How Travel Companies Can Benefit From AMP Emails

AMP for Email is driving ROI for all kinds of companies. But there are several key benefits unique to companies in the travel industry that are really shaking things up…

Imagine if you could remove all the friction points that annoy your customers (and cost you sales) and replace them with a seamless, easy, and — dare I say — fun user experience?

Imagine…

• Sending out live promotions (like last minute seat sales), and feeling confident they’re always up-to-date?
• Giving your travel upgrades and cross-promotional sales a major boost? 
• Delighting and retaining more customers with personalized experiences? 

Perfect world, right?

AMP for Email can help you attain all this and more. 

Let’s go through five use cases for how travel companies can benefit from this cutting edge email tech. (Including how Indian hotel booking company OYO earned a 60% boost to their conversion rate, simply by incorporating AMP-powered live booking into their emails!) 

5 AMP Email Examples for Travel Companies

AMP emails are relatively new, so many companies haven’t jumped on board yet. That means your customers likely aren’t seeing your competitors using this technology.

In other words, that’s an opportunity for you to WOW them. There are endless AMP for Email travel industry benefits out there. But here are five scenarios for boosting your bookings and improving your customers’ experience.

1. Flight Itineraries and Management Emails

Part proof of purchase and part calendar reminder, the basic flight itinerary email contains all the necessary information your customer needs, but lacks one key thing: Up-to-date information.

The email contains all the details of their trip, such as the dates, flight numbers, departure times, gates, passenger names, and the booking confirmation number. Some airlines also attach the boarding pass as a PDF attachment.

Customers expect to receive this email and to them, it’s often little more than a glorified receipt. Boring, right?

Well, AMP can spice things up…

The Benefits of AMP for Email

With AMP for Email, you can turn a static itinerary email into an automatic, always-up-to-date info center.

So what does that mean? With AMP, your email would update whenever there’s a change — like a new gate, departure time, connection, weather warning, etc. That means every time your customer opens it, they see live information, without leaving their inbox.

The customer has all the information they need in one email. No need to stalk the airport flight board, or worse, forget their password while desperately trying to login to your website.

If this email below was AMP-lified, the text in the email body could be dynamic. So your customer would always have accurate information for:

• The departure/arrival gates
• Takeoff and check-in times
• Seat assignments
• And more, such as special weather alerts or travel advisories

Source: mine

That’s a much better user experience than a PDF attachment, right?

2. Instant In-Email Upgrades

What’s the best part of waking up? Upsells and cross-sells filling your funnel, of course.

But what if I told you there’s a big flaw with the upgrade emails you currently send out? That is: Users need to checkout via your website.

So what, right?

Well, it turns out people hate re-entering information, or they often can’t remember it. Twenty-five percent of all consumers forget a password at least once a day, according to research from Mastercard and the University of Oxford.

And, a combined 55% of consumers will abandon a purchase because they simply don’t want to re-enter their credit card information or shipping address.

Oof.

Source: Statista

The Benefits of AMP for Email

Here’s where AMP comes in: Your customers don’t have to remember their password, re-enter any information, or even leave an email at all.

Take this example from Airbnb. It’s a standard confirmation email, but it’s also upselling me on activities for my destination.

Sure, it uses some decent personalization since it chooses activities close to where I’m staying, but I still have to click through to the website and login to checkout. With an AMP email, this entire section could be a scrolling carousel of activities.

Best part? A single “Buy” button tap could add the upgrade to my itinerary — right from the email — using my stored account and payment data. Boom, instant conversion within the email and totally painless for the customer.

Source: Airbnb / my inbox

3. Time-Sensitive Email Promotions

There’s nothing more motivating for sales than a sense of urgency. In fact, mixing urgency with a desirable offer can boost your sales by up to 332%. 

Here’s the thing: Limited time offers are an effective strategy, but there are risks too. What if your offer is only valid for 24 hours, but a customer who otherwise would have bought it opens your email at hour 26?

Not only will you lose the sale, but your customer will be disappointed, creating a negative experience — all from one little email. Not cool.

The Benefits of AMP for Email

Imagine sending out a promotional email and knowing it’s going to be relevant and up-to-date for everyone… four days from now.

With AMP emails, your promotions use live data, so you won’t run the risk of a customer getting excited about a sale, only to find out tickets are sold out.

