to Port Chester-based creative marketing and production services company Magjak.
A recent highly personalized campaign involved the fusion of data analytics, marketing segmentation and variable data printing, said Magjak President Bruce Browning.
Â
“Club ABC is a membership organization, so you would join as a member and in return you get deep discounts on travel packages,” Browning said. “They know exactly which of their members travel what time of year and where, so we leveraged that data into a direct marketing campaign, which involved direct mail, email and a direct response web component. For example, if we knew your family has been to Italy three times, we would recommend a trip back to Italy or a similar trip offer, with $100 off your next trip.”
From May to June, the campaign launch resulted in revenue totaling more than $500,000, more than 100 travelers, 150 new members, and more than100 new leads. Club ABC Tours called it one of the most successful campaigns in its 40-year history.
Â
“Most travel marketers utilize either direct mailing of brochures or generic email blasts,” said John Samuel, executive vice president of Club ABC Tours. “What Magjak did for us was to create a multichannel direct mail program that was both targeted and tailored for each individual, which is why the results were so impressive. The products that were featured in the direct mail pieces were selected and customized to each recipient’s personal profile and demographics, and then based on their action ”“ calling, going to the website or not responding at all ”“ we were able to customize a follow-up campaign that capitalized on their initial response. Most mailings and emailings are just blind, shotgun approaches hoping that someone will find something they like in a big brochure. The uniqueness of this approach is that the piece was based on known information and the follow-up was based on the recipient’s resulting behavior and we were able to engage the consumer in a way that hasn’t been done before.”
Â
Browning said the campaign involved 20,000 Club ABC Tours members.
“The goal was to get people to take a trip, and they got many people to take a trip,” Browning said.
He said facilitating the campaign was possible through “a combination of how we organize that database and the very advanced software that we use that organizes the print, email and web components.”
Magjak is currently working on the next campaign for Club ABC Tours, which is set to roll out the first week of September.
“This type of service is the future of the company,” Browning said. “Direct marketing is going to be a larger and larger makeup of our revenue. A job doesn”™t end with print anymore; moving forward it”™s going to be a byproduct of a larger campaign.”
