Lead Generation Optimization: How Expedia CruiseShipCenters’ increased previous customer conversions 22% by removing its lead capture form
Optimizing form fields in emails can be tricky as sales and marketing departments don’t always agree on how to create an effective lead flow process that captures important customer information while minimizing elements of friction.
So, today’s MarketingSherpa Blog post will share two case studies featured at MarketingSherpa Email Summit 2013 and how one marketing team increased its conversion rate 22% by removing its capture form. Our goal is to share with you some real-world email campaigns you can use to aid your lead generation optimization effort.
First, let’s get some backstory on the role segmentation played in these case studies …
According to Dave Mossop, Manager of Interactive Marketing, Expedia CruiseShipCenters, segmenting between prospects and return customers early on in the campaign was key to allowing the team to offer more relevant content in its messaging.
“We did a very simple split of prospects versus customers and that alone gives you enough information to talk to these audiences very differently,” Dave explained.
By segmenting between prospects and return customers, the team was able to deliver a greater relevance for:
- Price points – Lower for new prospects and higher for return customers
- Itineraries – Specific destinations for new prospects and a broader range of destinations for return customers
- Information – Answer first time cruise information for new prospects and explain the benefit of “Why book with us?”
- Special offers – Exclusive bonus offers for prior customers
“As our team grew, we started going one level deeper by going to customer segments,” Dave explained.
Additional segmentation of past customers allowed the team to:
- Focus messaging, sales offers and itineraries
- Discover upsell and cross sell opportunities
- Prevent down-selling to luxury cruise clients
The team took its segmentation efforts even further by grouping past customers based on previous cruise lines. Expedia CruiseShipCenters discovered past customers were likely to book on the same cruise line again.
By understanding past customer behaviors, the team was also able to:
- Promote cruise line loyalty program offers and exclusives
- Write content from perspective of experience
“We see phenomenal results as we get completely relevant and completely personal with the customer we have this data on,” Dave concluded. “Personalization makes a difference, but who we send to matters even more.”
