Strategy

The Birmingham folks came to us with a bang-up prompt to tempt potential visitors: a free night for anyone who would like to experience the Magic City, dubbed the INcentive campaign. We went to work getting the word out via three online tactics: lead generation, dynamic email campaigns, and highly targeted display ads.

With an eye toward growing the Birmingham email database and segmenting those audiences for potential Birmingham visitors, the names of folks who signed up for the IN Travel Guide populated lists allowing them to receive emails that would be dynamically customized to specific travel interests. Short explanation: a single email blast can target, say, golfers, music lovers and shopaholics with content and images that’ll interest them.

Coupled with lead generation to grow the database of potential visitors even more, and display ads on highly targeted sites, the IN online campaign is now off to a flyINg start.

Results

Epsilon studies for Q1 2009 are showing average open rates for email marketing nationwide at 21%. But looky: the first INcentive email better than doubled that with a whopping 49% open rate, and click-throughs of 44%.

Even that groovy sculpture of Vulcan is smiling. Did you know you can see his butt?