Email marketing can be an extremely powerful tool in helping to increase direct bookings, improve customer engagement and build brand loyalty. But it is essential that when expanding organically through email lists you prioritize quality over quantity.
Hoteliers can increase revenue with upsells like room upgrades, exclusive experiences and special packages with the proper tools and strategies in place. But doing this requires careful planning and careful targeting.
1. Create a simple signup form on your website
Cultivating an organic email list is vital in the hotel industry as it ensures you only contact customers who wish to hear from you and to abide by anti-spam regulations and avoid being marked as spam by your audience.
Step one of creating an effective signup form on your website should be creating a basic signup form that only requests one piece of information at a time, encouraging visitors to subscribe without having to think too hard about filling in all those different fields. Fly by Jing is an ecommerce store selling spices with an intuitive form which only requires their email address and name for subscribers to subscribe.
Consider including an opt-in box during the booking or check-in process that allows guests to subscribe to marketing emails, helping you build your list more quickly while mitigating risk associated with inheriting or purchasing lists. This approach may speed up list growth while eliminating potential future cleanup.
Make sure your signup form appears as a lead capture asset in ads so it reaches users when they are out and about, and more likely to respond positively to what your offer has to offer. This way, users will have an opportunity to sign up while still on the move!
Put a link to your signup form in your website’s footer so it’s easily found by visitors, and make sure you thank new subscribers in a welcome email and provide an overview of all the offers they can expect to see from you. This will set your brand apart and increase chances of converting new subscribers.
2. Opt-in to your newsletters
Email marketing can be an excellent way for hotels to stay in contact with their guests and promote future bookings. With the appropriate strategy in place, hotels can reap all of the advantages provided by personalized emails targeted specifically at guests.
One way of doing this is to encourage users to sign up for your newsletters. Make this clearly evident on your website or even incorporate it into the booking process – this way, you’ll collect more contact info while offering users an effortless sign-up experience.
Social media can also help your hotel to expand their email database. Lead ad campaigns with signup forms on both Facebook and Instagram can provide an efficient means of growing it cost-effectively and successfully.
Once you’ve collected an impressive list of contacts, it’s time to send targeted emails. By using data from your booking history to segment your list into groups based on interests and demographics, it will allow you to send tailored emails that are more likely to resonate with them and lead to increased click-through rates.
As an example, if a guest stayed with you last summer and enjoyed your spa facilities, offering them a discount next time they book could demonstrate your dedication to keeping guests satisfied and engaged with your establishment.
At the core of successful hotel email marketing lies building an automation workflow to serve every step in customer journey from reservation confirmations, pre-arrival tips and post-stay follow ups. Implement an automation on a recurring basis before expanding it as you learn what works for your hotel.
3. Send a welcome email
Emails are the ideal way to engage with customers, promote your hotel, and offer discounts. A welcome email should set the stage for future communications while showing guests that you care for and appreciate their business.
Welcome emails typically begin by thanking subscribers for subscribing and inviting them to stay engaged with the brand. Subject lines play a large role in reader engagement – to stand out in an inbox, consider using creative subject lines that pique curiosity or create urgency in subscribers.
An effective welcome email should also provide subscribers with information on the types and frequency of emails they’ll be receiving in future communications from you. This helps build trust while also avoiding spamming their inboxes with spammy advertisements. Furthermore, offering opt-in for your newsletter during checkout or transactional emails such as booking confirmations may increase customer retention rates significantly.
Stacking the Bricks uses their welcome email to introduce themselves, give some background on their company, and entice new subscribers with an offer. In addition, they ask their subscribers about their goals and struggles so they can tailor future emails more specifically and create helpful content.
4. Segment your list
Email marketing provides hotels with the unique opportunity to establish a personal connection with their recipients. By using appropriate software and best practices, hotel emails can feel tailored specifically for recipients – creating increased engagement rates and ultimately better returns on your email marketing investment for hotels.
No matter if they’re leisure or business travelers, each of your subscribers has distinct expectations of your hotel. Leveraging data from past stays or guest behavior to segment your list allows you to send the most pertinent content for each group – which increases email engagement, creates loyalty among guests, and drives bookings.
Segmenting your email list can be as easy as categorizing individuals by their age, room type or location. More advanced strategies include categorizing people based on purchasing habits, dates of stay and purpose of travel. With some extra work and creativity you could even include tailored offers, restaurant recommendations or tips about activities nearby in your email campaigns.
Permission-based email marketing is a critical element of any hotel’s digital marketing strategy. Ensuring only those who have signed up to receive your emails opt in is vital for engaging prospects and customers while staying compliant with anti-spam laws such as GDPR. Display an opt-in form prominently on your website in headers/footers of each page for visitors, consider offering incentives to drive signups, and ask guests at both check-in and checkout to subscribe as this double opt-in process will increase conversions and reduce unsubscribers/unsubscribers/unsubscribers/unsubscribers/unsubscribers!
5. Automate your emails
Email automation allows you to send tailored emails based on specific criteria, like location, booking dates and type of stay. This enables your emails to remain relevant while providing a greater return than mass communications. Furthermore, it enables you to offer past guests deals and promotions, helping boost revenue from them.
However, when using email automation you must take care not to bombard your audience with irrelevant messages that will only be ignored and may lead to unsubscription from your list. Therefore it is crucial that you segment your list using data collected directly from guest interactions and use clean data which reflects this reality.
An effective and simple way to get started with email automation is by creating a welcome series that automatically enrolls new subscribers. This provides a way for newcomers to get acquainted with what your hotel can offer them and let them know what to expect when signing up with you.
Once your list is in place, you can begin automating communications through advanced triggers and rules. For instance, set up an automated series that sends past guests an email every month with specials and events in their area; this will set your hotel apart from its OTA competitors while building strong customer loyalty.
An effective strategy to increase revenue and retain guests is sending out regular emails with tips and advice on how to maximize their stay at your hotel. Doing this will not only increase revenue from past guests, but it can also help retain them by making the emails relevant and interesting so that they aren’t seen as spam or ignored; for maximum engagement include including their name in the subject line to create a tailored experience for them.