Saul Lopes of Virgin Holidays delivered this session at the MarTech Festival, 16th November 2017, London. #MarTechFest

1. “Old channel, new tricks - how to
supercharge your email marketing”
Virgin Holidays

2. What I love to hear about email

3. Email is Dead
—

4. Total Attributed Revenue by Channel
PPC CRM Direct Listed Referrer Banner Affiliates Social Media
Total Revenue Generated by Channel in 2016
• Not only is the function a large
margin generator it is also
responsible for driving NPS
across the whole customer
journey
CRM is the second biggest revenue generator in Virgin Holidays

5. Where we came from

6. The Past
• Customer communications were only trading-focused, constant trading of weekly deals
• Complex email setup: three different tools in order to send an email
• Lots of preconceived ideas about information in the database & inefficiencies in the SCV
• Communications with very limited personalisation
• No culture of creative or subject line testing
• Multiple departments contacting customers
• Marketing/CRM team with no analysts and data background
—

7. Our Customer Communications Overhaul
—
1 2 3
Prove yourself
with quick wins
Get the basics
sorted
Start the major
transformations

8. Stop blaming your ESP!

9. Where we started
—

10. The data-led transformation
—
• +50% Increase in CTRs
• 100% Increase in Appointments
4 weeks to implement

11. Being personal at scale
—
BARBADOS
29°C
• 67% increase in CTR
• 35% Increase in calls
Hey, Saul where would you rather be?

12. The subject line trap
—

13. Using AI to increase your marketing reach
—
Phrasee is AI that writes better subject lines and email copy
than YOU.

14. The Phrasee test
—
✭ Here. Now. Isn't it time for a holiday?!
Earn 10% off* this weekend with our dream bigger sale!
#SaleEndsMonday where shall we go today? ✈
Last few at this price: 10% off* sale ending Monday!
#BookBeforeMonday take us away from all this!

15. Our Results
—
Don’t miss out on this weekend’s bonus savings. Dreamy holidays with no nightmare prices!
Bonus savings here! Still dreaming of amazing holidays? Enjoy a surprising 10% off.
Holidays? I’m dreaming... Err are those prices right?! Bonus Savings this weekend with 10% off!
Sale announcement: Dream holidays at real-life prices!
Holidays in places where dreams become real…
2 percentage points increase of open rates
Revenue by a few million pounds

16. 2 – Get the basics sorted

17. Our journey towards a unified customer experience
• A single tool that handles all campaign execution
across various channels
• Ability to redesign the customer database so that a
marketer can use it
• Creates a campaign from beginning to end in a single
workflow
—
Segmentation
(Unica)
Creative
Execution
(M&C Saatchi)
Sending the
email
(eBay)

18. —
Segmentation
(Unica)
Creative
Execution
(M&C Saatchi)
Sending the
email
(eBay)
Phase I
Phase II
• Phased approach to minimise risk before the peak trading
season
• Management only focused on hitting the end go live date – my
responsibility to deliver the project according to the plan
• Defined really clear roles within the team, with different areas
of the migration
• My lead customer analyst was most important success factor in
defining the future data model and ways of working
• 90% of my time was spent focusing on the delivery and not
explaining my delivery around the business
Our journey towards a unified customer experience

19. The journey was a Success
44 data tables with 2,000 variables reorganised into 7 data tables with 200 variables – simplicity was key
—
1
Project delivered on time and in budget – just six weeks to send our first email in Adobe2
Normal marketing users could now take ownership and build their own campaigns. Email creation
time reduced from a whole day, to hours3
CRM team is now the central voice for customer experience; all departments contact us in order to
improve the service for our customers4

20. Improving on the Quick Wins
—

21. Improving on the Quick Wins
—
BARBADOS
29°C

22. And adding new ones
—

23. The results – We delivered out best peak trading period ever!
—
37%
Increase of
Revenue
38%
Increase in calls33%
Increase in
web traffic
66%
Increased
Awarness

24. 3 - Start the major transformations

25. Our new focus on the customer
—
The CRM team now has two main team objectives:
1
Drive revenue from
customer
communications
2
Increase NPS by
improving the
experience

26. Our new focus on the customer
—
Increase Anticipation
Engagement comms:
sales (upsell) or brand
engagement
Decrease Anxiety
Service comms: essential
information you need for your
holiday sent to all customers.

27. Redesigned the whole Customer Journey post purchase
—
2
5. Up-sell
Email
RECEIPT
BOOKING CONFIRMATIONS
CONGRATULATIONS
BOOKING CSQ
PAYMENT REMINDERS
TRAVEL DOCS
PRE-BOOK SEATS
UPSELL
PRICE
FLUCTUATION
BOOKING
CHANGE
BOOKING
AMEND /
PROCESSING
BOOKING
CANCELLATION
PART
PAYMENT
FULL
PAYMENT
PRINT
DOCS
TICKET
DELAY
CONCIERGE
ONLINE
CHECK-IN
ARRIVAL
35 disjointed communications

28. Redesigning our whole journey including service communications
—

29. Booking Celebration – True 1 to 1 customer communication
—
100%
Of our customer
holidays

30. Wrap Up

31. Wrap Up
Changing the CRM function into a data led discipline
—
1
Recruiting the right people and give them the autonomy and empower them to own their tasks2
Treating our partners are members of our team and it’s our job to make them successful
3
Experiment and fail, at the end of the day it’s just an email…4

32. Thank you