You put a lot of work into creating engaging and relevant email promotions for your guests. But the big question is: who are you sending that message out to?
NB: This is an article from Fuel
Not every message is the right fit for every guest. Segmentation is a central component of your marketing efforts, whether you’re communicating via email or text. It is the process of dividing up your guests into specific lists based on different attributes. Segmentation ensures the right message is going to the right audience.
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Every marketer needs to do this. But hotels have very specific use cases. Some examples of email segmentation for hotels include:
- All previous guests
- Previous guests who stayed during a specific time of year
- Previous guests who stayed during a specific time of year and spent over a certain threshold
- Or, guests currently at the property for text message marketing
And so on! Slicing and dicing your marketing to create specific, targeted email campaigns will yield higher results than sending out the same message to a lot of people.
Why segmentation is important
There are many reasons why it’s important to segment your guests before you start marketing to them. Doing so will help you better understand your guests and better understand their spending patterns. It is helpful to understand exactly how many guests you have that fit specific profiles, and whether or not those guests are emailable.
What’s more, it will also make your marketing more impactful as you can target your message to a specific audience.
Creating a marketing campaign is a lot of work. Having good guest segmentation will have a higher ROI for your marketing overall. Sending a targeted message out to a small group that is more likely to convert will yield better results than a general one to a large group. If you send out a generic blast email to every single person in your database, you may get some results. But you’ll also get more unsubscribes than you would with targeted, personalized messaging. All of those unsubscribed guests will never hear from you again, hurting your marketing efforts in the long run.
Understanding segmentation for email marketing
You probably already have some guest segmentation knowledge from your overall revenue management strategy. Now it’s time to bring your understanding of your transient, corporate, group, or other market segments to your email marketing.
Use your knowledge of your market to increase the lifetime value of each guest through email marketing. It is the best way to reengage past guests—but to do so, you need to decide who you’re sending what. That’s where segmentation comes into play.
For example, if there’s a regular conference or networking event in your area, target travelers who stayed at your hotel during past events with a targeted campaign. Increase revenue by marketing your meeting rooms to those guests at a discounted rate. Or, target past leisure guests with spa, restaurant, or similar offerings. Email marketing is a great way to increase revenue without just offering discounted room rates and impacting your ADR.
Use your knowledge of your market segmentation to inform your overall email marketing plan. But in order to do any of this well, the big question is how you store and use that information.
Email segmentation technology for hotels
When looking for a platform to send marketing emails, hotels should invest in one that has key features and functionality that serve the hospitality industry. Your email automation system should connect to your property management system. This will allow you to send those all-important triggered emails before and after a guest’s stay. It will also allow you to leverage guest profile information in order to create segments.
Segmenting your hotel email marketing campaigns based on precise, hotel-specific parameters is the difference between success and failure. If you’re evaluating an email marketing system, consider one that has these important hotel integrations.
