First off, the hospitality industry is already a full-blown direct response industry.
That might not be so obvious to the untrained eye, but you just need to know where to look.
Take this, for example.
Every time an OTA charges a commission, that commission is based on a verifiable ROI. That’s the only way they can make the super-affiliate relationship work.
From a hotel’s perspective, this is good because management can always reason that, “If we spend 20%, we’re still left with 80% in revenue… and something’s better than nothing…”
And the OTAs can use the same mental calculation, measuring costs against profits, to steadily grow their businesses.
It’s pretty simple, right? But it’s powerful because it’s scientific.
And as the direct response practice of testing and tracking results on everything we do becomes more and more widespread, there are 5 fundamental ways it’s going to change the way we do business in the hospitality industry.
1. Direct booking campaigns will push hotels to use more transactional emails:
Since 2015-16, when most hotel bookings shifted to on-line channels, directors of marketing have been, increasingly, looking for ways to up their on-line conversion game. And one of the least expensive ways to do that has been to follow the OTAs’ example and invest in automated email marketing.
With a high degree of track-ability already built in to these systems, it’s been easy for marketers to show increased engagement levels, larger numbers of sign-ups to their loyalty programs and, most importantly, a higher, total return on investment. (ROI)
Following the OTAs continued use of this medium, I believe it’s only a matter of time until every hotel catches on and sets up their own email marketing funnels… to keep communication flowing… and reservations coming in…
Again, exactly like the OTAs, I have no doubt hotels will keep pushing these transactional emails until people either unsubscribe, or die from old age.
Read rest of the article at HotelOnline
