Member Article

Force24 help Welcome to Yorkshire deliver hyper-personalised customer comms and streamline staff workloads

Welcome to Yorkshire has plugged in marketing automation to personalise customer communications, support members during the Covid-19 economic recovery and reduce manually intensive in-house jobs “by 50%”.

Pre-pandemic, tourism in Yorkshire was worth a staggering £9 billion to the local economy, including £567 million in international spend, and employed 225,000 people.

However, many of the industry’s businesses have been forced to close due to the coronavirus outbreak – with visitor attractions, festivals, bars, restaurants and more, struggling to survive. The crisis also saw Welcome to Yorkshire evolve to become digital-first and explore innovative ways to engage with customers online, as well as help its crisis-hit members.

To further support this focus, the team has plugged in the UK’s fastest-growing marketing automation platform – built and managed by fellow Yorkshire-headquartered firm Force24. Via the savvy technology, the tourism brand can send hyper-personalised digital comms to its 100,000-strong customer email database and ramp up engagement with 11 million website visitors.

Speaking about the collaboration, Welcome to Yorkshire’s director of strategic delivery James Mackenzie, said: “We must understand our customers even better than before. That means segmenting our data to tailor relevant and timely messages – for a range of demographics – and responding to individual of-the-moment online behaviours and attitudes.

“Utilising Force24, we can refine content and automate routine tasks to give employees 50% of their working day back. Those vital hours can be better spent to further support our members and their customers.”

Predicting a bumper summer for the region – Covid-permitting – James not only wants to promote the region throughout the UK, but also appeal to a growing international customer base.

“Our Walkshire campaign generated one million social media impressions in 24 hours. And when we post about television shows – such as ‘All Creatures Great and Small’, set in the Yorkshire Dales, and Castle Howard’s ‘Bridgerton’ – our engagement goes through the roof,” he added.

“The insight is there. It’s now about helping members to unlock it and reap the benefits – that’s where Force24 comes in,” he added.

Commenting on the future of tourism and the industry’s ongoing recovery, James said: “It’s been unbearable for businesses, many of which have either ceased trading or are struggling to survive.

“We’re at a tipping point and have to support organisations by investing in the right digital solutions so we can engage with more customers. What better way to achieve this than via a fellow Yorkshire-business such as Force24?”

Explaining how Welcome to Yorkshire can benefit from automated processes, Adam Oldfield, managing director of Force24, added: “This team isn’t about sending the same bland message to all – it wants to deliver relevant, ultra-individualised comms that resonate with visitors. “By tailoring messages through dynamic, segmented data – and letting automation do manually intensive tasks – the brand can focus on providing quality customer support via sophisticated, targeted multichannel content sent to the right person, at the right time, and via the right channel.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Katie Mallinson .