If you read our product updates blog you’ve probably noticed that we sign off pretty much every message with an invitation to let us know what you think of the current product and what you’d like to see in future. Those invitations are not just us being polite. When you tell us what you’d like to see next, that information goes straight to our Product team who keep track of the most frequently requested features, and build the ones that we know will have the greatest impact for our clients.
Recently the Message Porter team released a whole range of new targeting functionality based on those kinds of customer insights. We asked the team to introduce each of the new features that your input helped to build.
Targeting improvements: URL contains
Matt Green, Software Engineer
To target by URL you’d previously have to cut and paste the full URL you wanted to target into the Message Builder. Now you can simply add a word that the URL contains and we’ll do the rest.
This is particularly useful if you wanted to target, for example, all hotel restaurant menu pages with the same direct booking dinner offer. You’d just need to add a word that all the relevant URLs contain - probably ‘menu’ in this instance. Your offer would then appear on each of those pages, without you needing to go and grab the URL for each specific page.
Read the full product update here
Targeting improvements: Check-in day of the week
Johnny Magrippis, Senior Developer
We had a lot of requests for this one - from The Curtain, The Colonnade and Mountain View Grand to name just a few. So we’re pleased to announce that targeting by check-in day of the week is now available in the Message Builder.
When you’re in the Audience section, just pick your check-in date range as you ordinarily would using the calendar. You can then choose which specific days of the week you want to target by selecting or deselecting them. Let us know how you get on!
Read the full product update here
Targeting improvements: Referral URL
Alison Woodman, Software Engineer
Another very popular customer request was targeting by referral website. To use this targeting just select Referral website in the Audience section of the Message Builder and then add the URL you’d like to target traffic from. Now you can target people differently depending on whether they come to your website from a Google search, TripAdvisor, or somewhere else entirely.
Read the full product update here
Targeting improvements: US state
Hannes Crombez, Software Engineer
For the past two weeks the Message Porter team has been working from Triptease's New York office, so we know for a fact that the Customer Success team over here is very excited about this next update. They’ve had lots of clients asking for this functionality - so Pier 2620 Hotel, The Beacon and everyone else who requested it, this one’s for you! You can now target your customers by US State.
For hotels in the USA this means you can now offer state based discounts, for tax reasons or just to entice guests from a neighbouring state who are within a reasonable driving distance.
Read the full product update here
Targeting improvements: New vs returning visitors
Sian King, Product Designer
You can now target your returning website visitors with a different message from your first time visitors. Returning visitors tend to convert at a much higher rate, so it makes sense to speak to them differently, and offer them different incentives to book.
Again, we had lots of client requests for this feature and it’s easy to see why. It’s a great way to experiment, and see which kinds of messages are more likely to make high value guests convert.
One thing to note with this update is that new vs returning targeting is only available for Nudge Messages. That’s because Nudge Messages are designed to welcome visitors to your website - that’s why they’re set up to appear either as soon as someone arrives or on a short timed delay.
Full Screen Messages are set up to appear when someone is showing signs of leaving your website, so it would be a bit of a strange experience to target a returning visitor with a tailored message just as they’re about to leave - you’re supposed to be welcoming them back!
Read the full product update here
Targeting improvements: Booking date range
Luke Jefferson, Product Manager
Previously you've been able to target guests based on their booking date, but you could only specify that they were booking either 'more than' or 'less than' a certain number of days from their check-in date.
This didn't reflect the kind of special offers that our customers were actually running in their hotels, where often they'd have deals available for guests booking between, for example, seven and fourteen days of their check-in date.
Thanks to customer feedback, we've now added the ability to target by booking date range. This is particularly exciting because the Insights Team have also recently released Conversion rate based on lead time of search data in the Triptease Dashboard. That means you can combine that data with booking date range targeting functionality to experiment with different offers for customers searching in a high or low conversion date range.
Read the full product update here
Now it's back over to you. If you have feedback or suggestions on any of our recent updates, or if there’s something particular you’d like to see in future then get in touch and let us know! We’re not just being polite - your feedback is what makes our product great.