This 101 for email marketing will just hit on the basics of getting an effective send out the door to your audience. We’ll be making making a few assumptions in that you already have an opt-in email strategy and have selected your send platform, know your audience and have an overall marketing strategy in place.
Step #1: Determine Your Goals
Every email should have a measurable goal. Typically for a hotelier this means direct bookings, however it can also encompass guest relations, sharing information, or driving social engagement. Regardless of your goal, you should understand what you are trying to accomplish and have a plan to measure if you succeed. For a typical monthly newsletter type send the goals may be a mix of driving bookings and maintaining awareness with your list.
- Revenue KPIs: Bookings, Revenue, Calls
- Engagement/Awareness KPIs: Opens, Clicks
Step #2: Decide Upon Or Create Your Content:
Building a sound email marketing strategy largely depends on your ability to send the right message to the right guests at the right time. While it goes beyond the scope of our 101 series, we do recommend you have an annual email calendar to help you identify what you need to promote. Though typically for a general newsletter-type send we would have the following:
- Main offer/promotion: typically a money saving deal
- Secondary offer/promotion: news, seasonal content, etc
- Site main conversion points: items such as amenity feature, area, static “offers” area, etc
- Other content that works great include:
- Video promotions
- Area or seasonal guide
Step #3: Build Your Email:
Now that your content outline is complete it’s time to start putting pen to paper, or in this case content into system. We recommend developing a standard template that is in your email platform to allow you to quickly swap out images, headlines, copy, and links. In most platforms, be it MailChimp, ConstantContact, ExactTarget, or our preference of Fuel Mail, you will have a content editor that makes HTML knowledge unnecessary. Regardless of your platform, here are a few tips to make your content easier to develop, but also better for your recipients:
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