Are your email campaigns’ click-through-rates underwhelming? If so, it’s time for a rethink.
NB: This is an article from eTourism
Here are 7 simple but powerfully effective methods to improve your hotel’s email CTR, so you can boost levels of engagement and drive more guests back to your hotel’s website to book.
1. Less is More
It’s simple: shortening your emails will increase the likelihood that guests actually find out about your offer before they get bored and hit delete. Another good way to overcome the short attention span we all have online is to frontload your most important copy so it gets seen first.
2. Don’t Forget Social Sharing Buttons
Emails which include social sharing options are shown to generate up to 30% more clicks than emails which don’t include any at all, according to research by Econsultancy.
Even if your guests decide your email’s offer isn’t for them, they might have a friend or family member who is interested. Add social sharing buttons to your hotel’s emails and boost your CTR while giving a wider network of travellers the chance to find out about your property.
3. Segment, Segment, Segment
If you’ve been following our blog for awhile, you’ll know we harp on about the importance of email segmentation a lot. But that’s because it’s crucial to CTR, and in fact the entire success of your hotel’s email campaigns.
By drawing on your knowledge of your guests and segmenting your contact list into distinct groups based on booking history, location, demographic information and more, you can get super targeted with your messaging and avoid sending out irritating and irrelevant content. The result? Email marketing campaigns that strike the right note with the right people at the right time and voila – a boosted CTR.
4. Keep It Simple
When you’re emailing your guests to promote a special offer or drive any other particular call to action, don’t give them a chance to get distracted by links to your blog posts, other pages, or list multiple offers in the hope that one of them does the trick.
If the goal of your email is to encourage more of your contacts to connect with you on social media, then that’s what your email’s heading, copy, image and CTA should drive home. Remove any distractions that don’t relate to this CTA for a better chance of driving clicks.
5. Include a Prominent CTA
Speaking of CTAs, make yours large, prominent and unmistakable.
6. Generate A Sense Of Urgency
Making your offers available for a limited time only forces guests to act quickly, making it an almost sure-fire way to boost your click through rate. Don’t feel guilty – if your list is well segmented, you’re reaching out with an offer that perfectly suits their needs.
7. Go Mobile Or Go Home
It’s a no-brainer: if you’re not optimizing your emails for mobile, you’re completely alienating the majority of your guests, who, along with everybody else, are using their mobile devices to access their emails.
What do you think? How are you working to improve CTR on your hotel’s email campaigns?
