WHAT IS EMAIL MARKETING?

We all know that email has become just as ubiquitous as the telephone has.
Moreover, email usage has become just as important in our personal lives as in
our day-to-day business dealings. Yet, many companies fail to leverage email as
one of the most powerful media and communications vehicles on this planet.
Email marketing, when properly organized and deployed, is one of the most effective means a hotelier has to market his property to potential guests.

With more than 435 million email boxes worldwide, it’s simply good business
strategy for hoteliers to utilizes email marketing to reach out to customers.
Building on the principles of customer retention and database marketing, email
offers an unprecedented opportunity to cultivate relationships with your most
valuable customers.

According to Roper Starch Worldwide, email is now the primary communications vehicle for business, preferred 48.5% vs. 39% for telephone and 3.5% for postal mail.

Email provides a direct one-to-one connection to your guests with a built-in
response mechanism. Recipients can click-thru to your website or reply to your
email message with the click of a mouse. Properly planned, it’s the most effective direct response tool available. Studies continue to show that email marketing is more effective then direct mail.\

A good email marketing program helps tie together your hotel’s entire buying
cycle, from marketing and sales to customer service, connecting the guest with
your hotel at all levels. You can easily process reservation transactions and
handle customer service inquiries and feedback via email. Through the cycle,
you can gather valuable information about your guests that can help you target
sales strategies, refine your email database, identify market trends and uncover
opportunities for new products and services.

As an example, one hotel customer designed his website newsletter
signup page to capture valuable guest demographic information. As customers
signup for the hotel’s monthly email newsletter, he is capturing guest
preferences, interests, lifestyle information and psychographics information.

When the hotelier wants to email a special “wine tasting promotion” he can
query his database and target the most affluent guests for his
campaign. This is called database filtering.

Another hotelier uses his database to fill empty rooms on the weekend by filtering his database for previous guests that have expressed an interest in weekend promotions. Religiously every Monday morning, the hotelier selects his email template, inserts special reservation links in the body of this
email and emails to his “weekender” list. By Wednesday afternoon he runs a
reservations report to see the level of rooms pick up from the promotion. Try
doing that with direct mail!

ADVANTAGES OF PERMISSION BASED EMAIL MARKETING
Permission based means the recipients choose you. You are communicating
with customers who have opted-in to receive information about your hotel and
associated promotions. Your messages are anticipated like those of a friend, as
the recipient expects your messages will be relevant and valuable.
Ability to customize and personalize. Email messages can be addressed to the guest by name and targeted to his preferences and special requests. Instead of “Dear Recipient” you can address messages to “Dear Bob” and let him know about special rates and promotions at your hotel.

Lower costs, greater flexibility. Email messages cost substantially less to
produce and distribute than traditional direct mail, and they can be produced
much more quickly. Eliminating printing and mailing costs saves both time and
money. Most users spend less than one day planning and distributing an email campaign, seeing results in hours!

Increased customer response options. Recipients have the ability to respond
immediately by return email or by clicking through to your website for more
information, creating and interactive dialogue between you and your customer.
Immediate trackable and measurable. You are also able to track how many people have received your emailer and how many have opened up the email.
Email messages can be sent to a portion of your database for testing, so you can refine and revise to maximize their effectiveness.

Superior targetability. Keep your email messages relevant by using the
information within your database to tailor messages to a recipient’s
specific profile. You can create one email campaign that targets travel agents
with information about bonus sales commissions and one to business travelers
about weekend specials.

Adds value to your hotel offering. By establishing an ongoing dialogue with
your guests, you actually improve the value your hotel offers. Let guests know
about upcoming specials and packages promoting your shoulder season.

HOW CAN YOUR HOTEL USE EMAIL?
Let us count the ways…the applications of email marketing are limited only by
your imagination. Hotels of all sizes can benefit from an email marketing
program to reach out to hotels guests and prospects. Successful hotels can
strengthen guest relationships through permission based marketing by providing
timely, relevant information and enhancing the guest value with tailored content
and services.

