07 Feb Turn Guest Lists, into Guest Stays
Do you have an active, vibrant marketing engine which provides real value to your past and potential guests? If so, great. Skip halfway down the page.
If not, now’s the time. Email marketing is still the most powerful form of digital marketing, soundly trumping social media at 40 times more effective than facebook or twitter.
General rules which apply to email marketing:
- Never Spam. (no kidding…)
- Always provide valued added relevant content.
- Send email at frequency which meets the recipient’s expectations.
Simple rules, but exactly how do you achieve these goals?
The first is easy. Most hotels and resorts give guests the opportunity to ‘opt-in’ to join their email list at various touch points during initial guest interactions.
However, then things get more complicated. At these touchpoints, are you asking guests to join your: ’email list’ ? or instead, inviting them to a join a valuable group which features ‘exclusive insider deals’ – that you ‘only send once a month’ ? The language is incredibly important. Many guests will equate the words email list with spam. Instead, specify the frequency and content, and alleviate fears.
Excellent. So now you have a data list, of potential and past guests which are willing to accept email from you. Time to craft the plan of where to go from here.
Don’t have an email management tool or strategy? Start today. Here are 11 top rated services Need help deciding which email platform to use?.. and crafting the right message? Contact us.
(Note: What about your PMS? Your property management system may have the ability to send email, but in many cases they lack the robust features pure email systems do)
Some email campaign do’s and don’ts:
First, to make your emails more relevant, you must engage your users to update their preferences, for the type of content and offers they find valuable. Updating preferences is a critical action, and will help you segment your email lists.
We won’t get into the details of why, how or the specifics of segmentation, but if you want to learn more, this blog post goes over the value in great detail. At least take a look at the statistical differences it can make on your campaigns.
Last, but certainly not least, ensure you comply with the law. In Canada the ‘CASL’ Anti Spam legislation went into effect as of July 1 2014. If you’re the United States the CAN-SPAM Act legislation is a little different, and went into effect in 2003. Understanding the differences are especially important for US companies, which knowingly email residents in Canada.
It’s a complicated world out there. We’ve just scratched the surface of effective email marketing in this post. One of the benefits of becoming a Dwell/Loyalty partner, is we help you manage and optimize these complex communication and digital relationships with your guests. Get started today by clicking here.
What stage of communication is your Hotel or Resort in?
- Batch & Blast?
- Profile collected?
- Personal Segmentation?
- Behavioural Segmentation?
- Predictive Modelling?
What Stage Applies to You?