How Travel Brands Can Use Local Weather Data To Personalize Emails
Are you a travel brand?
There’s an untapped opportunity you can use to personalize your email campaigns.
What’s the secret?
Just look out the window. That’s right, the weather.
Weather data is a great resource. It’s something that impacts everyone, regardless of where they live — or where they want to vacation.
In terms of personalization, especially when it comes to trying something unique in your email marketing, the weather can deliver.
Here are a few ways travel brands can tap into weather data to improve email personalization.
Real-time moment of open campaigns
The key to understanding the weather is it always changes. That’s a big deal when it comes time to send out automated email campaigns. Let’s face it if you plan on crafting an email around the weather in Boston, a place where the seasons and temperature can fluctuate quite a bit in a day; you want to make sure you’re going to nail it.
Sending an email based around a snowstorm when it’s sunny and 60 degrees can end up seriously backfiring.
So the way to fix that is using real-time weather data that updates at the moment of open. That means when the reader opens the email, the weather data will automatically adjust. That way, you never have to worry about a lag.
With this email, you can see the weather for that day right in the top header. From there, your brand can create specific content that ties in with what the weather forecast is for that day.
Brands can also do this with short term forecasts, say three days, right before the customer’s trip. When framed helpfully, for example, offering information on things to do or packing advice, it can go a long way with readers.
Weather specific products
A lot of travel brands, as well as travel adjacent brands such as clothing retailers, sell more than just trips or flights; these brands also sell specific products.
One advantage of using local weather data is you can use it to promote or recommend specific products based on the weather.
For example, a hotel brand that also has a skincare line can promote products like sunblock or bug spray before a trip to a sunny and humid destination. And, maybe they can offer to have those products sitting in the room upon arrival, making packing much easier for customers.
An email like this serves a couple of purposes.
First, it looks good to the customer. It shows you know they’ve got a trip coming up and, conveniently, you’re offering products that tie right into with stuff they might already need. Second, it’s a way to potentially upsell a few more products or services, adding more to the bottom line.
Location data
Another way travel brands can leverage weather data is to couple it with location data.
For this, it’s as easy as getting a zip code. Where you can take things to the next level is by using weather and location data in two different places.
Here’s one way to do it:
With an email like this one, you’re focused on two areas; one where your reader lives and two where they want to be on vacation. An email like this can really tap into your reader’s fear of missing out (FOMO).
When it is down-pouring and cold in Portland and, let’s face it, that’s not uncommon for much of the year, a lot of people dream of a quick getaway. So, why not show how beautiful the weather is in Los Angeles to help coax your reader to book a long weekend.
So, with something like this, you can personalize your list in two ways first, where your potential customer lives and then with the places where they are interested in being instead.
You can mix and match location data in all sorts of ways.
Give it a try
There’s a lot your travel brand can do with local weather data. Just like with all of the other types of behavioral data that you can use, weather data can dramatically improve your click and open rates.
You don’t want to miss the potential opportunities that you can tap into with this type of data right at your fingertips.
Don’t forget to think about how you can include local weather data as a form of personalization in your next email marketing campaign.
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