In this article, we show you a few ideas and secrets about how hotel business could benefit from email marketing. With forethought and just a little imagination, email marketing can be a superb revenue generator for many hotels, small or big.
If you use email marketing properly, there will be the potential of returning $38 for each $1 spent. That is a return on investment. And with Advantages like re-targeting clients who left your hotel’s site mid-booking, following up with guests’ prospective visits, and offering promotions to lure past guests into reuniting, it is no wonder 80 percent of SMBs, including hotels, use email advertising for retention purposes.
You can also use the A/B test for new advertising and marketing campaigns to determine which converts best and more! It might seem as though resorts have it created. After all, they gain off of making their customers’ vacation, and relaxation dreams a reality. Email marketing for hotels can be your hospitality business’ ticket to long-term relationships that are hotel-guest and repeat stays.
All you need is a little inspiration and a deal on some of the tools of this trade. Now just if you’re new to the whole email marketing for hotels business, here are some tips you need to know about hotel email marketing. Whether they want to admit it or not, your customers like hearing from you. Use these fantastic email marketing ideas as inspiration for your hotel marketing emails and begin increasing your open rates, bookings, and ROI.
The first step for turning email subscribers into loyal customers is building a good strong email list.
Making an outstanding email marketing list causes higher open rates, more exceptional click rates, and higher conversion rates.
Sure, that seems simple, but how do you go about developing an excellent email list?
First, examine the email list you currently have. Starting with all the people that have already agreed to receive an email from you is a wonderful way to appraise your advertising list’s value.
If you’ve been monitoring metrics like open rates, you ought to be aware of which readers are participating with your content and which ones aren’t. You now have two segments in your existing list.
Try sending a re-engagement campaign to your readers who are no more opening your emails to remind them why they subscribed in the first place. This effort should incorporate an offer such as even a free night’s stay or a sizable discount. Remember that the point is to be in touch with your subscribers again and get them back.
There is a double effect in the re-engagement campaign. Not only you make unengaged subscribers re-engage, and get higher open rates, but if they don’t want to re-engage, you could remove them from your list and concentrate on interested subscribers.
We know that its hard to remove those contacts from your list, but if you do that, your open rate will get higher, which leads to a more magnificent inbox arrangement, and the result would be much better.
To have the best customer relations, you need to make a pleasant experience for them. When a customer books a room, send them a confirmation email. The email content should be specific for them, not just a thank you note for booking! According to researches, the open rate for confirmation email is 17 percent higher than a newsletter or advertising email. So transaction email must include exciting content for the customer, such as the image below.
It’s much easier to persuade previous customers to book than to gain a new customer. So please don’t cut off communication with them and send them personalized emails.
You can send a special offer for their birthday and give them a discount.
When you make contact with your customers, it is necessary to show them that you know what they need. Whether they are a regular customer or just your prospects.
You need to include in your emails what all customers want. So you will need segmentation.
It is effortless for hotels to collect information. You can categorize this information to segment your email list.
Experience has shown that segmentation leads to an increase in the open rate and click rate and, of course, a lower bounce and unsubscribes rate.
To gather this information, it’s a good idea to ask guests and prospects to register their profiles on your website. Or you can talk to them when guests come to the hotel. Set up feedback forms for those staying at your hotel.
To segment your guests, you can divide them into local, intercity, international travelers, or birthdays in the spring, fall, or winter. You can separate families from people who come for business. The type of room and service they choose and the frequency of their traveling are other segments.
By doing this, you can divide your services into different sections. For example, if someone comes to your hotel for business, you can mention room service, internet speed, conference room, and business space.
One way to attract tourists to your hotel is to email them newsletters from places of interest or festivals in different seasons. This makes them wonder what awaits them if they come to your hotel. The image below is one of the newsletters that Tourism NYC sent to its contacts through the hotel’s email marketing.
Once you’ve launched your campaign and completed it, you need to evaluate its efficiency so that you can identify strengths and weaknesses and use them in the future.
Several criteria will help you measure them in your email marketing campaign. If your campaign is successful, you can repeat the content. Measuring these criteria will also help you identify weaknesses in your campaign. For example, if your open rate is high, but your click-through rate is low, you need to see if your offer is right for those to whom you sent the email, or if it was convincing enough. Or has it been clear to them at all?
You can increase your KPI when you find weaknesses.