The importance of an effective email marketing strategy for hotels is undeniable. The use of email marketing allows you to build a relationship with both past and future guests, as well as providing you with the opportunity to have multiple touch points with them. However, we are all aware of how many emails we get bombarded with daily.
Here are some effective ways of optimising your email marketing strategy and consequently increasing your email’s click-through rate.
1. Keep it PersonalOne of the quickest ways of losing subscribers is by sending them a general email that does not interest them. For example, a ‘girly spa getaway’ deal is not going to appeal to the corporate guest who is looking for a one night stay mid-week. Make sure you segment your list of subscribers by creating customer personas. Alternatively, an email provider can automatically segment your guests based on the offers that they click into or the site pages they visit. If you are promoting an unmissable offer that you would like all your subscribers to be informed of, you can simply tailor it to suit each market segmentation.
2. CTA (Call to Action Buttons)
The human attention span is rapidly decreasing. Today, the average person has an attention span of 3-5 seconds, compared to 12 seconds in the year 2000. Your emails need to be kept up to date to tackle the feelings of impatience and indifference that are easily aroused in consumers today. These feelings are usually evoked from an overload of information, options, and steps to purchase. That’s where the CTA button comes into play. Cut down on irrelevant content and place a clearly defined and visible CTA button in your email. Use active language with verbs such as “Click Me”. Surround it with white space, fill it with a colour that will stand out and make sure it actually looks like a button. Stick to the unwritten ‘3 click rule‘ and link the CTA to a landing page. This will allow your potential guest to find what they’re looking for within three taps of a finger/clicks of a button.
3. A Striking Subject
Brainstorm for an original, quirky subject line that will pique the interest of your subscribers. Avoid using caps, exclamation marks, numbers, and slang. These can lead your email to be perceived as junk mail. Today’s consumers have higher expectations and are usually deterred by repetitive sales emails. Another way of catching the eye of your recipient is by including their name in the subject line – everyone likes to be acknowledged!
4. Mobile-Friendly
Ensuring your email is completely mobile-friendly is a must. Many of you may already be using tools such as Mailchimp which provide you with the option to apply a mobile-style to your email. However, there are other factors that you need to consider to ensure that your email is 100% mobile-friendly. For example, a desktop inbox can display 60 characters of a subject line, whereas mobile devices show only 25-35. Keep your subject line short and sweet to ensure it doesn’t get cut off!
Also, ensure that the most important content is placed above the fold, with a readable font and optimized images. Mailchimp allows you to send a test-email, allowing you to review the email on both desktop and mobile and enabling you to improve it where necessary. This promises an enhanced reading experience for the recipient, regardless of what platform they use to view it!
5. Be Authentic
Sorting through emails is a time-consuming, draining task. The reality is your email will need to stand out and be authentic for it to be opened and digested. So, what is the best way of ensuring that your email will be acknowledged by its recipient? The answer is simple- by building a rapport with your subscribers. A way of doing this is by sharing the benefits that your hotel will provide to them, rather than simply listing the features of it. Another tip is to change the email content around, ensuring that not every email you send to them is a promotional one. Send an email to past guests asking for feedback and send real-time thank-you emails to your latest subscribers. These will help to build trust and provide a lasting impression with your subscribers, making them more inclined to open the next!