Customer Stories
When Amy Benzyk joined Mt. Bachelor’s marketing team last fall, it didn’t take her long to realize that driving season pass sales would be a critical part of the job. Every resort takes pass sales seriously and Mt. Bachelor, located in the Pacific Northwest’s competitive ski market, was no exception.
There was a twist, however. Yes, the Mt. Bachelor team cared about total sales, but they were especially focused on reducing churn. They wanted to maximize the number of last year’s passholders who would renew their pass this year. To this end, the team was already sending a decent number of large campaigns ahead of deadlines, and increasing the frequency of these broad messages felt like too much. Amy’s task became a question: How do you engage potential pass buyers between those campaigns in ways and in moments that increase the likelihood they’ll renew?
“As I worked with our Inntopia account manager, Lindsay, to review the performance of previous campaigns the resort had sent, one stood out. It was an automated email sent to someone on the anniversary of their last season pass purchase date if they hadn’t already renewed. The numbers suggested there was a lot of potential.”
After a bit more brainstorming, Amy felt this campaign would be a perfect way to fill those gaps between their broader pass campaigns.
This campaign relies on the simple idea that guests tend to book in cycles. Whether it’s impacted by when they get their paycheck, when they make plans, when school breaks fall, or a long list of other factors, customers of both lodging and pass products will often book around the same time each year regardless of other promotions or deadlines.
To build on this insight, Amy needed just three data points that were already configured in Mt. Bachelor’s Inntopia Marketing Cloud database:
With this data as the trigger, Amy drafted an approachable email campaign that reminded each guest to renew, without making the email feel too stiff by actually including the exact date they booked the previous year.
Capped with a clear, to-the-point subject line – “It’s time ⏰ to lock in your 23/24 Pass!” – the campaign was ready to deploy.
Amy and Lindsay regularly keep tabs on Mt. Bachelor’s best performing automations and almost the moment they activated this pass renewal reminder, it shot up into the top 5 revenue-driving emails.
“In the first month this campaign generated $265,000 in revenue. Even more, open rates are around 65% and click rates at 13%. It’s been a perfect compliment to all of our other season pass marketing.”
Because these emails are only being sent to last season’s passholders, the group is relatively small and costs the resort nearly nothing to send. Just a simple reminder sent at the right time is more than enough to keep Mt. Bachelor top of mind and get more skiers to renew.
Still in her first year at the resort, Amy and Lindsay have already been brainstorming ways to build on their success going forward.
For example, versioning the renewal campaign by product type – full season pass vs. 4-packs – and automating a follow-up reminder to guests who receive the email but don’t open or click on the original email can help them maximize the number of lapsed guests who renew. Wherever she takes it, Amy has the tools she needs to keep building.
“Inntopia makes it easy to set up extremely effective marketing automations that generate a lot of revenue. I’m really excited about what we can do going forward as we build on and expand these campaigns.”
Learn more about Mt. Bachelor:
https://www.mtbachelor.com/
Learn more about Inntopia Marketing Cloud:
https://corp.inntopia.com/marketing/
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