U.K.-based travel company delivers more e-mail through social networks

East Coast, a U.K. travel company, recently teamed with the e-mail marketing and marketing automation specialists at Silverpop Systems Inc. to explore more effective uses of e-mail marketing.

East Coast, which assists over 17 million passengers in England and Scotland, sought to expand on its customer base by delivering its message through Facebook and other social networks.

“Simply placing social network links in our e-mails allowed us to reach a whole new set of potential customers,” says East Coast brand and communications controller Sara Borland. “In a recent ‘one-way fares’ campaign, hundreds of customers shared the offer on their social networking pages on Digg, Facebook and MySpace. 17% of posted links garnered at least one open, and 33% who opened a post then clicked. These are people we may never have reached otherwise.”

Another client working with Silverpop is the Society of London Theatre, the association representing theater owners and managers of the major theaters in central London. The organization says it successfully targeted specific age groups with different e-mail campaigns. “Using an age-centric subject line, we managed to double average open rates for subscribers in the 16-26 age group,” says Phillippa Salvoni, head of publishing at the theatre group.