Email marketing automation is an efficient and valuable tool that enables hospitality brands to build relationships and foster loyalty with their guests, while at the same time creating more personalized communications which deliver tangible results and distinguish their hotel brand in a competitive industry.
Example: If a guest subscribes to your email list through your website, an automated sequence could confirm their subscription while also upselling spa packages and restaurant reservations.
1. Segmentation
Email marketing is one of the most cost-effective digital solutions for hospitality marketing, helping businesses stay in contact with customers throughout their journey. However, no single approach works when engaging guests; highly tailored and personalized emails have become ever more essential to customer engagement.
Hospitality marketers can utilize advanced email automation techniques to segment their guest database into targeted, tailored communications by using data such as demographics, booking history, preferred amenities and travel purposes to gain an in-depth understanding of what each guest desires from their hotel stay experience.
Hotels can use this data to effectively deliver messages at just the right time and foster guest loyalty. Pre-arrival upsell emails can increase revenue per guest by offering them additional services that match their interests; post-stay surveys can identify promoters and detractors in your guest base – giving hotels an opportunity to connect with those they feel don’t care for while showing they listen and strive to improve guest experiences.
An effective email automation strategy goes beyond transactional emails; it can also be used to promote new services or offers that meet guest preferences and drive conversions. For instance, hospitality marketers could use data analysis to recognize that someone hasn’t visited the spa recently and provide them with attractive spa package offers as a targeted promotion.
Email automation also assists in cleaning out databases by identifying disengaged subscribers and removing them, creating a more engaged audience. Furthermore, tools like Hotjar provide automated user testing and feedback collection on websites, helping hospitality businesses deliver an enjoyable online experience for their guests.
2. Automation
Email automation can not only save time but can also make your marketing campaigns more successful. Automated emails can send personalized messages directly to customers and help create a more tailored customer experience. As an example, you could create a series of emails highlighting your hotel’s features and amenities to increase bookings during peak travel seasons. Furthermore, automating email prioritization ensures critical messages such as customer support requests and sales leads are addressed swiftly; with Revinate Marketing’s Smart Actions App and Email-to-Anything feature combined with their Email Prioritization feature you can automatically categorize and prioritize emails so the important ones get addressed first.
Automated email messages can also help promote repeat business and upsell services. For instance, sending pre-visit emails can build excitement around rooms or packages during booking, while post-visit follow ups are great way to foster loyalty and promote repeat bookings. You could even use automated messages as feedback requests after visits or purchases to further optimize products/services and the guest experience.
Set-it-and-forget-it campaigns enable you to run email reengagement campaigns that utilize customer data in an effective, inspiring, personalized manner. For example, an upgrade campaign sent directly to new incoming guests based on room inventory could create extra revenue while giving guests an unforgettable experience.
3. Personalization
Personalizing hospitality emails is a proven way to engage your guests and build loyalty among your visitors. Email personalization can be achieved using dynamic content or targeted offers based on past behavior.
If a hotel guest has booked multiple stays over time, offering them a loyalty discount is an effective way to show appreciation. An email automation platform makes this easy.
Personalizing emails by showing products or services relevant to each subscriber’s browsing history can also help. For instance, if someone has been interested in purchasing certain furniture pieces but has been put off due to cost concerns, an email displaying discounted options could still have a big impactful effect.
Personalization goes beyond offering tailored discounts – it can also create tailored experiences at your hotel. For example, sending out welcome emails that include details about destinations and attractions relevant to their interests can help create tailored stays at your hotel. Or if it’s located in a bustling city like Los Angeles, showing visitors tours and activities popular in that locale is another effective strategy.
Personalization can also help make guests feel valued, creating lasting memories with them. AI/ML technologies take personalized greetings even further by analyzing large datasets and anticipating customer behavior – creating highly relevant communications that increase hotel revenue.
4. Automation workflows
Marketing automation should be utilized strategically within your hospitality business. Implementing multiple campaigns, emails and messages that work in unison to create engaging experiences for guests can increase customer retention while building loyalty while increasing profits.
Marketing automation can save your team both time and resources. Automated emails allow you to automate repetitive tasks, like welcoming new customers or offering discounts after a purchase. If someone downloads your whitepaper, an automated message could thank them while reminding them about what products may best meet their needs.
Whenever a customer cancels or abandons their booking or purchasing process, you can send out a tailored reactivation campaign designed to persuade them to come back. By using various data sets to personalize these messages and draw back dormant customers into engaging with your brand again, reactivation campaigns may work well at inspiring returning customers.
Marketing automation makes it simple to schedule operational announcements for your staff. This tool helps foster transparency and strengthen workplace culture; for instance, sending an automated email when your hotel closes for maintenance or to inform employees of an upcoming event can foster workplace culture.
5. Reporting
Email analytics allow hospitality businesses to better understand the behavior and habits of their customers. With the appropriate tools, email analytics allow hospitality businesses to automate marketing campaigns based on certain behavior triggers; for instance, sending a reactivation campaign to guests who started booking but didn’t complete their purchase can help recoup lost revenue and encourage repeat visits.
Marketing automation can also help create welcoming sequences for new opt-ins. Automated emails can be set up once for each subscriber and left running automatically; they could include management contact info, upgrade offers, or special events happening at the hotel. Utilizing marketing automation will enable you to increase list size while improving open and click-through rates.
Email and SMS communication allow your hotel to connect with potential customers long before they book a stay. Send pre-arrival upsells or special offers on birthdays or anniversaries of guests as pre-arrival upsells; promote time-sensitive promotions during peak travel seasons, or offer last-minute booking incentives as time-sensitive incentives.
Hotels should take steps beyond email automation to use a CRM or PMS that integrates with email and social media platforms for seamless customer management and real-time data collection. In doing so, all data will remain centralized and easily accessible by employees while customer behavior tracking becomes simpler with real-time analytics.
A strong CRM or PMS solution should include hospitality automation features like post-purchase follow up automation and positive review thank you automation. Podium provides such solutions while helping businesses enhance the guest experience while streamlining operations and strengthening brand loyalty.