(Ad) Despite the rise of social media and other modern forms of digital advertising, email remains one of the most successful online marketing platforms regarding reach and ROI.
The numbers keep favoring this medium. According to a HubSpot study, more than 50% of U.S. email users check their inboxes more than ten times daily. Many of these users also prefer getting brand updates via their email inboxes.
So, how can you capitalize on the massive and ever-growing popularity of email marketing within the hotel industry? Let’s find out.
Hotel Industry Overview
Marketing within the hotel industry has never been more critical than it is today. The industry has experienced one of the worst economic downtimes since the 2008 recession. In 2020, the industry took a massive dip after the Covid-19 pandemic made traveling impossible, with governments enforcing lockdowns and travel restrictions.
Thus, during this recovery phase, the most advantaged businesses are those that’ll leverage the power of marketing. Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools you can use.
Online marketing within the hotel industry is becoming more powerful as new trends emerge. Some of the trends shaping the hotel industry include:
Digitized Guest Experiences
Hoteliers are now turning to apps to manage services and customers. Contact-less technology is now easier to control many aspects of the experience and guest cycle. Thus, traditional, customer-facing services are being overhauled.
Personalization
The modern hotel guest wants to be recognized and treated as an individual. Hotels going the extra mile with personalization are using personalized email marketing to make a more significant impact on the masses.
When combined with data such as previous buying and booking habits, personalization enables hotels to tailor personalized experiences, offers, and promotions.
Virtual And Augmented Reality
It’s no surprise consumers have an eye for visual content. Thus, it’s only natural that the hotel industry capitalizes on features such as virtual tours to conjure up digital environments that show customers the experience of staying in the hotel. You can link to the virtual tour in your marketing email.
The Benefits of Email Marketing and Newsletters for Hotels
Modern trends might point toward email marketing being one of the make-or-break strategies for effectively marketing your hotel. But what benefits would compel you to take the path? Here are a few.
Cost Savings
Compared to other forms of marketing, email marketing is the most cost-effective. Many platforms offer email marketing at very affordable rates, some even for free, depending on how many emails you wish to send.
Despite being low-cost, most email marketing platforms come with rich features such as personalization to increase the campaign’s efficiency and scheduling to ensure the marketing emails are sent at the right time.
Speed And Effectiveness
You can send marketing emails to hundreds or thousands of customers with just one click. On most platforms, you only have to provide a list or lists of contacts you want to receive the marketing emails. These contacts are also saved for later use, making running subsequent campaigns faster.
Therefore, the only thing you have to worry about when sending your emails is having attractive visuals and catchy content that will increase your conversion rate.
Better ROI
According to VentureBeat, email marketing has one of the highest ROIs among other forms of digital advertising. On average, you get $36 for every $1 spent. According to McKinsey, the conversion rates may even be three times higher than social media.
Better Guest Rapport
Email marketing allows your brand to offer personalized guest services through one-to-one marketing campaigns. With effective email marketing, you start nurturing the relationship with your guest the moment they book a room.
They can start requesting unique additions they might want in their bookings, such as more personalized room service or food menu. Thus, don’t just send the pre-arrival email after they’ve made their booking and leave them dry and confused.
Building a great rapport this early increases the chances of your guest having a pleasant stay which translates to better reviews and repeat customers.
Extended Brand Online Presence
Email marketing is an effective avenue to grow your online brand presence beyond social media. Also, with every email you send, you have the opportunity to promote your hotel’s social media pages, further improving your brand’s online presence.
For instance, in the pre-arrival email, you can ask guests to follow your Facebook or Instagram page for a special offer during their stay.
9 Awesome Email Marketing Ideas for Hotels
How do you unlock the full potential of email marketing in the hotel industry? Here are a few hotel newsletter ideas you can implement to see transformative changes.
1. Location Newsletters
Email marketing lets hotels tell their customers more about the location and relevant tidbits that will make their stay pleasant. Location newsletters offer a great way of doing this.
With a location newsletter, you can give your customer information about the location, such as local attractions, tours, and map guides, to add value to the hotel’s already excellent services and amenities.
Location newsletters also convince customers to book for longer, more expensive, and more often if they get an unforgettable experience.
