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Email Marketing Strategy for Hotels + 4 Best Examples

Jun 2, 2020 - By Skirmantas Venckus

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The accommodation industry is one of the most competitive markets, which means effective marketing is crucial for the success of a hotel.

Like any other business, hotels have a marketing budget, and simply that marketing money won’t deliver the key results you want to reach.

Email marketing is essential for the hotel business: email marketing returns $41 for every $1 spent, making it the marketing channel with the best ROI. Of course, that kind of ROI doesn’t come without proper planning and a great email marketing strategy.

To get the most benefit out of your marketing budget, you need to understand the essential aspects of a successful email marketing campaign.

With this information, you can create email marketing campaigns that produce the best results for your hotel business.

Content menu:

Gain more loyal hotel clients by growing your email list

Before you can turn email subscribers into loyal and paying clients, you need to build a healthy email marketing list. Building a property mailing list leads to higher results: email open rates, better click-through rates, and greater conversion rates.

That sounds quite easy; however, how to create a great email list?

Evaluate your current mailing list

Firstly, look at the email list you already have. Starting with the people that have agreed to receive your newsletter is a great way to evaluate your email marketing list.

If you have been tracking email marketing metrics like open rates, you should know which subscribers are engaging with your emails and which ones aren’t. That’s how now you have two clear segments in your email list.

Now is time to send a re-engagement email campaign to your subscribers who are not opening your emails in order to remind them why did they subscribe to your emails in the first place.

This email campaign should include an offer like a significant discount or even a free massage, night’s stay. The main reasons for sending this campaign are:

  • to re-engage with subscribers, leading to more open and ultimately more conversions. 
  • to drop contacts who don’t engage from your list and focus on the subscribers that will convert.

It may be difficult for you to cut contacts from your mailing list, but doing so will drastically improve open rates, which will lead to better inbox placement, and you’ll end up with better results.

3 best steps to boost your mailing list growing

  • Include a simple and easy-to-use subscription form on your website. It can sound like a no-brainer, but it’s crucial. Ask only for essential details and don’t make the subscription process too complicated.
  • Ask guests to subscribe in-person when checking in to your hotel. That’s another excellent way to grow your mailing list with useful quality contacts since you already know that these people are engaged with your brand.
  • Share your newsletter subscription form to your social media and offer them special promotions and discounts only via newsletter.

The 8 most important things for best hotel email marketing strategy

When you finish re-engaging with your mailing list and you cleaned it from inactive subscribers then it is time to create your hotel email marketing strategy.

When you finish re-engaging with your mailing list and you cleaned it from inactive subscribers then it is time to create your hotel email marketing strategy.

  1. Don’t forget your hotel branding

    Way too many companies—in the hotel market, only push sales content with their email campaigns. In general, the entire point of marketing is to increase sales; there are other ways to convert readers into paying clients than just pushing discounts and special promo.

    Branding is essential for every company, and it can set your hotel business apart from the other nearby accommodation services that may offer similar amenities and price range. Also, to be a great place to stay, you want your hotel to be known for its hospitality, care, and attention to detail.

  2. Emphasize what you have

    One of the great ways to do a hotel email campaign is to show local tourist attractions that guests may found interesting through an article style email. For example, it could be:

    • Museums;
    • Trekking roads;
    • Special restaurants;
    • And etc;

    Additionally, they’ll see you as a trusted travel advisor when planning their trip rather than just a hotel where they will spend a night or most popular facilities:most_popular_facilities

  3. Personalization is essential

    Understanding your customers more and segmenting them accordingly to their needs, age, place allows you to present more relevant email campaigns. For example, weekend guests may like information about local concerts, events while business people may want to discover the best restaurants around.

    By delivering personalized and valuable content, you are increasing the possibility that your customers will engage with your newsletters and see your content as a trusted and even must-read source.

    For instance, when sending a confirmation letter, include more than just receipt of booking, but also add some excitement that you are waiting for your guests.

    When you creating email design with Sender you can insert your client first and last name with personalization feature and automatically send a large amount of emails to your subsribers/clients:

    personalization_feature
    Click on “Custom fields” and choose first and last name personalization.


    And in the result you will see this:
    hotel_personalization_example

  4. Create pre-arrival emails

    Send pre-arrival emails to your guests to make them excited about their stay. It also makes them feel welcomed and more informed about your hotel services.

    In this pre-arrival email, you can incorporate things like:

    • Booking information;
    • Address and best way to get there;
    • Hotel amenities;
    • Local restaurants;
    • Leisure activities;
    • Weather forecast;

    Pre-arrival emails are super useful. It gives your customer an idea where they can spend even more at your hotel.

    Here’s few good examples:

    First example of check in/out confirmation email:
    pre_arrivals_emails
    Source of email example: CreativeMarket.


    Second example of triggered confirmation email:
    pre_arrivals_emails
    Source of email example: Fairfield Inn and Marriott Hotels. This triggered email was sent by Fairfield Inn sent five days before the guest’s hotel reservation date.

  5. Share photos with your clients

    Don’t be afraid to share gorgeous photos of your hotel, amenities, and landscape around to make your marketing campaign even more memorable. Email campaigns are perfect for capturing attention and increasing the imagination of subscribers with photos.

    If you have a hotel near the beach, then you may want to include photos of the sea landscape to get people dreaming of sunbathing and sand between their toes. If you have a ski resort, then don’t forget to add photos of gorgeous, white mountains.

    You can see good example below:

    share_photos_with_your_clients

  6. Track your campaigns and measure success

    Before even creating an email, you have to set goals, what you want to reach from that email campaign. When you send emails and campaign is done, you need to review whether or not you reached those goals and where improvements can be made for the future campaign.

    There are some crucial metrics that every marketing professional should be tracking during every email campaign. These metrics can reveal what areas could use some improvement as well as what content works the best. Also, following the email metrics show you the weakest points in your customer journey when they want to buy a product of service.

    For instance, if you see that your open rate is quite high, but your click-through rate is unfortunately low, you may need to check whether your offer is relevant for your subscribers. Maybe the call to action was not clear enough.

    When you click on Sender menu “Campaigns” button, you can see full your email campaign performance:

    sender_reporting_main
    In the same report you can find more indicators:

    • Top links that were most frequently clicked on the email.
    • Performance by email groups (for example, follow old customers and potencial customers separately.
    • Email opens by day, hours.
    • Track subscriber geolocation.

    When you click on Sender menu “Subscribers” button, you can monitor and manage each customer information and email performance individually.

    Whatever weakness you find, you can solve it before your next email campaign in order to improve your KPIs.

Wrap up

Email marketing is crucial for the accommodation industry to create a relationship with your customers that will last. With email marketing, you can get the best return on your marketing investment comparing to any other marketing channel. With these tips above, you’re ready to create your most successful campaign.


If you struggling with subject lines creating and you want to reach better open rate, we recommend to read this guide:

If you thinking, when is the best time to send email campaigns, read this guide:

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