Only 8 more sleeps until I leave for a 3-week holiday to Egypt. I LOVE to travel so — as you can imagine — I am very excited about my trip. With travel on my mind, I thought I would take this opportunity to talk about customer communications, with a focus on some of the newsletters I receive from various adventure travel companies.
I must say that I am a big fan of “Intrepid Express” from Intrepid Travel (HQ in Sydney, Australia). I have been a subscriber since 2004 and I enjoy their weekly newsletters so much that I have kept almost everyone of them!
So what make Intrepid Express so good? They follow some “best practices” that help me get the most out of their email. For example:
- Subject line — each subject line starts with “Intrepid Express” which tells me that it is the newsletter and not some other correspondence from Intrepid.
- Topic — each week, there is a short intro from the editor (Sue Elliot) which is always interesting and well written. It gives me an idea about the content and helps me make the decision as to whether to read further.
- Quick links — at the top of the email, there is a section labeled “In this issue” with links to each section of the newsletter; a fast way to get to the sections that interest me the most.
- Sections — each issue has many articles, with several them on recurring themes such as: “Top Trip”, “Local Know How” and the latest contest.
- Side bar — Intrepid uses the sidebar promotes upcoming trips or deals with links to their website.
- Timely and relevant — the newsletter arrives every Monday, like clockwork and, even if I’m not planning a trip, the content is fresh and interesting.
The tone of the writing is interesting and informative, but never heavy with a sales pitch. That may be why I like the newsletter so much — it feeds my passion for travel, giving me ideas about where to go next, but doesn’t pressure me into buying.
Intrepid Express is not the only travel company e-newsletter that I receive, but it is my favourite. Long before I became an Intrepid customer, I developed a high affinity for the company, due in part to the “relationship” created through this single form of communication.
I’d also like to give a big shout out to Sue Elliot, who has been the editor of Intrepid Express for many years: thanks for keeping me hooked all these years.
Want to learn more about Intrepid and see what trips they have to offer? Start with their home page:
Ready to sign up to their weekly newsletter? Go to:
http://www.intrepidtravel.com/inspirations/expresssubs/
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