In the competitive travel and hospitality industry, our client, a distinguished leader with an impressive portfolio of resorts and vacation retreats, continually strives for excellence. Despite their industry-leading position, they faced the common challenge of relying on a decade-old legacy system for email marketing, leading to imprecise customer targeting and low click-through rates (CTR). Proactively recognizing the need for modernization, they enlisted Tredence to redesign their email marketing strategy using cutting-edge technology and data-driven insights.
The primary objective was to create a state-of-the-art, production-ready, and fully automated end-to-end solution. This innovative system would incorporate multiple propensity models, email click prediction models, and an advanced optimization process. The aim was to substantially improve the accuracy of email click predictions, transforming into better customer targeting and more focused marketing efforts. Over the course of six months, Tredence developed an end-to-end solution comprising of ETL tools , which included ETL tools, machine learning models, and an optimizer leveraging various AWS services.
At the heart of this transformation was the robust and versatile Amazon Web Services (AWS) ecosystem. AWS provided the technological backbone that enabled us to build, deploy, and manage its sophisticated marketing models with unprecedented efficiency and scalability.
The AWS-powered insights allowed for:
These AWS-powered insights transformed raw data into actionable intelligence, allowing us to understand and predict customer behavior with far greater accuracy.
The approach to revolutionizing the email marketing strategy was multi-faceted and comprehensive, leveraging cutting-edge technologies and methodologies:
1. ETL in Snowflake:
The foundation of the new system was laid with a robust Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) process implemented in Snowflake. This process involved extracting and processing a wide array of features crucial for both Propensity and Email Click models, including:
This comprehensive data collection ensured that subsequent models had access to a rich, multi-dimensional view of each customer and offer.
2. Model Development in Amazon SageMaker Studio:
The heart of the new system centered on sophisticated machine learning models developed and deployed using Amazon SageMaker Studio. Key aspects of this phase included:
3. Gurobi Optimization:
The final component was the implementation of Gurobi Optimization. This advanced mathematical optimization solver was utilized to:
This three-step approach synergized data processing, predictive modeling, and optimization, resulting in a robust, data-driven email marketing system.
The success of this project was bolstered by the strategic utilization of several AWS services:
The implementation of this advanced, AWS-powered email marketing system yielded impressive benefits:
1. Significant Improvement in Customer Engagement:
The new system achieved a substantial increase in Click Through Rate (CTR), rising from approximately 0.7% to 1.8%. This represents a remarkable 2.3x boost in engagement.
2. Focused Marketing:
The precision of the new models enabled more targeted marketing efforts, enhancing efficiency in acquiring new customers and re-engaging existing ones. This approach improved customer experience by delivering relevant and compelling offers.
3. Fully Automated Production Pipeline:
End-to-end automation of the marketing pipeline brought unprecedented efficiency and consistency. The system's capability for easy monitoring and regular retraining ensures ongoing effectiveness amidst evolving customer behaviors and market dynamics.
4. Enhanced Data Utilization:
Leveraging extensive customer data—from booking details to app usage—provided a comprehensive understanding of customer preferences and behaviors. This enriched data utilization supports personalized and impactful marketing strategies.
5. Scalability and Future-proofing:
Built on AWS services, the system ensures scalability to handle increasing data volumes and evolving marketing complexities. This future-proofs the email marketing efforts, keeping the client competitive in the market.
6. Cost Efficiency:
Improved targeting and higher engagement rates optimize the use of marketing resources, potentially leading to significant cost savings over time.