Your customers will see active, available offers every time they open the email.

Being able to use live data in promotional emails allows you to:

• Only sell tickets or rooms that are available. When an offer sells out, another seamlessly swaps in place.
• Offer time-sensitive deals, like flash sales or last-minute rooms, and automatically switch it to another deal when the time is up.

For example, this Expedia promotion ends at midnight, but what if your customer opens it at 1am? Instead of being sad they missed it, the content could switch to the next day’s deal or a backup promotion, which still gives you the chance to earn a conversion.

Source: Geekwire

OYO, one of India’s top hotel booking sites, uses AMP emails for hotel recommendations. The email only shows available bookings. It also includes all the necessary information, like check in/out times, and if a hotel includes breakfast or Wi-Fi, among other details.

Best part? The deals are booked without leaving the email. Switching to AMP emails earned OYO a 57% higher click-through-rate and 60% higher conversion rate.

Source: Dyspatch

4. Preferences and Forms All in an Email

You know what I love spending my time doing? Clicking through an email to a website to wait longer than three seconds for a form to load, so I can fill out a customer satisfaction survey with an average of 30 questions on it.

Talk about sparking joy, right?

In reality, Google’s research shows even a one second page load delay can cause up to a 20% drop in conversions. And, that the average webpage on mobile takes 15.3 seconds to load.

Double oof.

Once again: Problem solved with AMP for Email.

The Benefits of AMP for Email

Forget loading a webpage at all, you can embed your entire customer survey or form directly inside an AMP email. And since it’s connected to your customer’s account, you can skip all the boring form fields like: Name, email, location, and more.

But why move an entire survey into an email? So more people will take it.

To be specific: 257% more people. That’s what happened when online payments provider Razorpay switched out their standard HTML “click here to take a customer survey” emails for AMP emails, where the survey could be taken directly inside.

For you, that may look like a post-hotel stay feedback survey, pre-flight meal selection, or rental vehicle pick. Anything that involves filling out a form or checking a preference box can be done in-email with AMP.

More than simply a higher completion rate, having this information allows you to plan services better and provide the best customer experience possible — both online and in person. Plus, your customers will love how easy it is to prep for their trip.

Instead of a static email, where the user clicks a rating and is taken to a web-based form, like this:

Source: Expedia / my inbox

You could turn it into a 100% in-email, don’t-have-to-click-anything, AMP survey email, like this:

Source: Dyspatch

As Razorpay’s experiment proved, your customers are far more likely to complete the latter option.

5. One Step Email Check-In

Forget opening a website or downloading an app to check-in to a hotel or for a flight. Remember how 25% of consumers forget their passwords? Nothing is more frustrating than when you’re traveling and tired and can’t remember your password to check into your room.

Or, what if you’re running late to the airport and need to bust it Rocky Balboa style to make it through security, and there is just no time to stand in front of those automated check-in screens?

As Balboa would say, “An AMP email is how winning is done.”

The Benefits of AMP for Email

By offering check-in with an AMP email, you skip all that. It’s convenient for everyone, but especially useful in areas with a spotty internet connection where logging into a website may take way too long.

Less stress = universally happier customers.

One tap check-ins could apply to hotels, flights, arriving at an event or appointment while traveling, and so much more.

Imagine if you received this email the morning of your flight and upon arriving at the airport, tapped the “Check In” button… then, instead of going to the American Airlines website, you saw a quick, painless confirmation message replace the button right before your eyes — all while never leaving your inbox?

Nice.

Source: Really Good Emails

Captivating Upsells, Painless Check-Ins, and Higher Conversions with AMP Emails for Travel

There are a lot of emails in the travel industry, right? Confirmations, boarding passes, reservation details, check-in instructions, meal selections, and more. You gotta send ‘em. 

But instead of a static blah experience, why not turn these emails into extra helpful, actionable messages your customers will remember? 

AMP for Email makes it easier than ever for your customers to fill out required information, say “Yes!” to an offer, and stay informed about their trip.

That means, your customers will remember how painless their experience was with you versus that other company (and their “click here to fill out this form after resetting your password for the second time this week” emails).

Implementing AMP for Email doesn’t have to be complicated either. Dyspatch comes with a library of pre-coded interactive AMP email apps that you can drag-and-drop right into your templates. So getting started is simple.