Have you ever received a promotional email during Christmas or holiday seasons with such persuasive writing that you couldn’t resist? That’s the power of hospitality email marketing!
This blog serves as your comprehensive guide to hospitality email marketing tailored for the hospitality industry. You will learn about hospitality email marketing strategy from setting up your email campaigns to implementing top-notch strategies, all backed by real-life examples.
Are you ready to dive in and transform your hospitality business with effective email marketing? Let’s get started!
Table of Contents
What is Hospitality Email Marketing?
Hospitality email marketing is a popular strategy in hospitality marketing that focuses on delivering a personal touch.
Many hoteliers believe that, by sending tailored emails with customized content, promotions, and deals suited to each guest’s preferences, hotels can enhance guest experiences, attract new customers, boost bookings, foster loyalty, and increase revenue.
Yes, despite the emergence of social media and various digital communication platforms, email continues to be the go-to channel for hotels to establish a comprehensive distribution program, generate direct bookings, share exclusive deals, and enhance their online reputation management.
So, how to gather the email lists to execute our hospitality email marketing campaigns effectively? Find out as below:
Asking Directly
One effective method is to request email addresses from guests who have already visited and booked a stay at your hotel. This can typically be done during check-in or check-out.
The secret to success is being sincere and transparent when explaining why you need their email address. Let them know that you care about their experience and want to send relevant promotions and information tailored to their hotel stay preferences for their next stay.
You will be surprised how this can boost your customer loyalty.
Website
Collecting email addresses becomes simpler when you have a website in place.
You can include a subscription form that highlights the benefits of signing up, such as receiving newsletters or special offers. For instance, consider using a pop-up form on your website offering a 10% personalized discount code for newsletter subscribers.
If your website features a blog section that for example discusses your hotel or nearby attractions, optimizing the blog’s homepage for email signups is something you can do also.
Fun fact: Many guests are unaware of the advantages of booking directly instead of using an OTA. If you offer direct bookings, mention the benefits and request their email address for future communications.
Coming Inquiries
Hoteliers can also gather email addresses from inquiries received via phone calls, social media, and guest registration cards during check-in.
This approach is particularly helpful for businesses without a website, as phone inquiries can serve as an excellent source for collecting email addresses. When a guest calls about a booking, hotel staff can ask for their email address and add it to the marketing list.
Pro tip: Consider requiring an email address for guests to access certain amenities or services, such as the swimming pool, spa, gym, or room service.
Why Email Marketing is Important for Hotel Business
The numerous advantages of email marketing make it an important platform for the hotel industry.
Recent statistics for the Travel, Hospitality, and Leisure sector reveal the following performance metrics:
- Open Rates = 20.2%
- Click-Through Rates = 1.4%
- Click-To-Open Rates = 8.7%
- Unsubscribe Rates = 0.2%
These figures indicate that email marketing remains an effective tool for hotels, continues to perform well, and brings in major ROI for businesses.
For further detailed reasons, here is the explanation of why hospitality email marketing is important for the hotel business:
- Increase Bookings: With 72% of people preferring to receive promotional content through email makes Email marketing is a powerful tool for increasing hotel reservations
This preference indicates that many people are more likely to engage with promotional content through email, as they often check their inboxes for deals rather than entertainment like on social media. - Cost-Effective: Email marketing is using automated funnels that can save time and human resources power. Simply to say – Once set up, the automation ensures a smooth email delivery process without constant manual intervention.
Moreover, it’s more cost-effective than running ads in competitive markets or paying influencers for promotional campaigns. This allows hotels to allocate their budgets efficiently while still reaching a wide audience. - Strong Customer Loyalty: A key strength of email marketing lies in its ability to deliver personalized content to a specific target group. This personal touch can greatly enhance the customer experience, making them more inclined to revisit your hotel and recommend it to others.
So not only helps in the sales perspective but also plays a crucial role in building customer relationships.
Step-by-Step: A Beginner-Friendly Guide to Setting Up Email Marketing for the Hospitality Industry
Never set up a hospitality email marketing campaign before? don’t worry! Here’s a beginner-friendly guide to help you get started with email marketing for your hospitality business:
Choose Email Marketing Platform
Pick a dependable email marketing service that provides features designed specifically for the hospitality sector. Some well-known choices include:
- Mailchimp
- Constant Contact
- SendinBlue.
By choosing the right platform, you’ll have a solid foundation for your hospitality email marketing campaigns.
Read Also: The Best Email Marketing Tools Providers 2023
Create The Email Sign-Up Form
Before you can send out emails, you’ll need to have an email list.
To collect email addresses, you’ll need to create an email sign-up form, which allows potential subscribers to provide their email addresses and opt-in to receive your promotional content. This is an essential step in building your hospitality email marketing campaign.
You can incorporate the sign-up form in various locations on your website. For example, you can start by placing it in the footer and on the contact page, and consider using a non-intrusive pop-up form to increase subscriptions. Including an attractive call-to-action will also encourage visitors to enter their email addresses.
Good news, numerous email tools allow you to create a sign-up form within a matter of minutes. Try to create a hassle-free form that requests as minimal information as possible (stick to an email address and optionally a name).
Keeping the experience straightforward will boost the chances of people filling out your form.