Here’s a great example of a location newsletter:
Planning what to do for the summer in New York? Check out the fun activities on visitnyc.myhotel.com.
- Great summer festivals
- New places and joints in NYC
- Fun New York City Rides
- Free concerts featuring big names
2. Culinary Newsletters
Hotel guests often pair a location with its food. A culinary newsletter will connect your hotel’s location with its culinary experiences. Use this marketing email to tell them the different kinds of food they can try at your hotel and the fantastic choices they can find within the vicinity.
You can entice customers to book by pairing this information with offers that deliver a great culinary experience. For instance, booking over a local cultural holiday may come with a fully-paid buffet of all local cuisines for the guests to try.
3. Promotional Newsletters
Promotional newsletters often go hand in hand with inspirational newsletters. Inspirational newsletters seek to add value to the consumer. They sell less but instead teach more. For instance, you may send newsletters about hospitality, tips for making a worthwhile booking, and great insights about your hotel’s location to have the consumer learn more and make informed decisions.
Promotional newsletters follow to make the sale and prompt the prospect to make a booking.
The rule of thumb is to send 80% inspirational and 20% promotional newsletters. You do not appear spammy; most of the time thus, the consumer will be willing to convert once they get the promotional newsletter.
4. Special Campaigns
Email marketing provides an effective medium for informing customers about promotions, special offers, and discounts. They receive this information directly in their inboxes, unlike on social media, where it might get lost in their feed. Moreover, you can personalize them to a customer’s needs.
Personalizing special campaigns makes the customer feel unique and that the hotel gives them exclusive access to offers that not everyone will have access to. This perception still works even if the offer is displayed on the hotel’s website. The customer is then more likely to convert.
5. VIP Marketing Emails
Attracting a new customer can cost your business five times more than retaining an existing one. One of the ways you can make your current best customers feel special is by sending them VIP-inspired newsletters with VIP offers.
The goal is to keep them coming thanks to the unique experiences and offers they get from your hotel as VIPs. These experiences and offers should only be available to loyal customers.
Here’s a hotel promotion email sample for a VIP marketing email:
Loyalty deserves a reward. For your next booking, use the promo code “LOYALTY25$” to get an additional 10% discount. This offer applies between 1st July 2022 and 1st September 2022.
6. Cart Abandonment Newsletters
The travel and hotel industries suffer one of the highest cart abandonment rates. On average, 80% of prospective customers leave hotel and travel booking sites minutes before booking. Other industries experience a 68% – 74% abandonment rate.
A robust email marketing idea is to send cart abandonment newsletters that convince the prospective customer to make a booking. The cart abandonment newsletter may contain an offer, coupon code, or discount as an incentive.
You may include an in-house special such as discounted room service or a free appetizer at the hotel’s restaurant.
7. Follow-Up Marketing Email
Follow-up marketing emails seek to get immediate feedback from a recent customer at your hotel. A cleverly drafted follow-up marketing email will contain an online survey asking the customer how their stay was and how you can improve or tailor your services to their taste in the future.
This information will help improve your hotel’s services and booking experience plus help you draft better marketing emails in the future.
8. Testimonials
According to research, 83% of prospective clients are more likely to convert if they read or hear a positive review from another customer. This data makes testimonial marketing emails one of the most potent emails you can send to a client.
Share previous guests’ comments about their stay in the email, especially to customers who’ve never booked with your hotel.
9. Visual Content
Visuals are a powerful way of communicating a marketing message. Research shows that people tend to remember 80% of what they see and 20% of what they read. Images and videos thus make a significant impact on the messaging and effectiveness of your email marketing campaign.
Go for attractive visuals that heighten the desire to book for your customers. For instance, you can add videos that take them on a hotel tour, showing them the location and amenities available.
Hotel Email Marketing: Key Takeaways
Email marketing for hotels is the way to go if you want to experience an increase in bookings and better ROI. Excellent email marketing will give you:
- Cost savings
- Improved marketing speed and effectiveness and
- Extended brand online presence
Ensure you get professional help for the best results in your email marketing campaigns.
Contact Hearst Bay Area to learn more about how we can help your business grow with various advertising and digital marketing solutions.