Vacation.com has added to its arsenal of marketing services by announcing the launch of “Engagement Select.”
The new feature enhances the consortium’s existing Engagement program, which pushes direct mail and e-mail offers from V-com preferred suppliers to specific member-selected clients. A sophisticated mix of various demographic and psychographic data is currently used to determine which clients the offers are appropriate for.
With the addition of Engagement Select, a consumer’s past-buying behavior will be used as another calibration filter, meaning clients will be targeted with greater accuracy and timing.
Buying habit information will include price points, frequency and timing of past leisure purchases.
The program reflects an alliance between Vacation.com and TRAMS Clientbase. To participate in the program, a V-com member must be a TRAMS Clientbase subscriber. The program is available at no cost. Enrollment begins February 1, when letters will be sent out to V-com members who are also enrolled in TRAMs.
To be participate in the program, a member must enroll and give Vacation.com permission to access their database.
“With access to information about a consumer’s buying behavior, our members’ direct marketing will get even more relevant,” says Stephen McGillivray, Vacation.com’s vice president of marketing and public relations. “We can even download their client list from Clientbase, so they don’t have to email it to us as they did before.”
Additionally, when an agent looks at their customer profiles in Clientbase, they will be able to see that their customers have received an offer from a specific supplier. They’ll also be able to determine whether that client opened the offer and clicked through to it.
“Vacation.com will manage the lists on our members’ behalf, send promotions with more relevant messaging to clients, provide more effective follow-up data to close the sale and create attractive share shift offers customized to their agencies,” says McGillivray.
Vacation.com is by far the largest travel agency consortium in the industry; with approximately 5,000 agencies in its fold, it represents about 25 percent of the entire market. In 2009 it registered more than 240 new members.