A Sale of Two Cities

TravelZoo's weekly e-newsletter, Top 20, features beautiful offerings, in the form of discounted travel opportunities. But TravelZoo's e-newsletter also features unsightly – no, let's not mince words, it's ugly – messaging. And that's just the way Justin Soffer, Top 20's publisher, wants it.

According to Soffer, the graphics-free, courier text newsletter allows recipients to focus on its content – a list of 20 grab-'em-while-they're-hot travel opportunities, ranging from airfares to lodging to package deals.

The newsletter's header is no-frills and remains constant from issue to issue: It reiterates its purpose ("Every week we search 500+ companies for their very best sales and compile this Top 20 list"), offers a link for subscriptions and asks recipients to pass the publication along to a friend.

And then it lists the deals. Each lists the price first, then the destination, and then a sentence or sentence fragment offering a few details. The whole shebang clocks in at around 60 characters.

The next part of each two-sentence listing contains a URL that has been carefully designed to fit on a single line. A hefty segment of recipients may not be able to click on URLs that break over two lines, Soffer explains.

"We focus on information, and deals, and providing quick ways of reading," Soffer says. "We want to make it as easy as possible to read. Our competitors use HTML: We really want to focus on content."

The approach is working. The newsletter boasts 9.4 million readers within the U.S, another 300,000 within Canada, and 543,000 for a U. K. version. TravelZoo did not disclose the circulation figures for a newly launched German version. (Don't salivate, list brokers: Top 20's files aren't available, nor does it offer co-op marketing programs beyond letting travel marketers pay to be listed on the main Web site.)

The newsletter is primarily geared toward the leisure vacationer. Yes, says Soffer, it may attract some business travelers, but they tend to be a bit less flexible in their business plans: A business traveler will select a destination near a conference or a client, rather than entertaining a destination because of a good price.

Top 20 is not targeted based on demonstrated behavior. It could, but that would defeat its purpose: The 20 deals it lists, which are culled from 1,200 or so on its Web site – represent the best in the country for that given week. (Many, but not all, of the listings on the Web site are paid for by the promoting organization: Only the best ones make it into the newsletter.)

"We want to create a product for a national audience," he says. "All 10 million get good deals. Sometimes that means sending deals that aren't quite relevant [based on a subscriber's location]. If we use more targeting, it becomes harder to come up with 20 really good deals."

The newsletter is broadcast on or about 11 am on Wednesdays. By that time, most airlines have come out with the last-minute fares and sales, and consumers are ready to start thinking about weekend impulse trips. They'd better not think too long, however: The very best deals tend to get snapped up within a few hours.

A good deal can generate 200,000 clicks. One of Top 20's all-time hottest was a Las Vegas-based hotel package that generated $1 million in revenue from a single listing. Soffer freely admits that that was a rarity, but cautions "there's a good likelihood that if you think it's a good deal, a lot of other people think it's a good deal also."

So what deals stick out in his mind? Well, about three years ago, just after the SARS scare had ended, an airline offered a $249 round-trip fare from TravelZoo's headquarter city (New York) to Singapore. It was a vacation Soffer seriously contemplated taking himself. "The timing didn't work out," he says with regret.