Introduction The informal, internal motto at one Boston-based travel company is “Speed Wins.” After the company began running several tests in its first month of experimentation and optimized its customer experience, it doubled its revenue in record time. The initiative got them up and running quickly, and the company now runs thirty or more tests per month using an iterative approach. In the travel industry, experimentation is becoming increasingly successful as it can be applied to improve every aspect of the customer experience—from product development, to email marketing, to the customer service, and more. Testing in digital environments in any industry can also help to improve...
Introduction
The informal, internal motto at one Boston-based travel company is “Speed Wins.” After the
company began running several tests in its first month of experimentation and optimized
its customer experience, it doubled its revenue in record time. The initiative got them up
and running quickly, and the company now runs thirty or more tests per month using an
iterative approach.
In the travel industry, experimentation is becoming increasingly successful as it can be applied
to improve every aspect of the customer experience—from product development, to email
marketing, to the customer service, and more. Testing in digital environments in any industry can
also help to improve personalization. This is particularly important in travel, where personalized
pricing, features, and recommendations are key to differentiating organizations selling
a wide range of products, services and experiences. Today’s travel consumers demand special
pricing on airfare, for example, as well as smart hotel recommendations and a wide range of
personalized add-ons for any travel experience.
To what degree are travel organizations implementing and succeeding with experimentation?
How are they facilitating its success, and what aspects of testing and experimentation are
driving their businesses forward? Digital Travel partnered with Optimizely, the world’s leading
experimentation platform in Q1 2017, to conduct a benchmark study of 91 industry leaders in
order to better understand the impact of testing in the travel industry.
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Key Findings
Travel organizations of all types and sizes invest in testing and experimentation to
support key growth initiatives, such as increasing conversions, acquisition, and revenue.
Most travel organizations align experimentation directly with improving conversions and
acquiring new customers, as opposed to nurturing, design, and cost reduction. Travel
organizations see their greatest results from testing in their acquisition and purchase phases
over prospecting, upselling, and retention.
Travel organizations
must create a culture
of experimentation
to drive testing
initiatives forward.
The most mature organizations are already analyzing data and test results to make
educated decisions about improving the customer experience. This begins with increasing
the frequency of tests and analyses to capitalize on new data, or performing more targeted
experimentation. For example, a travel organization could analyze both market and keyword
data to understand the potential value of new prospects.
Travel organizations’ greatest barrier to implementing winning tests is cost.
Nonetheless, most travel organizations earmark at least 1% to 10% of their online budget for
investment in experimentation, and most also attribute at least 1% to 10% of their commerce
growth to testing. 4% of organizations earmark 20% or more of their budget, and 9% of
organizations attribute 20% or more of their commerce growth to testing as well.
In the study, travel organizations still on the threshold of formal testing and experimentation
indicate that overcoming barriers to adoption is a more complex process than simply
acquiring financing. They must first assimilate personnel into new testing initiatives and
ensure their internal IT departments are trained and ahead of the curve in their mastery
of experimentation. By adopting a testing culture, they can encourage executive buy-in,
properly train personnel, and acquire the right resources to support testing initiatives that
will move business forward.
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THE BUSINESS CRITICAL IMPACT OF EXPERIMENTATION Introduction Measuring the true influence of your marketing initiatives on business growth has always been a tricky undertaking, especially in today’s multi-touch, hyper-competitive, lightning-paced...