Do you know that email marketing remains the most powerful digital marketing method?
A recent survey showed that 72% of consumers prefer email as their primary means of communicating with brands.
Hotels have traditionally invested little in digital marketing and, when they do, it’s often too late.
By implementing intelligent segmentation and automation in your email marketing strategy, you can drastically cut down your unsubscription rate and build a loyal customer following.
Automating your emails marketing
Automatic emails can be integrated with your PMS and can help manage your email campaigns through list management and customizable templates.
Focus on automating the most important emails for engagement: pre and post stay emails.
But also think about sending emails based on specific booking dates. Last time a customer stayed with you they may have booked 3 months in advance; so try to segment customers based on their booking date and send them a special personalized offer to remind them of your destination, for the same period in advance.
Segmentation is key
Create custom segments from data you have collected from your customers and send them more relevant emails. The more relevant the campaign is, the results are better.
Personalize your emails as much as possible to build relationships and encourage engagement. Remember the customer’s language. If the guest does not understand your email, then there is no point sending it. So use the information from your database to segment your campaigns and communicate in the customer’s mother tongue.
You can also segment your campaigns depending on the number of time your customers stayed at your hotel and send special marketing offers for your best customers: a night off on their next stay, a great discount or even an upgrade.
Keep it useful
When you are creating a campaign, it’s good to think about which emails in your inbox you open and which ones you delete immediately. Make sure you are sending customers new information that are useful to them, letting them be the first to know about your new renovated rooms or the new services you have to offer, like a new spa or a new fitness center.
Sell also the destination and not only your hotel itself. Focus on selling the region or city, new attractions or hot new restaurants that have opened up in the area. After all, these are the real reasons visitors return to a specific destination.
Most people are bombarded with emails every day, so keep yours to the point to make it easy for your customers. Choose a descriptive and straightforward subject lines to make it clear that the email you sent worth your customers’ time.
Check the relevance of your data
Finally, be sure the information you have is accurate. If you don’t have the correct email addresses of your customers, the results of you campaign will be very poor.
Why not run an email campaign after the departure of your guests? Thank your customers and invite them to send feedback about their stay and to sign up with their email address.
ChartsBeds allows you to create and send automatic emails to you customers.
If you need, we can help you create and setup your next automatic emails.