DECEMBER 2017CIOAPPLICATIONS.COM9add-on costs a fee. It means fliers get the very best pricing for their trip, but it also means that a lot of people are surprised by fees they thought would be included. They feel nickel and dimed and have a poor experience. In light of that insight, we're adding an education element to the email series, using material we already have on the website or things the customer service team repeatedly use in answering flier concerns. We hope to educate fliers how to fly the Spirit way, so they know what to expect and have a better flying experience. The series is highly variable. We start by sending a booking confirmation immediately. The next day, we send an email to those who haven't flown Spirit (or haven't flown Spirit in a while) about the nuances of flying Spirit, including things like booking bag fees ahead of time to save money. A few days before the flight, we send reminders again to anyone who hasn't booked their seat or their bags. The day before their outbound flight, we send an email to check-in, including a note that if they print their own boarding pass or use the mobile boarding pass option, they can save $10 at the airport.Our goal with the campaign is to increase customer satisfaction, tracked by net promoter score.How do you Build an email and/or Marketing Automation Strategy for Companies?Our clients rely on us sometimes to kick-start the process. We always try to start with customer insight, either from the brand's own database or via larger market trend data. For marketing automation in particular, we want to align our communication to what the customer is thinking, feeling, needing, and doing at each stage of their journey. For batched email sends, we like to dig into a brand's database and understand some of their segments that naturally occur, so we can find each segment's "why" and speak to it, rather than sharing the same corporate marketing line with everyone. Can you Talk about how your Personal life Reflects in your Leadership Strategies?I get my energy out of understanding how things work. I especially take note when someone enjoys an experience. I try to listen to what delights people, or what they hope to get out of something. Just understanding why something happens, or the frustration that comes out of a bad experience, and being able to empathize with that is a big part of being successful in marketing automation. Empathy is something that we use pretty much daily at our office. If you are communicating with a customer, we remind our team and our clients to take their own preferences out and put on their 'empathy' hat, to understand what that person is going through. Our clients' C-suite rarely represents the target market, so we have to come armed with data around how their customer actually feels/thinks. Understanding what the customers are going through and being able to empathize is going to help allow us provide them with the best experience.Would you like to give any Advice for Aspiring or Fellow Marketing Directors?The thing I always tell people no matter their role or level in marketing is, Never stop learning. Be proactive about teaching yourself different things every day. Be curious. You will never regret learning something new or understanding a fresh perspective. I have been a student of marketing and human psychology since day one. As an added benefit, it's especially helpful to be able to learn enough about adjacent business departments to be able to integrate and work well with them/speak to what they do. You should know who to reach out to for expertise you don't have yourself and, better yet, getting to know people means they'll know when they need to proactively reach out to YOU for things that touch your area of expertise. You'll never regret learning something new or understanding a fresh perspectiveJessica Best
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