A Hotel Email Marketing Plan
Hey Guys! I am wondering who here is doing email marketing?
I’ve never done email marketing and have always relied on a great customer experience so that the customer would return to the hotel on their next trip.
But ..
I realise that while most customers have no intention of returning again (maybe it was a one off trip or special occasion) but there are certain people who live within a short driving distance that do visit quite often.
They may have friends or family nearby and visit regularly.
These are the kind of customers that would be great to have on your email marketing list, especially if you have any rooms that you would like to fill on slow times.
I would like to discuss a few ideas on things that would work on an email marking strategy for a small hotel or inn, if anyone would like to chime in with any thoughts that would be great.
Email Capture
With booking.com being such a pain in the asses that they decided to scramble the customers email addresses it means you will have to work that little bit harder to collect your guests email addresses.
Here are a few easy ideas: 1. Website mailing list opt in form — This is a little box asking the customer for their email address so you can send them news and special offers to their inbox. This is the perfect place to set up a auto responder with a discount code for 10% off a direct booking.
2. Reception sign in sheet— Most hotels still have people sign in right? Well try to include an email field in the hope that they fill it in, you can have a checkbox so that they can opt out of being added to the mailing list.
3. Verbally asking for their email at check-in/check-out — This is a simple way to do it and you can explain what kind of things you will be sending their way and how often.
Remember that you can’t just put their email address on a mailing list without their permission, so make sure you get it ok? Last thing you want is some hate mail on your hands!
Trust me you don’t want hate mail, I have had a few from doing cold outreach for my startup
Segmentation
First of all I think it’s a good idea to segment your list into 3 types of guests:
1 Guests who have signed up to the mailing list but have not booked
2 Guests who are signed up and have stayed at least once
3 Guests that live within a certain distance
4 Guests who have stayed more than 3 times (aka regulars)
You might be thinking.. Evan why do you need to segment the list this way?
Well at the start I don’t think its overly important as your list will be small and anyone who doesn’t want any more e-mails can easily un-subscribe,
but once your list grows into 100s or 1000s of email addresses it will be cheaper if you want to send offers to certain types of customers.
Example:
- Last minute offers can be sent to customers living within 2 hours of your property
- Send the best offers to your regulars for their loyal custom
What to send?
This is difficult as every time you send something, people will unsubscribe.
So if you spam, send crappy emails or just crappy offers like 5% off this weekend then expect them to ignore or unsubscribe from your mailing list.
In my opinion there are only 3 things that really work:
- Interesting content about upcoming events in your area
- Special offers to go along with the information
- Special offers that are really good, not just ok but special!
If you live onehour outside New York and the hotel sends you an email telling you about the classic car show that’s coming up in three weeks and a special offer that gives you 2 free tickets if you book for 2 nights.
I know you would be tempted if you were a classic car fan. Even if you were not you may know someone who would like the offer.
Tracking your success?
This is getting too far for me to give any advice, I know mailchimp you can see how many people open the email but the ultimate success metric is if you get any bookings resulting from the emails.
I would love to hear some comments about people who have done email marketing campaign for hotels, b&b’s and inns.
