Segment your mailing list
Subscriber segmentation should always be a key part of your hotel email marketing strategy. Along with personalizing emails and email automation, it is one of the most successful tactics.
Make every email you send count, and target specific members of your audience with the information that’s most relevant and interesting to them. Some ways to segment your audience include:
- The type of traveling they do: Are the business travelers? Or are they a part of the travel industry and book hotel rooms as a part of an agency?
- Demographics: Are they Millennial parents who just started a family? Do they need an ADA-compliant room?
- Geographic location: Is your guest from out of state? Or are they traveling in from a different country?
- Expressed interests: Are they looking for a relaxing spa treatment? Did they book your hotel previously for the amazing location and access to local events?
Formulate your campaign's design and content
No matter if you want to focus on a weekly newsletter or just promotional emails from time to time, you’ll need evergreen email templates that can be customized depending on the audience and situation.
Mailchimp offers a wide range of email templates with components that can be easily dragged and dropped. These templates do all of the heavy lifting, so you can focus on creating content that attracts and resonates with your audience.
If your email design is your hotel guests’ first impression, then its content is what seals the deal. Starting from an eye-catching subject line to a compelling call to action or product link, you’ll want to have a general idea of what works for every type of email that you’ll be sending, including check-in and feedback emails. Know a few crucial draws and highlights, so you can introduce and promote your hotel in a concise manner.
Along with promotions and deals, appealing email design and well thought out email content is what increase click-through rates and conversion rates.
Test your email campaigns
Testing your email marketing also leads to higher click-through rates, conversion rates, and ROIs. Here are 2 tests you can run to improve your email campaign:
A/B testing: Find out what type of email marketing for hotels works yields the best results by sending one variation of your campaign to one subset of email subscribers and a different variation to another. Also known as split testing, you’ll be able to see what subject lines have the best open rates, whether your audience appreciates graphics, and more.
Spam testing: Image-only emails, emails in all caps, emails with too many exclamation points, and emails with subject lines that are too short are all examples of emails that can be blocked by the spam filter. See whether your email campaign will be placed correctly in your subscriber’s inbox.
Utilize automations
Email automation saves you time and effort. Use automations to send timely emails after every sign-up, room booking, and event registration to showcase your attentiveness while not being overwhelming. In the hospitality industry, where time is money, eliminate the busy work in your email campaigns with automation.
Track the progress of your email marketing efforts
Pay attention to analytics and track email performance to see how you can improve your email marketing. Some metrics of success include:
- High unique open rate
- Low unsubscribe rate
- High click-through rate
- Low bounce rate
- High email forwarding rate
- A growing mailing list
3 email marketing campaign ideas for the hospitality industry
Loyalty programs
Reward guests who frequent your hotel with ways to save money on their future stays. Show that you appreciate them and start building a long-standing, loyal relationship.
For example, offer a free night for every 7 nights they stay at your hotel or give all loyalty rewards members complimentary breakfast or a discount at the hotel spa. Use email marketing to spread the word of your loyalty program and persuade guests to sign up.
