Q1 • 2023


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especially important as their core customers age and the company shifts its focus to refilling the customer pipeline with people from increasingly digital-minded generations. Exiting the pandemic, Tauck explored a new strategy that married its existing direct mail strength with digital tools, such as QR codes and Informed Delivery from the United States Postal Service. The company worked to test a new prospecting format that incorporated personalized QR codes into each mailer; with the quick snap of a smartphone, a prospective Tauck customer was driven to a lead- generation page that was pre-populated with the prospect’s mailing information, allowing them to quickly and efficiently request their preferred Tauck brochures and free calendar. With Informed Delivery, the United States


Postal Service emails recipients each morning, telling them what will be delivered in their mail that day. In the Informed Delivery email, the sender can include color images that link directly to a landing page on their website. In Tauck’s case, the campaign recipient clicked on the color image of the direct mail piece. The hyperlink moved them to a personalized URL where they could respond immediately and ask for information on a specific tour. It gave Tauck two points of personal contact on the same day from one direct mail piece, which goes a long way to building brand awareness and credibility. And when combined, the digital and direct mail touchpoints have proven to be very successful. “Not only does the personalized QR code


enable a better guest experience, but it also saves on our response times and delivers potential savings opportunities on the fulfillment side for every scan that generates a response, versus a business reply card or phone call response,” O’Brien explains. “This was another testing opportunity for us, using the technology as a new vehicle through which a prospect could interact with our brand even before our mailing arrived in their mailbox. We’ve been excited by the very promising use and results of these personalized QR code URLs as a response channel and will continue to monitor over the coming months.”


Informed Delivery gave Tauck two points of personal contact on the same day from one direct mail piece, which goes a long way to building brand awareness and credibility.


In nearly a century of doing business, Tauck’s


travel destinations and means of bringing people to them have expanded dramatically to meet customer demand. If it is to survive another 100 years, its marketing strategies must also evolve with the needs and demographic changes of its customers. O’Brien says the pandemic accelerated Tauck’s use of digital channels and laid the groundwork for an entirely new way of connecting and engaging with customers. It also allowed the company to tell its brand story in unique and impactful ways, using rich storytelling and other digital product marketing. “As we look to the future, we know the


65-year-old today is going to behave a lot differently than the 65-year-old 10 or 20 years from now, and, accordingly, we must be thinking differently now about how we are going to reach them,” O’Brien says. “Taking an always-on, channel-agnostic approach to communicating with our travelers is key. We will soon be implementing a modern CRM that should also mark a meaningful step in our continued digital transformation, allowing us to connect the dots to ensure all our marketing campaigns are that much more personalized and relevant for our customers.”


As Tauck continues forward with the implementation of a new CRM, O’Brien is certain they will have the opportunity to improve the customer journey from end to end and get the complete picture of who each customer is. Being able to personalize communications—both print and digital—for each guest will be an evolution in and of itself. “I saw a stat at a Salesforce Marketing Cloud conference this past summer: 86 percent of customers say an emotional connection makes them continue doing business with a brand,” says O’Brien. “We already see how powerful that connection can be among our loyal repeat patrons; the opportunity in front of us is to move to a more personalized approach that will meet every prospect, patron, and inquiry where they are and deliver the right message in the right channel at the right time.” These changes feel like major steps forward for Tauck and its marketing team. “As we navigate this next chapter,” says O’Brien, “I have no doubt we will continue to focus on the values that have made us who we are: our people, keeping our guests at the center of everything we do, and moving forward with the goal of transforming lives through travel.” ■


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