Talking to past and future customers through email has always been easier, quicker, and more budget-friendly than other forms of marketing for businesses across different industries.
NB: This is an article from Hotelchamp
On average, businesses expect to get $42 back for every $1 they spend on hotel email marketing. The great thing about using email marketing is that it doesn’t just bring in a good return on investment, but it also helps build a solid, ongoing relationship between you and your guests.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter and stay up to date
The secret to making email your best tool is easy: deliver messages that are timely, relevant, and hyper-personalized. You don’t need a fancy email marketing platform with all the extra features to see a quick return on investment (ROI), just make sure your team focuses on sending strong, purposeful messages that offer real value.
Building and Nurturing Your Email Mailing List
You don’t have to wait until you have a large list of subscribers before you start sending out emails. In fact, it’s vital to begin the moment you get your first signup. It’s crucial to keep encouraging new sign-ups since your subscriber list will naturally decline over time. Making sure you are consistently attracting new subscribers will be key to keeping a strong mailing list.
Fortunately, there are many ways to keep your list growing. You can place an opt-in form on landing pages, headers, footers, and elsewhere on your website. The checkout process also presents an ideal opportunity to invite customers to subscribe to your marketing emails while your hotel is fresh in their minds and they already recognise the value in your services. Adding an opt-in link to transactional emails (like booking confirmations, inquiries, etc.) makes it convenient for recipients to subscribe without having to exit their inbox.”
Building a strong mailing list is about focusing on the quality rather than the number of subscribers. Make sure to use “clean” data collected directly from guests or guest activity instead of outdated information or data from an inherited list. The better your email deliverability, the more trusted your sender reputation becomes, allowing for more email opens, click-throughs and conversions.
You can encourage guests to sign up for your newsletter by offering an incentive.
The First Impression Counts
The welcome email is the most crucial one you’ll send during your entire relationship with your customer. It not only sets the tone for your brand and builds trust but also lays the groundwork for what your subscribers should expect from your hotel. With that in mind, your welcome email also needs to be sent on the same day that a new subscriber joins your email list. Ideally, a welcome email should be sent within minutes after someone subscribes. If you’re offering them a perk like a discount or gift, they’ll want it sooner rather than later.
It’s always best to capitalise on your users’ interest as soon as they sign up. Subscribers who receive welcome emails enjoy 33% more engagement with a business than those who don’t. This is the ideal opportunity to introduce yourself and feature your hotel’s best services. Thank them for subscribing, and include a summary of the kinds of emails they’ll receive, how often you’ll send them, and the usual welcome offer.
Top Strategies for Successful Email Marketing
1. Crafting Personalised Email Messages
Subscribers now expect more from brands upon joining mailing lists. They expect to receive relevant and hyper-personalized content from the very first email they receive. Leverage dynamic content and craft your messaging based on user data you’ve collected through your online forms as well as preferences you’ve learned from their stays/bookings. When you tailor email content to build off of these interactions, you’ll create a solid foundation of trust with your subscribers.
