Email remains a powerful marketing stream, but hotels need quality subscriber lists and effective copy to drive responses. Below are key ways an active subscriber list benefits hotel email marketing, how hotels can build a quality subscriber list, and how to maximize that list with relevant content.
Segmentation, Testing, and Automation
Email marketing allows busy hoteliers to segment their subscriber list easily, effectively creating individual marketing campaigns for each customer segment; for example, by demographic, reason for travel, booking history, or visit frequency. More relevant campaigns boost open rates, click-throughs, revenue potential, and, ultimately, conversion to booking. Hoteliers can perfectly time and automate these email segments based on response with planned behavioral email funnels. Email campaigns are easily tested too, providing data to identify the highest performing copy and timing.
Increase Hotel Brand Awareness on Social Media
Email helps hotels amplify their online presence, ensuring consistent branding, guest engagement, and storytelling across all social media accounts. Hotels can use pre check-in emails to encourage guests to follow them on Instagram for exclusive content, promote a hotel geofilter on Snapchat, or request ‘likes’ on a recent Facebook post. As well as boosting social media followers, this also begins to build loyalty that will ultimately drive revenue.
Improve SEO
Hotel reviews are essential for feedback, but guest reviews also contribute to better SEO rankings for hotels, driving direct bookings and brand awareness. Google algorithms give preference to review content because it’s dynamic, always updating, and deemed valuable. Hotels can encourage guest reviews by sending automatically triggered emails asking for feedback, either after check-out or once a guest has logged out of a hotel’s WiFi.
How Hotels Can Build a Powerful Guest Email List
Here are three ways hotels can build a strong subscriber base.
Use every guest touchpoint for data capture.
Hotels must prioritize effective email capture. This means turning every guest touchpoint into a data capture opportunity, including:
- Capturing emails from direct inquiries and bookings
- Tasking frontline staff to capture email at check-in or with services such as restaurant bookings
- Including clear, obvious links for email capture on social media accounts with ‘get in touch’ buttons
- Use data capture pop-ups on hotel landing pages
- Offer fast, free guest WiFi that is accessible by entering an email address
Offer guests loyalty membership in exchange for an email.
Offering guests something exclusive or adding extra value to their hotel stay in exchange for an email address can help hotels grow their email list. Hotels can include incentives like offering email subscribers priority bookings or room upgrades, or giving subscribers something simple such as coffee during their stay. Loyalty programs work because guests love to feel appreciated and valued, and most guests are happy to exchange an email address for this.
Create an online quiz to engage guests.
Quizzes are popular content on social media, boosting guest engagement and brand awareness. They’re also a useful way to capture email data seamlessly, without a hard push. Creating a simple, shareable quiz—for example, “what is your ideal vacation activity”—with tailored answer funnels allows hotels to capture email addresses as a condition of seeing the quiz results.
Maximize email lists with quality email content
Once a hotel has a strong list of subscribers, the next step is to make boost engagement, click-throughs, and essential conversions to direct bookings with quality content. Here’s how:
Use videos in hotel emails. Hotels can use video to highlight their location or show some behind-the-scenes clips.
Harness people power. Highlighting recent top reviews in email copy will improve conversions by persuading future guests to make a first-time booking or encouraging a repeat visit.
Personalize email content. As well as using the lead guest name, hotels can include references to others in the booking party, recent stay dates, or amenities used during their stay. This personalization with micro-segmentation helps to build lasting engagement.
Creating a quality email list gives hotels control, allowing powerful segmentation, personalization, and the ability to promote revenue-boosting services.
