In 2023, Audley Travel, a market-leading travel company with a stronghold in the US and UK, found themselves at a crossroads. Well-known for curating tailor-made holidays across 90 countries, the company wanted to provide a more rounded and personalized client experience. 

Audley uses Salesforce as their CRM technology of choice, and following a collaborative discovery session between the three organizations, DEPT® (as a Salesforce premium technology partner) proved to be the natural choice to implement Marketing Cloud to revolutionize Audley’s cross-channel marketing efforts.

And so we seized the opportunity to mark a transformative chapter in Audley’s email marketing journey.

Audley Travel had a straightforward yet ambitious objective: to launch three high-ROI use cases rooted in user website behavior.

Utilizing AI-based product recommendations by Salesforce’s Einstein, the intent was to re-engage users who had abandoned an itinerary, a destination, or an inquiry page by sending them a tailored email reminder one day after their initial interaction. These emails were designed either to nudge the user toward completing their booking or to present curated itineraries that aligned with their most-viewed destinations.

By implementing Marketing Cloud Personalization, Audley Travel laid the foundation of its first-party data strategy, effectively creating a walled garden of proprietary customer data. This approach not only allows for a nuanced understanding of customer behaviors but also empowers the brand to build powerful user segments for targeted campaigns. 

Leveraging AI-driven recommendation systems, each email is dynamically personalized according to user affinities such as destination and itinerary interests, as well as incomplete forms. This personalization strategy is underpinned by the collection and analysis of user behavioral data across various digital touchpoints, providing valuable insights into the customer journey. Specifically, these touchpoints encompass both our website and email interactions. On the website, we track a user’s behavior down to the minutiae – what pages they visit, the itineraries they explore, categories and destinations they express an interest in, and even the duration of time they spend on each itinerary. Similarly, within our email campaigns, we closely monitor metrics like email open rates and timestamps to understand the optimal timing and content that resonates with each user. 

In doing so, Audley Travel succeeds in breaking down existing data silos, gaining a robust understanding of their customers’ online behavior and needs, thus setting the stage for a seamless cross-channel experience.

In just a few months, Audley Travel and DEPT® rolled out a fast, ROI-driven personalization strategy through Marketing Cloud. This quick implementation met key revenue targets and gave Audley the flexibility to adapt to customer needs and market changes. The project serves as a key milestone, offering Audley an adaptable framework that aligns well with their long-term business objectives and focuses on and improves the overall customer experience.