​HotelConnect on...the Independent Hotelier’s Guide to Planning an Email Marketing Campaign

Despite the growing popularity of social media, email marketing remains a highly effective sales tool for independent hotels. It empowers the independent hotelier to communicate their message in a cost effective manner to thousands of guests and prospects in a matter of minutes.

Depending on the platform used, creating an email template is very user friendly, requires minimal training and provides a number of professional looking designs to adequately represent the unique aspects of any hotel brand.

From newsletters and special offers, to bespoke invitations email marketing provides the flexibility to support a variety of marketing initiatives. Perhaps, most importantly it enables the independent hotelier to be accountable for their marketing activity by supplying real metrics that provide vital data on customer engagement, behaviour and lead generation.

Data on open rates and click-through offer unique insights into overall performance and provide the opportunity to tweak campaigns to improve engagement levels for the next mailing.

How do I ensure that my email campaign is a success?

• To begin, it is important to set clear and measurable objectives. Your objectives will inform the creative look of your email and the style of copy used to communicate what you want to say.
• Objectives should be clearly defined. For example, ‘To promote August Special Offers’ or ‘To promote our new hotel booking engine’ or perhaps you’re looking for immediate results with a last minute deal, ‘ To improve occupancy levels for this weekend’.
• Know your target audience. The time and effort you put into your email marketing will have little impact unless you have a clear understanding of your target audience. You must understand the needs of your recipient and produce relevant and engaging content e.g. ‘Kids Go Free Special Offers’ targeted at families, ‘Mid-Week Specials’ for the over 50’s segment, ‘Valentine’s Specials’ for couples. A targeted approach will lead to a higher conversion rates.
• Growing and managing your database. From a lead generation perspective, it is important to stay focussed on growing your database and ensuring that all contact details are correct and up to date. Your email template should always feature the opportunity to subscribe to receive further communications (as well as an unsubscribe option) and a link to ‘Forward to a friend’. Additionally, your website is a fantastic platform for data capture opportunities and subscription options should appear on every page. It is also advisable that booking confirmations include ‘opt-in’ messaging.

• Calls to action. You must be clear on what you want the recipient to do once they’ve opened your email. Clear calls to action will help you to achieve your campaign objectives and lead to a higher conversion rate. Try to avoid multiple links and messages as this will dilute the impact of your messaging. A single call to action can be highly impactful as there can be no confusion over what you want the reader to do e.g. ‘Book now to avail of this special room rate’.
• Appealing Hotel Website. Anytime your reader clicks on a link in your email, it should lead them to a website/landing page that they will love and that will make them want to book their hotel stay with you. It is important that the landing page is relevant and meets with their expectations.

At HotelConnect our hotel websites are engineered to convert visitors into hotel guests. They are designed and developed to deliver exceptional user experience and emotional impact on any device.​ Please contact us if you would like to talk to a HotelConnect Expert about how we can help your hotel to drive revenue and make more direct bookings.

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