TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY SOLUTIONS

The Data-Driven Path To Timeshare Customer Acquisition

CUSTOMERSToday’s travel consumers have more options than ever before in how they discover and shop for timeshare properties and vacation experiences. That’s why it’s crucial for timeshare sales

organizations to reach prospects and

customers across multiple channels in their customer journeys.

CHALLENGESHowever, timeshare sales organizations can run

into several challenges when trying to acquire new customers, most notably:

• Having too few prospects• Having poor quality prospects• Being flooded with inquiries, leaving little time

for follow-up

Whether the problems stem from simply too few prospects, unqualified prospects or too many prospects with little genuine interest or ability, the result is the same: non-optimal use of sales resources.

PREDICTIVEPredictive modeling can help

Fortunately, timeshare sales organizations can optimize their sales resources and attract higher

quality prospects using predictive modeling. Simply put, predictive modeling leverages data to predict outcomes.

For our purposes, let’s say we want to predict timeshare buyers. Predictive models will examine data, looking for data points in common among known buyers. These common data points may be positive indicators or negative indicators. The importance of the indicator (gauged by the model) and the number of indicators available determine the quality of the prospect.

INDICATORSPositive and negative indicators

Examples of positive indicators (factors that contribute to the quality of the prospect) include:

• Correlated purchases• High-dollar purchases• Demographic/age/income match

Examples of negative indicators

(factors that detract from the quality of the prospect) include:

• Few correlated purchases• Transactionally inactive• Demographic/age/income mismatch

MODELSSo what are the best predictive models to use when trying to acquire new customers?

While there are many types of models, in marketing they come down to two main types:

Profile Models and

Response Models.

These models are the tools you use to help target a specific offer like timeshare sales.

PROFILEProfile ModelsOften called “look alike” models, profile models look at your recent buyers and build prospect audiences of other individuals who have multiple indicators which match your buyers.

For instance, if customers A, B and C frequently purchase flights, these buyers are compared to a transactional database like Wiland’s to help identify prospects with indicators (in that case, frequent purchases) resembling these best customers.

RESPONSE Response Models More advanced than profile models, response models match indicators to those individuals who not only look like your buyers, but also look like those who responded to your latest offer.

Non-responders are also identified so that you can avoid mailing to similar, but non-responsive, prospects in future campaigns.

Response models also look at which channels—direct mail, telemarketing, digital display—prospects are most responsive to.

MODELINGCan I do this modeling on my own?In one sense, you already do. When you promote to existing owners, you are finding those who have correlated purchases and interests, as well as a profile that matches your buyers well.

However, finding new, interested prospects outside of your existing file without incurring huge costs or complicated partnerships requires substantial data. Cooperative databases, like the Wiland Database, hold an extraordinary amount of information on consumers and their ongoing transactional activity that you can model against.

The depth and breadth of our data, combined with the innovative modeling techniques discussed already, give us a comprehensive view of consumer behavior, enabling us to provide a wide array of effective solutions for timeshare sales organizations

The Wiland Database: Understand Your Prospects Better

AnalysisTransactional characteristics of the timeshare owners or buyers—including all their transactional activity with the many companies participating in the Wiland Database—are compared to those of the millions of individuals in the Wiland Database.

ModelingA model is built to isolate the variables that predict likelihood of buying a timeshare or responding to a promotion. Positive and negative variables are considered to provide multiple indicators for scoring.

ScoringThe model is scored and ranked to identify individuals that are most likely to buy or respond. The best prospects receive the highest scores. The poorest prospects receive the lowest scores. This scoring will then determine the size and/or order of mailings and other promotions.

PROCESSThe following is a breakdown of how the

modeling process works within a cooperative database.

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Direct MailKnow who to spend large printing and postage budgets on is a traditional use of modeled data.

Digital AdvertisingFind your target audiences around the web in programmatic ad networks. Use ads to solicit email addresses and phone numbers or drive website traffic.

Email MarketingUse content you know your audience finds interesting. Mold offers to resonate with the needs and wants of your prospects.

CHANNELSUsing Marketing ChannelsThere are several marketing channels your timeshare sales organization can use to contact these predictively modeled audiences, including: Direct Mail, Digital Advertising, and Email Marketing.

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BENEFITSBenefits of Predictive ModelingPredictive modeling helps timeshare sales organizations:

• Affordably acquire new high-LTV customers online and offline

• Target the most profitable customer audiences in the right channels

• Profitably reactivate dormant prospects• Maximize customer value/engagement at every

lifecycle stage• Eliminate wasted marketing budget via file optimization• Improve marketing ROI with co-targeting• Convert low-value buyers into higher-value core

customers• Understand customers and their buying behaviors

better than ever before

WILANDAbout Wiland Wiland is the nation’s largest, most respected marketing intelligence provider serving the travel and hospitality sector.

We provide data-driven solutions for:

• New customer acquisition• Digital advertising• Customer reactivation and optimization

We save our clients millions of dollars in marketing costs, while generating hundreds of millions in contributions.

Contact us today to learn more about how you can leverage the power of the country’s most comprehensive transactional database to drive better results.

We are dedicated to providing excellent service and delivering a successful future in achieving your mission and your organization’s goals.

CONTACTGetting Started is EasyFor a no-obligation, informative initial consultation, please contact:

Jerry JoyceSVP, New Business Development 330.240.5579jjoyce@wiland.com

303.485.8686 • wiland.com • ©2016 Wiland, Inc. All rights reserved.