Sakura Travel
Project Overview
The company is a Japanese travel agency focused on selling domestic airline tickets. We maintained regular communication with customers through two platforms: Blastmail (email) and LINE (messaging app), delivering content once a week.
In 2023, we had 461,611 email subscribers and 17,646 LINE followers. These numbers grew significantly in 2024, reaching 918,972 email subscribers and 21,251 LINE followers.
Although the company had tools to extract customer behavior data, they had not been used in past content planning or design. The project director requested a new approach that would leverage this data. I took the initiative to analyze user behavior and seasonal travel trends and reflect the insights in my weekly visuals and messaging.
My responsibilities included:
- Analyzing customer data
- Designing email and social media images
- Writing copy for LINE posts
- Collaborating with a director and external email copywriter
Role
Graphic Designer
Social Media Copywriter
Data Analyst
Collaborators
Project Director
Email Copywriter
Project Duration
3 days per content piece
Challenge
Design a compelling visual for email and social media to promote a travel agency, with the goal of driving traffic to the company’s website.
Solution
Develop visually engaging and well-structured graphics paired with targeted copy. The content was customized based on customer behavior, seasonal travel trends, and promotional offers to maximize engagement and conversions.
Approach
STEP1: Discover
To organize user purchase data, I created a database and analyzed the information using SQL. I then compiled the analysis into a spreadsheet that was updated weekly for easy reference. Additionally, I conducted research on seasonal events across different regions of Japan and reviewed visuals from previous campaigns to identify key information to incorporate into new designs.
STEP2: Define
While identifying the target audience, I discovered that over half of email subscribers and 73% of social media followers were women, although actual purchasers skewed slightly male. Based on this insight, I chose to focus the design direction on appealing to women by using visual styles and messaging tailored to this demographic. I also reviewed seasonal events and current discount offers each week, proposed several content themes to the director, and refined the direction based on their feedback.
STEP3: Develop
After deciding on the weekly theme, I designed a hero image for email and social media using Adobe Photoshop. The visuals were carefully created to clearly communicate recommended destinations, the discount period, and the lowest available airfare on the most attractive route. For copywriting, I wrote social media captions in a friendly tone and used emojis to enhance relatability and engagement. I also collaborated with an external email copywriter by providing them with the key points to include in the email.
STEP4: Deliver
To finalize the content, I gathered feedback from the project director and made necessary revisions to both the design and text. After delivery, I reviewed performance metrics such as website traffic and click-through rates. I compared each week’s results with previous campaigns to determine what strategies worked well and how future designs could be improved.
Outcome
By integrating data-driven insights into the content strategy, we saw strong engagement across platforms: Average email CTR: 3.94%, Average LINE CTR: 15.81%.
In addition to consistent open and click-through rates, subscriber numbers nearly doubled on email from 2023 to 2024, suggesting improved value perception and engagement.
The weekly content became more targeted and effective in capturing user interest—particularly among our core audience of female followers.
This project not only enhanced customer communication and visual consistency but also established a sustainable workflow for using customer data to inform design and messaging.