Numerous hospitality marketing agencies, such as SATUVISION, employ strategies to encourage people to sign up.
To begin, here are a few examples of incentives we’ve used to attract new subscribers:
- Exclusive Discount for First Sign-Up
- Get Personalized Travel Guides in Bali
- Loyalty Rewards & Points for Signing Up.
- Get a Free Breakfast & Dinner Coupon for Sign Up
Note: Make sure you obtain permission to email your subscribers before contacting them, in accordance with GDPR regulations. Having them opt-in not only ensures compliance but also improves your email deliverability by verifying that their email address is correct and your message reaches their inbox.
Segment Your Audience
It’s no secret that segmenting your audience can enhance your hotel’s email marketing campaigns, leading to higher open and click-through rates.
If you want to get the most out of your email marketing campaign, audience segmentation is a crucial step you must take.
Segmenting your audience will help your hotel business to create personalized content by focusing on specific groups within your lists. As a result, your recipients will find your campaigns more relevant, leading to improved outcomes.
You can categorize your audience based on interest groups, sign-up dates, subscriber activities, or any other factors relevant to your hotel email marketing campaign goals
For example, in the hotel industry, you can categorize your audience into leisure and business travelers.
If you identify a group of business travelers, you can tailor content that offers benefits such as meeting room discounts, corporate packages, or tips on local networking events. This way, you provide relevant information that caters to their specific needs.
Send The Email at Right Time
Before sending emails, it’s essential to review the information you have. Examine your hotel records or property management system to see if customer email addresses are available. If so, import them to your email list.
Sending emails at the right time means understanding the different stages of each customer’s email journey.
Considering the funnel shown above, the kind of email you send to your subscribers should be based on their current stage in the customer journey.
For example, emails with first-time discount offers in the subject line should only be sent to subscribers in the decision phase. Whereas review requests and pre-arrival emails belong in the follow-up phase.
Types of Email Marketing in the Hotel Industry
Promotional Emails
These emails highlight special offers, discounts, or packages to entice subscribers to make a booking. They can be sent seasonally or during periods of low occupancy.
Newsletters
Regular newsletters keep subscribers informed about the latest news, events, and updates related to your hotel or the local area. They help maintain a connection with your audience and encourage repeat bookings.
Transactional Emails
These emails are sent in response to specific actions taken by a guest, such as booking confirmations, reminders, or post-stay surveys. They help streamline communication and enhance the guest experience.
Personalized Recommendations
Based on a guest’s preferences and booking history, send emails featuring tailored suggestions for activities, amenities, or dining options that may appeal to them during their stay.
Re-engagement Emails
Target subscribers who haven’t engaged with your emails or haven’t booked a stay recently, with special offers or content to reignite their interest in your hotel.
Loyalty Program Emails
Keep your loyalty program members engaged by sending exclusive offers, rewards, and updates specific to their membership status.
4 Essential Hospitality Email Marketing Tips
Create Eye-Catching Subject Lines
The subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see, so it’s important to make it compelling and attention-grabbing. Here are some tips for creating effective subject lines:
- Give creative and memorable subject lines with the recipient’s name or location
- Use compelling numbers to grab attention
- Ask interesting questions or statements that trigger someone’s curiosity
The goal is to make your email stand out in their crowded inbox and make them want to open it!
Read Also: Email Marketing Subject Lines Everyone Will Click!
Gain Trust With Online Feedback
As people nowadays trust reviews more, especially In the hospitality industry, online reviews are an important factor that influences people’s decision to book a stay.
Therefore, Email marketing is a great way to collect more online feedback and gain the trust of potential customers.
One trick we found from Mailerlite is sending email surveys with the Net Promoter Score (NPS) system, which we found as an ideal way to find out how likely people are to recommend your hotel to friends and colleagues.
Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a way of measuring how loyal and satisfied your guest are.
The guests are asked to rate the likelihood of recommending your hotel on a scale of 0-10. Based on their responses, customers are grouped into three categories: Promoters (9-10), Passives (7-8), and Detractors (0-6).
Constant online reviews can help your hotel brand reputation and help gain the trust of potential customers, resulting in long-term benefits for your business.
Send Genuine Follow-up Email
Remember the main purpose of email marketing is to build a relationship and increase guest loyalty.
You can achieve this by sending a sincere follow-up email after a guest has checked out from your hotel.
This method is particularly effective because it’s easier to entice past customers to stay at your hotel again than it is to attract completely new customers.
Here are kind dof email you can send them :
- Thanks the customer for their stay
- Invitation for Loyalty Program with Benefits
- Point Rewards they can change for the next visit
Optimize Your Emails for Mobile Devices
WIth 70% of travelers using their mobile devices to make travel reservations and this number keeps rising, it’s important that your emails work well on mobile devices.
To do this, use a design that looks good on phones, keep the message short and clear, and have a noticeable call-to-action (CTA).
By making your emails easy to read on mobile devices, you can create a better experience for users and raise the chances of them interacting with your email content.
Conclusion
Through this complete guide, we are aware that hospitality email marketing is a popular strategy that focuses on delivering a personal touch through tailored emails with customized content, promotions, and deals suited to each guest’s preferences.
