It is a pretty good bet that a large percentage of your top customers are receiving your travel related message on a mobile device. Now, not everyone has a fancy phone that can surf the net with the same speed and agility as they can on their primary email device but there are a significant amount of these “road warriors” that spend quite a bit of their time in airports rushing to gates, tracking down their rental car and decompressing from a long day in hotel lounges and restaurants. Making a point to provide a mobile friendly message can be the difference between “delete” and “save for later”.

In my previous blog, The Price is “Right”? I spoke of brand familiarity. For a consumer to become more familiar with your brand several steps can be taken to ensure that you are meeting the expectations of the recipient.

Your recipient is most likely enrolled in several travel-related email communications: fare specials for flights, hotel or rental car deals, cruise or packaged travel components. With the competition getting FIERCE these days, knowing when your competitors are launching these types of messages is critical for staying ahead of the pack and ensuring that your message is one of the first to hit their inbox on a daily or weekly basis.

I previously outlined four stages that you may be in with your lifecycle management efforts. If you’re still in the eye-rolling stage, I hope you were convinced by Jupiter Research stats that show lifecycle messaging blows away basic broadcast messaging. Anyone interested in possibly doubling conversions?

Remember the old saying, “A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step”? I hope you’re taking – or at least thinking about taking – that first step into the realm of lifecycle management.

Understandably, the travel and hospitality market is one of the industries most affected by the price of good old “Black Gold …Texas Tea.” What your customers are paying at the pump not only influences their disposable travel dollars, it has a direct impact on airfares, occupancy levels in hotels, and companies and businesses that support this multibillion-dollar industry.

As a consumer (and business traveler) I have my favorite brands. When possible, I will keep it All in the Family and pay a few extra bucks to keep my points and miles growing with my preferred loyalty programs. But the Facts of Life show that we’re all price shoppers and the majority of travelers either don’t participate in loyalty programs or do so infrequently. In a market so price driven, how do you differentiate your services from your competitors?

As a proud uncle of 2 nephews both under the age of 3, I know that their first steps were some of their most difficult and rewarding. Those initial wobbly attempts, one foot in front of the other, have now led to surefootedness in their daily negations of sofas, end tables and kitchen chairs.

Customer retention begins with a single step as well. The first and most important is setting the expectations of your email recipient. Clearly define the purpose of your message by identifying the value proposition and benefits to recipients.

These “first step” strategies can and should include:

While attending the EEC Show San Diego earlier this month it was announced that the EEC (emailexperiencecouncil.org ) was going to begin manages the EMAC (Email Measurement Accuracy Coalition). Since then the EMAC Below is released the first metric, Deliverability. (http://www.dmnews.com/Deliverability-defined-by-EMAC/article/107187/). “Deliverability has been defined by the EMAC as total e-mail deployed (unique records) divided into the total amount successfully delivered. The amount successfully delivered is the total amount attempted minus all failures, including hard bounces.” “EMAC does not expect everybody to adopt its definition, but hopes that those that do will define their metrics according to the EMAC definition. With this defining process, marketers will be given a tool to measure by.“