In 2012, we continued to implement the existing automations, to customise them, but also to develop new ones. We introduced automations in the sales process, providing support to the sales team by automatically distributing leads from web forms. We also started to enjoy a new concept that plays its excellent role in all communication strategies: retargeting.
Back in the day, no one would have imagined that you can Google information about a holiday in Milan, and get a personalised email right on the next day, advertising the very destination you wanted. We worked a lot in this area, and created segments to be able to communicate effectively with users in customer databases.
We also responded affirmatively to a challenge coming from a travel customer, and tested the behavioural targeting in our daily recurring campaigns. This was in an attempt to provide relevance in a context where data and content automation deployments across sites was quite limited. So we implemented the behaviourally dynamic segments, and started generating dynamic topics based on the wanted destination. We saw a boom back then, with message opening rates topping 45%.
Another new element was that we implemented the entire after-sales communication for Porsche Interauto. We did this by integrating offline and online data, creating one of the first true customer journeys.
We can say that 2012 was a year of market consolidation, a year when customers became much better informed. It was also then that Google Analytics became a widely used tool in campaigns, which made it easier to analyse the effectiveness of emails in campaigns. Once we had access to the data, we were able to easily compare the effects in sales by base size.
We started to see the first customers wanting more and more customisation. But I will tell you more about this and many other stories in the articles covering the next years.
