Tip 1: Email Marketing For Hotels
Test. Analyse. Learn. Digital Marketing Tips For Hotels #HotelMarketingTips
We love digital marketing. Never before have we had so much data to analyse or so many ways of testing and understanding customer behaviour patterns. Our knowledge of why people do things has never been greater, and at Ignite we've been testing, learning and applying our knowledge on how to influence people for years.
In the build up to Hotelympia we'll be sharing some of these insights, building a picture of the complete digital marketing mix.
Today: Hotel Email Marketing Tips
Email marketing can be an incredibly powerful marketing tool for hotels. We regularly return anything from £5K to £200K from an email marketing campaign, if done intelligently - it works.
Remove guesswork by split testing.
Any comprehensive email marketing system should allow you to split test the subject line and the content of you newsletter. The first 5% receive subject line A, the second 5% subject line B, after a given amount of time the winning subject line is used for the remain 90% of your database.
Same principle can be applied for content of an email. Imagine knowing for sure if BOOK HERE or BOOK NOW converts better. It's BOOK HERE by the way, an increase of 1% conversion can result in thousands of pounds additional revenue.
Set up Google Analytics to track specific email campaigns.
I'm sure you've all seen your website analytics jump after an email is sent. But what do they do? Where do they go? How many convert?
Using advanced segmentation queries it's possible to analyse the behaviour of only users that clicked through from your email campaign. How many people who clicked through to book a spa treatment actually booked? What can we learn from their behaviour once on the site?
Increase deliverability of your email newsletters.
Spam filters are getting more and more comprehensive and it's essential to avoid ending up in the Junk folder. A few tips to avoid this:
- Get the right balance between images and text
- Purchase a 'friendly from' address
- Run tests through the email marketing system for 24 hours prior to sending
- Avoid using words such as 'offer' and 'sale'
Engaging design that appeals to customers
Your email should attract clicks through engaging and carefully constructed design. Any information should be presently clearly in an easy to digest fashion, and the structure of the newsletter is essential and must be easy to scan, digest and click.
Clear and consistent calls to actions that stand out are essential.
Spread your content virally
Include Facebook and Twitter symbols for each individual story, as well as the option to 'Forward To A Friend'. For some campaigns it's worth providing an incentive scheme for customers to share your content.
Make it easy for your customers
Every campaign will have a core message, but it's important to think what your customers might want and provide it to them. For example, we recently ran a Christmas Spa Gift campaigns, and included 'suggested gifts' within the email. Clicks increased by 15%, and those who clicked a suggested gift converted better.
Customer journey, it doesn't end when they click
Plan the entire journey a customer takes, from opening, to clicking and finally converting. Email newsletters are a tool to get customers to click - but if your landing page isn't optimizsed you've wasted your time.
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→ Next tip - Banner Advertising For Hotels
Author : Sam Trainor-Buckingham
Sam is the Marketing Director at Ignite Hospitality Consultants, he loves branding, developing strategies and coming up with creative marketing campaigns.
View Sam's team page...
Comments
Marketing Executive
Could you suggest how the concept of suggested gift )(make it easy for your customers)can be applied to our hotel Oakwood Residence -India(Pune).(we specialise in service apartments)
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