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• Sep 5, 2018
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Email marketing is one of the effective ways of building guest loyalty, encouraging brand engagement, and increasing direct hotel bookings using well-targeted, regular communications. This advertising technique is cost-effective and easily automated, making it an excellent methodology for busy hoteliers who do not have lots of free time on their hands. Here are important tips to maximize conversions from your hotel’s email marketing campaigns.

Grow your email listing organically

Permission-based email marketing means that you will be communicating regularly with customers and prospects that sincerely want to hear from you. When you grow your email lists organically, it will help to maximize engagement and your hotel business will also comply with anti-spam laws. When guests offer their email address for making reservations, this does not mean that they actually want to receive communication from your business. Grow your list by adding a sign-up form on your website, adding notes to your welcome cards to invite guests to subscribe to your hotel emails, or add an opt-in checkbox on your post stay survey.

Personalize your emails

Just because your email marketing can be automated does not mean that your email messages should look like generic mass mail-out. For you to encourage engagement and build great relationships, you should personalize your emails. You should strive to know who your clients are and then target your marketing strategies and messages to them. You should always address the emails to the individual that you are sending them to and then sign off from an actual person.

Deliver great content

Great content is information that is beneficial to your customers. You can provide great information such as discounted rates, new services, new local attractions, destination tips, and exciting events. This will help to put your property in the mind of travelers whenever they are planning for their upcoming holiday. New and prospective customers will also appreciate being the first people to know about new amenities and services such as a renovated pool area or a newly launched poolside bar. Be sure to include buttons and links with calls to action to compel your readers to act.

Optimize your emails for mobile

Nearly half of all emails are opened using mobile devices. Therefore, your hotel emails should look great on small screens including tablets and Smartphone if you want them to get much attention. You can optimize your hotel emails for mobile by using an email service that provides responsive templates, and by avoiding the use of long paragraphs and large image files. You should also include social sharing buttons to encourage your clients to share your hotel emails.

Create a schedule

Timing is one of the aspects of successful email marketing campaigns. You need to decide how often and when you will be sending your emails and stick to this schedule. Emailing too often will annoy your audience and you risk losing subscribers. Conversely, if you do not email regularly, then your customers may end up forgetting who you really are.

Automate

You should automate your email campaigns. This will help you avoid repetitively sending welcome emails for all new sign-ups, special offers, and monthly newsletters. You can integrate automated email marketing systems and email newsletter services with your PMS. This will help you manage your email campaigns through scheduling, customizable templates, list management, results tracking, and social media promotion. With automated services, you will not have to spend lots of time on your email marketing campaigns.

Email marketing is a powerful channel for driving direct hotel bookings. However, it is also the most overlooked. Hotels usually focus their marketing budgets majorly on acquiring new guests and in the long run forget about the major revenue stream that is effective, yet affordable – the old guests. Email marketing is a great way in which hotels can effectively and regularly communicate with their previous guests at the right time during their journey. With the aforementioned tips in mind, you will enjoy increased conversion rates and hotel bookings.