We invested in marketing technology to drive business growth

The problem

Stoke-on-Trent business Blue Bay Travel had to rework internal processes after receiving a £6.5m investment. There was greater demand for “digestible” business insights to help departments make informed decisions. But sourcing these insights was time-consuming and the company recognised that its basic digital approach needed help from marketing technology.

The solution

Blue Bay Travel decided to focus on the marketing department and make sure its basic structure could support the rest of the business. The decision was made to create two sub-teams, with the campaign team expanding and the introduction of a marketing intelligence team, with a clear focus on data analysis, reporting and business insights.

This intelligence team covered all aspects of the growing business, including helping the campaign and product teams make decisions around new activity, supporting sales and finance with business and agent performance and helping marketing create personalised content.

The team also implemented a state-of-the-art reporting suite, which head of marketing Lauren Taylor believes has become “integral” to learning, analysis and decision making.

The results

Looking at the impact, the process helped Blue Bay Travel understand how critical data is to the business. A year after investing in its digital structure, the company increased year-on-year sales by 71 per cent and more than 30 per cent of their bookings are now made online. The business has also increased staff numbers by a third.

“MI data has provided the foundations of a proactive, efficient and innovative business,” Taylor said. “It was uncharted territory for us, but it’s been exciting to take a bold, strategic step into the area. Now our focus is making use of our new technology to drive future business growth.”