SAN DIEGO -- Travel Leaders Network members using the Tern, Travefy, Tres and PlanitEasy customer relationship management tools (CRMs) now have the capability to integrate their customer data directly into TLN's Engagement marketing program.
The announcement was made at the network's Edge conference here. The four new companies will join three existing CRMs that have already integrated: ClientBase, AgentMate and VacationCRM.
Subscribers will need to opt in to share client data, which includes clients' past purchases and demographic information. TLN can then use that data to refine which clients receive personalized, targeted, preferred-supplier marketing collateral, including direct mailers.
The current Engagement program has data on about 11 million households, and TLN will soon begin grouping ultrahigh-net-worth households into a separate category.
"The more past-purchase history data we have, the smarter the marketers become in targeting the right clients for the right supplier offers," said chief information officer Cory Voss during Edge's general session on May 3. "There will be fewer irrelevant offers and more sales-ready booking requests coming your way."
Prior to the integration, TLN members needed to manually extract client lists, reformat them and then upload them to Engagement, noted Stephen McGillivray chief marketing officer at Internova Travel Group, the parent company of Travel Leaders Network. He said it was "clunky" and an impediment for some advisors to participate in Engagement.
McGillivray estimates that the latest CRM integration could impact as many as 4,000 of TLN's 5,700 travel agency locations.
TLN is also expanding its direct-mail capabilities beyond existing clients. Also announced at Edge was Client Builder, a new direct-mail solution available this summer. It enables members to engage prospective clients in their communities.
Advisors can choose from more than a dozen designs, customize postcards to their agency's travel niche and then filter their target audience by zip code, proximity to the agency or through demographic data such as age or income.
Orders cost $1.25 per postcard, and the mailers will be sent within 72 hours of purchase.