Email reminders prior to guests arriving are an integral component of hotel marketing, serving as the final digital touchpoint before guests enter your property.
Informational or promotional, content marketing can take various forms. From blogs, region’s histories, guided tours and updates to keeping readers engaged with your brand – these types of posts will keep readers interested and loyal to it!
Sending Emails at the Right Time
Email marketing is an effective way to generate booking inquiries, confirm bookings and engage current guests. But to maximize its effectiveness, sending emails at the appropriate time is key – according to Oaky’s study on hotel marketing emails between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. is proven the optimal time, when most people check their emails and the highest conversion rates occur.
Not only should you consider the timing and content of your emails, but it’s equally essential to think about their message. For instance, including a call-to-action such as booking a stay or offering to sign up for your newsletter can increase click-through rates significantly. Attractive visuals also have been proven to increase click-through rates.
Apart from promotions and deals, email is also an effective tool to inform guests about what’s going on at your hotel and nearby. This is particularly effective at drawing tourists in from out of town; for example, share photos of beautiful gardens or unique dining options in order to encourage potential guests to visit. You could even inform people of local events happening during their stay, such as festivals celebrations or concerts that might take place nearby.
One effective email strategy for hotels is segmenting their email lists according to booking history and preferences, so that specific groups of customers receive relevant messages and offers, thereby increasing ROI. Send a pre-stay email to business travelers that emphasizes meeting and conference rooms as well as WiFi speed; luxury travelers could be intrigued by spa or concierge services of your hotel. Your hotel can also send an email after each stay to past guests to solicit feedback and encourage them to return or refer others. However, making too many communications could cause customer irritation and lead to unsubscribing from future mailings; opt for sending regular updates instead to keep guests engaged with what your hotel has to offer.
Designing Emails
Email marketing is one of the most effective tools for cultivating leads and turning them into customers, providing tailored content at exactly the right moment to build trust and strengthen loyalty among leads. Therefore, it is crucial to keep an eye on and analyze email campaign metrics to inform future campaigns with information-packed decisions on how best to proceed.
Though one size does not fit all, a thoughtful email marketing calendar can help your strategy more successfully. No matter if you run an ecommerce brand that drives customers both online and into retail stores or are part of an in-house marketing department with multiple staffers; your success requires having an effective email marketing plan in place.
An email marketing calendar is essential in streamlining campaigns and meeting deadlines, giving visibility into task statuses and giving everyone on your team an understanding of what to expect next. Free project management tools like Trello are ideal for creating such calendars and keeping tabs on every step in your process.
When creating an email marketing calendar, it is vital to include all pertinent details. You should record the purpose and desired outcome for each campaign as well as leave room for A/B testing of subject lines, designs and call-to-action buttons – this way you’ll know which resonate most with your target audience.
Finally, make sure that your email marketing calendar is regularly updated in order to stay on top of your goals and engage your target audience. In addition, this allows you to adjust campaign timing or frequency according to performance insights or unexpected events.
Moosend, an email marketing and automation software provider, has taken an innovative approach to email marketing by including key details for each campaign in their calendar. Their template contains information such as campaign name and goal; owner (who is accountable for running it); current status; send date; time; subscriber segmentation list (subscriber segmentations), subject line text preview text preview text etc. This approach provides your team with a clear understanding of what awaits them with each email marketing campaign.
Sending Emails at the Right Place
Timing of hotel email campaigns is of utmost importance in their success. For instance, if you offer newcomer-focused welcome sequences that ask potential guests their arrival date (and potentially offer upgrades or free breakfast if booked during this window), it’s crucial that 9 or 10 days before their check in, remind them about this offer again so they have time to make their decision and increase conversion rates.
Email should also be used to nurture leads before they decide to book with you. One effective method of doing this is creating a newsletter email providing local highlights or tips to those planning a trip to your area. Emails like this provide great exposure for your property without being overtly sales-focused, while at the same time acting as lead magnets to expand your email list.
Once a guest is booked with your hotel, emails can help them make the most out of their stay. Send them a pre-arrival email that gives them an opportunity to inform the hotel of any special needs or preferences they might have (such as child-friendly meals, spa services or airport transfers) which allows you to upsell extra services and increase revenue.
After their stay, you can entice repeat bookings by sending an email with a coupon code offering them a discounted booking. In addition, include links for reviews or feedback requests or even invite them to follow your hotel on social media. Email newsletters can be sent on either a weekly or monthly basis depending on what frequency you decide for them, but beware sending too many messages – this could turn guests off immediately! Testing email scheduling to find the optimal time and date to send emails can help your campaign achieve maximum returns on investment. You can do this by testing different times and seeing which generates higher open rates, click throughs, and bookings.
Testing Emails
Email marketing calendars are indispensable tools that will allow you to plan, prepare, and execute the best content to drive more conversions and monitor and track campaign performance. Achieving maximum effectiveness requires more than using an appropriate template – setting clear goals and understanding your audience is necessary for creating an effective email marketing calendar.
Email marketing campaigns aim to entice potential customers to purchase your products and services, so understanding which emails your target audience prefers is vital for crafting email content relevant to them and increasing conversion rates. Public-oriented audiences require weekly newsletters with seasonal campaigns; industry-focused audiences require blog promotion or free trial offers as part of an effective email campaign strategy.
Refine is an ideal subject line testing tool, enabling you to assess which subject lines work better and then incorporate those with the highest open rates into your marketing calendar. It will also prevent sending similar-sounding emails that might irritate subscribers or have low open rates, helping keep open rates high for each campaign.
Finally, email marketing campaign statuses can help you quickly identify campaigns that require more focus or aren’t performing as expected. By assessing the performance of email campaigns, you can make adjustments to their content, design, or sending times that enhance performance and make improvements that drive results.
An email marketing calendar is essential for any hotel, as it enables you to produce more effective and targeted content for customers. Planning ahead and coordinating with other marketing channels allows your brand to stay top of mind with audiences on a consistent basis, which builds trust while increasing engagement levels. Plus, using an email marketing calendar saves both time and resources by helping reduce stress around coming up with ideas for campaigns at the last minute – as well as providing peace of mind knowing everything has been planned correctly!