Case Study: Priory Bay Hotel
Summary:
imail's Mailshots and Postcards services is helping this luxury country retreat to boost the efficiency of its direct mail campaigns, with a marked impact on its revenue.
Introduction:
Located between the popular sailing villages of Seaview and Bembridge, the Priory Bay Hotel is an elegant country retreat built on the site of a medieval monastery. The historic manor stands within a 70-acre estate and boasts a six-hole golf course, tennis courts, croquet, private beach, outdoor swimming pool, woodlands and landscaped gardens. The hotel's stunning location makes it ideal for weddings, film shoots and VIP hospitality and its client base includes celebrities like Nicole Kidman, Hugh Laurie and Jools Holland.
Priory Bay advertises its appeal as an ideal location for holidays, weddings or corporate events with regular direct mail campaigns. Additional mailings are sent out at key times of the year to bolster the seasonal surge in business during summer, Christmas, Easter and other peak holiday periods.
Priory Bay's direct mail campaigns were previously conducted manually in-house. This was proving not only costly but also time-consuming and tedious, with reception staff having to mail merge multiple documents, then print, envelope, frank and post them.
It was clear that an automated solution was required to reduce outgoings and inefficiency while continuing to maximise direct mail's commercial benefits. A search of the market led the hotel to imail, a fully integrated design, print and delivery solution. Impressed by its capabilities, Priory Bay decided to implement imail without delay.
The solution:
An innovative desktop-to-doormat solution, imail is accessed via the internet using a simple step-by-step browser. It allows the hotel to submit large-volume runs of marketing material to a geographically-dispersed customer base in a few simple clicks of the mouse.
Using imail's Mailshots and Postcards services, Priory Bay Hotel can create, customise and send full-colour, double-sided A5 flyers in seconds. Priory Bay uploads its own artwork via the web browser, along with address details, which is then automatically routed to the nearest imail print centre. There, the mailshots are printed on quality, high-gloss paper and delivered to their destination.
Benefits:
By combining the ease of electronic communication with the impact of physical mail, imail has enabled Priory Bay Hotel to enjoy a number of economy and efficiency improvements. Most significantly, direct mail production time has been cut from one-and-a-half days per campaign to mere seconds. This was possible thanks to the elimination of all printing, franking and stationery requirements. Automation of the mailing process has also freed up reception staff to do the jobs they are meant to do. These time and labour savings have translated into cost savings of up to 50%.
Furthermore, Priory Bay has also experienced a sharp increase in response rates. A full 100% of the hotel's 2011 New Year's Day Brunch bookings were received on the back of a seasonal imail campaign, illustrating how imail helps drive hotel revenue.
Priory Bay has also found imail's postcode checking software of huge benefit in boosting data quality. This facility identifies and isolates inaccurate postcodes, for reduced mail returns, improved targeting and a more effective appropriation of marketing budget.
About imail:
imail was launched in 2008 by UK Mail as the only alternative to the first class postal service. It enables users to send letters and postcards with just a click of the mouse from as late as 3pm for next-day delivery, or 6pm for two-day delivery. The mail documents are sent electronically to the UK Mail sorting centre closest to the destination, where they are printed, enveloped and sorted for onward delivery.
imail is ideal for all sizes of business, from SMEs to large corporations, offering a dynamic desktop-to-delivery service at a keystroke that provides a host of cost, time and environmental benefits.
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