To remain sustainable in a highly competitive business world, every organization must market its product and services through every channel possible.
While social media, websites, and direct advertising are excellent possibilities for reaching prospective customers, emails remain an equally efficient marketing medium.
Not convinced? Let’s look at some facts first.
When we talk about the digital revolution, email is one of its primary initiators and is still an effective form of communication. That nearly 4.4 billion people will use emails in 2023 is an estimate that further solidifies its prominence.
Although direct messaging and chats are on the rise, professionally, emails continue to be a preferred means of contact, especially when it comes to sharing long-form information.
Moreover, throughout the travel industry, from airlines to hotels, everyone still uses emails, especially to share booking details. And even though many travel companies now have apps, email remains a crucial part of the system, often a requirement and identification aspect when signing up for an account.
What is hotel email marketing?
In simple terms, hotel email marketing involves contacting customers to highlight your property, features, and services.
Although a form of publicity, hotel email marketing includes a more straightforward approach to increase revenue through possible direct bookings. It also provides an opportunity for the hotel to offer personalized service.
Types of hotel email marketing
One significant benefit of email marketing is that you can structure it per your advertising requirements. However, remember to follow a strategy that does not spam your customers’ email boxes. A limited number of messages spaced out between dates is the ideal way to implement email marketing.
- Pre-arrival email: A hotel sends a pre-arrival email following a booking by the customer. The email can include information about the weather or directions to the property. Additionally, it can upsell hotel services such as spa treatments. A pre-arrival email is also when a hotel asks customers about specific requirements.
- Newsletters: A bi-weekly or monthly newsletter that customers can subscribe to is the perfect medium to convey a range of information. You can share links to the latest posts on your website blog, offer one-time deals, or inform the customer about upcoming special events in the city.
- Anniversary/Birthday email – Wishing your guests on special dates is an excellent way to strengthen your relationship with them.
- Festive promotions: A pure marketing approach, promotional emails around festivals informs customers about any special events on your property while offering special deals for the period.
- In-stay email: These are messages sent while a customer is still residing in the hotel. Such emails update them on hotel services and events while upselling them simultaneously.
- Post-stay emails: A post-stay email is an excellent opportunity to get feedback from your guests. It’s usually best to send such an email a few days after the guests leave so that everything is still fresh in their minds.
- Abandoned bookings email: A necessary form of email marketing, these are messages sent to prospective clients who start but do not complete the booking process.
Cost of hotel email marketing
Among the best things about email marketing is that you do not have to make any special efforts to collect customer email addresses. Since the email is a part of the booking process, you already have it.
As for email marketing, at first, it may seem like a cost-free endeavor, especially since sending an email does not cost anything extra.
However, when planning to use email marketing for revenue generation, a straightforward email will not do. It is best to make the email look aesthetically pretty, incorporate essential information, manage responses, and make it mobile-friendly. Thus, hiring a hotel marketing agency for such a task is preferable.
At the same time, while email marketing is not free, it is a cost-effective form of promotion that smaller hotels can adopt easily.
Why is hotel email marketing important?
Email marketing presents several benefits, from encouraging customers to book instantly with the hotel to big data collection. Most importantly, emails reach your target audience directly, resulting in short- and long-term profits.
Branding
An email from a hotel is a subtle reminder of your existence to your customer. Furthermore, an informative email can help amplify your hotel brand as it allows you to be a reliable and constant source of knowledge.
Emails geared towards boosting your position as a market leader do not always have to be about selling. You may have a banner announcing the latest deal. Still, such emails are more about providing customers with news about local events or sharing blog posts published on your hotel website.
Boost Customer Loyalty
Email marketing is ideal for cultivating customer loyalty, leading to more direct hotel bookings. A personalized email shows that you, as a company, appreciate their business.
To make your guests feel even more valued, include special discounts for them in the email and ask for feedback curated to their visit.
At the same time, one can email guests, thanking them or greeting them on a special occasion without having a sales agenda. This further builds upon your affinity with the guest.
Gather Big Data
Big Data is the enormous amount of information a hotel collects from its guests through various mediums. Email marketing allows you to keep all of this information in-house.
To explain this better, when someone books through an OTA (Online Travel Agency), most of the customer details remain with the OTA. Whereas, when contacting guests directly via email, you are privy to their preferences, habits, and behavior.
Big Data that hotels can collect from emails is;
- CTR – Click Through Rate to see which links readers click the most in the email.
- Conversions: A check on which email, banner, or link leads to confirmed bookings.
- Website Visits: Links that make guests visit your hotel website.
- Sales: A chance to analyze email content that results in maximum sales.
- Services: You can collect data on which services mentioned in an email interest the guests the most.
Once you have the above attributes, a hotel marketing agency can help you analyze them and strategize your email marketing to maximize profits.
Communicate with prospective guests
An essential, often overlooked, advantage of hotel email marketing is the opportunity to contact customers who showed interest in your property. These can be individuals who joined your newsletter, visited your hotel website, or stopped the booking process midway.
The email is a reminder to the guest of their pending reservation. However, you can use it to entice them further by offering special deals and asking for feedback simultaneously.
Email marketing is a bona fide strategy for reaching customers, perfect for smaller hotels due to its cost-effectiveness. We at Adigital specialize in using email marketing to build upon your hotel’s brand while working towards a methodological increase in revenue. Contact us for our hotel marketing packages that include various other options, such as web design, web hosting, social media management, and Metasearch advertising.
