Successful Email List Management: Fixing the Leaky Bucket

Andrew ChangManager, Marketing StrategyAirTran Airways

Thursday, January 21, 2010

What is AirTran Airways’ rank, in terms

of size by capacity?

What is AirTran Airways’ rank, in terms

of size by capacity?

8th

How many passengers were enplaned

in 2009?

How many passengers were enplaned

in 2009?

24.8 MM

• 8th largest domestic airline

• Serves 64 destinations

• 24.6 MM enplanements in 2008

• 2009 Top-ranked low-cost carrier by Airline Quality Rating

• Youngest all-Boeing fleet in America

• First major carrier to offer Gogo Inflight Internet & XM Satellite Radio on every flight

AirTran Email Program Overview

Net Escapes

• Primary campaign promoting weekly sale alerts

A-Savers

• Promotional and partner offers

A+ Rewards

• AirTran has been collecting data on its A+ Rewards members since the program’s inception

• Customer profiles include more than 30 data points

Acquisition (Fill the bucket)

• Enroll prospects into programs with easiest barrier of entry –NetEscapes and A-Savers

• Only email address is required for sign-up – Voucher Programs

• Cross-promote A+ Rewards program throughout message streams

Retention (Stop the leaks)

• Focus on most valuable customers – A+ Rewards

• Many data points available to design sophisticated programs around

• Leveraged profile data in 2009 to develop sophisticated lifecycle

• Increased message relevance promotes long-term engagement

The AirTran email communications strategy was meeting the marketing objectives, but AirTran wanted to focus on email list growth and retention despite an overall reduction in capacity.

ACQUISITION

NetEscapes/A-Savers Voucher Acquisitions

Customer offered voucher and URL

Complete landing page enrollment process

Automated email voucher distributed

Customers added to NetEscapes and A-Savers

Promotions

Danica Patrick Racing Experience

• Be a backseat driver at Indy Raceway

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Fly Away

• Win a flight to the Super Bowl with SI models

Sweepstakes Sign-ups• A+ Rewards membership and email required• Includes travel and accommodations

RETENTION

A+ Rewards Retention

Every 1% of retention

=

$5MM in revenue

Successful list management starts with a relevant communication stream to retain current subscribers

*2010 Email Marketing Benchmark Report; MarketingSherpa

Enhancing Communication Lifecycle

• Opportunity existed to fill A+ lifecycle gaps

• Prioritized and launched 5 new campaigns in 2009 to supplement communication stream

– Enhanced welcome communication

– Customer satisfaction survey

– Elite upgrade notification

– Elite status renewal

– A+ credit expiration

Enhanced Welcome

• Leveraged proven A+ newsletter design and applied to welcome messaging

• Quicker to Market– Reduced message delay from

1-2 days to near-real time communication

• Featuring…– New personal A+ number and

printable card

– A+ program details

– Special partner offers

– Contact information

Customer Satisfaction Survey

• Utilized formal letter style messaging – no incentive

• Delivered shortly after conclusion of flight

– Full circle customer feedback loop

• Monitored on daily basis to allow for prompt follow-up

Elite Upgrade

• Timely notification alerting customers of change in member status

• Pertinent account summary info• Member number

• Status expiration dates

• Available A+ credits

• A+ Elite program benefits

Elite Status Renewal

• Informing customers Elite status is about to expire

• Remind of A+ Elite benefits

• Provide expiration dates and # of A+ credits required to renew

Credit Expiration

• Alerting members A+ credits that are about to expire

• Details of A+ credits expiring custom published into email

• Includes various ways and quick links for customers to take action

Results of 2009 Efforts

Open Rate

• Doubled opens!

Unique Click Rate

• 7x increase in unique clicks

Unsubs

• Promotional unsubscribe decreased

Conversions

• 10x increase in conversions

*as % of net delivered

Overall, AirTran has experienced ~13% overall opt-in list growth since December 2008 despite a 2% drop in capacity

Next Steps for 2010

Further build out communication lifecycle…

• Automate more than 20 new relevant triggers

• Reactivation messaging

• Web behavior data integration

• Flight status notifications

• etc…

• Sophisticated preference center

• Unsubscribe survey

Credits/Thank You

Andrew Chang | Manager, Marketing Strategy | AirTran Airways

Call or email me at: 678-254-7459

Andrew.chang@airtran.com