Email marketing for hotels can be a complex endeavor that requires a dedicated team of marketers, researchers, copywriters and developers in order to execute effective campaigns. Luckily, there are tools available that help hoteliers automate these processes.
Stay-cycle emails, also referred to as automated messages triggered in response to guest travel and tailored to their journey with a hotel, are designed to create an experience-rich journey that includes booking confirmation emails, upsell offers, post-stay surveys and post-stay surveys.
1. Create a compelling offer
Email marketing is an effective way of creating brand recognition and nurturing leads, as well as promoting special offers or events at hotels. In order to maximize results, emails must be both informative and engaging in order to be most successful.
Value creation for subscribers is of utmost importance in any hotel marketing strategy, so making your message clear in both subject lines and bodies of your emails is vital for their retention. Failing this may lead to subscribers becoming annoyed or simply not opening your mail anymore – leading to missed revenue opportunities!
Personalizing content can also increase click and open rates by segmenting subscriber lists according to subscriber preferences, so they receive only content they are most interested in receiving.
Finally, make it easy for subscribers to opt-out. While it can be upsetting when people leave your list, maintaining a healthy unsubscribe rate is vitally important if your EMS charges you according to subscriber count; sending messages to people who are no longer interested costs money! Luckily, unsubscribes can usually be managed easily in most EMS software; simply set it to automatically remove emails which haven’t opened or clicked for some period of time if that is what’s desired.
2. Collect email addresses organically
Your hotel requires a solid email list in order to maximize email marketing success, which means collecting organic contact emails through channels like website newsletter sign-ups, booking engines, social media posts, mobile messaging campaigns, on-property signage or checking in guests directly. Incentives could include local travel tips, special perks or discounted stays – so start collecting those email addresses now!
Once you have accumulated a sufficient number of email contacts, verify them to ensure that there will not be a high bounce rate which could have an adverse impact on deliverability. Most ESPs offer email validation tools; alternatively third-party software may help clean your list. By taking steps to keep your list healthy, you can increase its effectiveness and ultimately attract more guests staying in your hotel.
With an optimized email list in hand, it becomes much simpler to send content that converts. Leveraging hotel email campaign templates, it becomes even simpler to automate and segment emails so each subscriber receives content tailored specifically to them – for example a business traveler coming for an event months from now may require pre-stay instructions with directions and Wi-Fi passwords while returning guests may only require post-stay surveys for feedback.
3. Remove invalid emails
Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal for building strong relationships with potential guests and driving revenue for your hotel. However, like any tool it requires an understanding and adept use.
One key takeaway should be that lists will inevitably become outdated and require regular cleaning to maintain deliverability and reduce bounce rate while keeping email marketing costs at a minimum.
Your email list can be cleaned in several ways, from using professional verification services or manually validating it yourself. A reliable email verification service should perform multiple checks to ensure accuracy for every address on your list, saving both time and money by automatically removing invalid ones from it.
Reducing bounce rate and improving campaign analytics. By eliminating invalid email addresses from your list, you’ll be able to focus more on those who open and click your emails.
4. Make it easy for people to unsubscribe
Email marketing can be an excellent way to demonstrate how much you care for your guests, but it must not overwhelm subscribers with irrelevant or salesy material that appears too aggressively promotional. Furthermore, make it simple for people to opt-out.
Reducing unsubscribe rates by making unsubscribing complex, time-consuming or confusing will only cause people to opt-out faster – and may even report your emails as spam – which damages deliverability.
Your hotel website should include an unsubscribe option with one-click capability; it should ideally appear either in the header or footer for easy use. Consider offering incentives like early check-in times or room upgrades as a way to entice more people to opt-in – these could make people interested in your email campaigns!
Email marketing stands apart from other channels because each subscriber’s experience with it can be delivered and tracked individually, making it essential that your emails are tailored specifically to the demographics and preferences of your guests. Fuel’s email marketing system makes this task easy – using guest data from your PMS to craft targeted and effective emails campaigns based on personalization with ease – discover more today about its powerful yet user-friendly solution!
5. Be consistent
Email marketing is an invaluable way to nurture guests and turn them into long-term visitors of your hotel. Pre-arrival emails, upselling and cross-selling emails or simply asking guests about their experience are great tools to keep your guests coming back!
Your email marketing program must be consistent for maximum effect, whether that means weekly, bi-weekly or monthly emails being sent out. Doing this will keep your hotel top of mind with potential guests and may prompt more bookings as guests opt-in at booking their stay to receive marketing emails directly. You could even include a signup form on your website which allows guests to opt in before booking their stay!
Place the form in an obvious spot or use a lightbox that appears after guests spend some time browsing your site. As an incentive to sign up, consider offering things such as free room vouchers, discount offers or local event recommendations.
Keep an eye on your email metrics as a sudden decline in click or open rates could signal that your list needs cleaning up, prompting re-engagement campaigns or removal of unresponsive subscribers from the list. If this trend continues, perhaps exploring a different email marketing provider that offers more advanced metrics and automation features could help.
6. Don’t buy lists
Purchase of email lists may seem like an easy and efficient way to expand your reach and email engagement, but in truth it could backfire and harm your brand. Sending unsolicited emails without prior consent could result in unsubscribing or reporting it as spam; which in turn reduces deliverability rates which means less people see your future messages.
Rent and buy lists often contain invalid or fake addresses that cause your emails to bounce, damaging both your reputation as a marketer and placing your own email account in jeopardy – especially since email service providers like Gmail and Outlook don’t want you associated with accounts that repeatedly send unwanted content.
Maintaining a tidy email list not only increases deliverability, but it allows you to focus on crafting engaging content that engages subscribers and customers. Regularly scrub your list, keeping an eye out for signs that it’s time to do so.
Hotels typically do not rely on massive databases, making email marketing solutions that work effectively with smaller numbers of dynamic guests a must. With an effective platform in place, running A/B tests to optimize email content for specific audiences will lead to increased hotel bookings.