Connect with customers in the following manner:
• Email travel agents special commission bonuses
• Communicate with your hotel’s loyalty club members
• Send feedback and customer surveys to past guests
• Solicit corporate meeting business
• Promotional contests for a hotel’s secretaries club
• Promote weekend packages to business travelers
• Send out monthly newsletters to guests

THE REALITIES OF UNSOLICITED EMAIL
Who wants to open their mailbox to an overflow of unwanted junk mail?
Permission based email marketing helps your hotel avoid the evils of Unsolicited
Commercial Email (UCE), commonly known as spam. You can dramatically
increase the results of your campaigns by sending marketing offers only to
individuals who have opted to receive information from your hotel and have
provided you with their email address.

Permission based email performs 69% better than UCE. According to Jupiter
Communications, only 14% of consumers want to receive information from
companies they do not have a relationship with. And according to the Federal
Trade Commission, it receives more than 15,000 complaints about spam every
day.

WHY YOU NEED TO DO THIS PROFESSIONALLY
Some hoteliers believe that since they already have the ability to receive and
send email from their personal computers that the are able to do this on their own. This is a dangerous misconception!

One danger of sending email yourself is having your hotel company on a “realtime black list.” Major Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have a black list for spammers and will stop messages from entering their systems. They will NOT notify the sender that messages are being filtered out, although the messages will bounce back. You see, your agreement with your ISP DOESN’T authorize you to send out bulk email messages…thus when their systems monitor your outbound email traffic and see your messages in process…spam alert detection goes into action. All your marketing efforts will be wasted and worse, you’ve now created an operational issue for your company.

Why do ISP’s block emails? Simple, they receive complaints from end
users…the recipients of the emails. If an ISP receives too many complaints, they
risk a chance of being shut down themselves for business. They’re trying to
protect their own business while providing a service to you…this is a very difficult line.

TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL EMAIL CAMPAIGN
Now that you’ve decided to implement an email marketing program, where do
you begin? The keys to success are knowing your audience and targeting your
message.

Define your target market. To build an effective in-house list for your email
marketing program, ask for a guest’s email address on all points of contact. For
example, when a guest contacts your reservations department, go ahead and
capture his email address; and when the guest arrives to the hotel also request
an email address. Get their permission to send email and gather as much
information as you need about the guest. You can also collect email addresses
through past guest satisfaction surveys.

Establish objectives. As with any communications program, it’s important that
your email campaign fits in with your hotel’s overall marketing goals. Make sure
to focus your message on the target audience to achieve the results you want.
Determine the offer. By leveraging your database, you can target specific demographic groups with offers that suit their needs and interests. Build your message. Develop a message that’s interesting, easy to read and relevant to the recipient’s interests. Write in a friendly, personal tone and encourage quick response with click-thrus to your website or reply-email.

Determine timing of delivery. When is the best time to distribute your email?
For the business market, arrival on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday helps you
avoid the Monday overload and Friday state-of-mind. Emails sent to consumers
directly may be better received on weekends when the recipient has more free
time to consider and respond to your offer.

ANATOMY OF AN EFFECTIVE EMAIL
Get permission. Develop an “opt-in” strategy to allow guests to ask for more
information from you. You can invite guests to “opt-in” at your website, trade
shows and conferences. Gather information about interests and preferences.
From line. Make sure your message is from a recognizable source. Use your
hotel’s name if it’s more recognizable than your email address.  Also consider using an individual’s name to make the message warm and friendly.
Subject line. Keep it short and direct, 35 characters or less

Personalization. When addressing a message, always use the recipient’s
name. Copy of the email. Should be brief, compelling and immediately engaging.
Benefits need to be stated early in the text. Make sure your message is relevant
to the person’s needs.

Call-to-action. Always include a strong call-to-action (CTA), sending the reader
to a specific page in your website for this email campaign. Keep any web forms
simple. If conducting a survey, post a privacy notice on that page. Explain to
customers that you’re asking these questions in order to be a better business
partner by tailoring future emails to their specific needs.

Format. Keep your email messages simple and, if possible, keep it to one
screen. Make it graphically attractive for those who opted to receive HTML
emails, but make sure your text version is also readable.

Unsubscribe option. Always include a link for the recipient to easily be taken
off your email list. Sometimes information becomes unwanted. Make it easy for
subscribers to remove themselves from your distribution list.

THE BOTTOM LINE: BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS
Email serves as an extension of your website and your hotel, so you can keep
communications flowing with guests and potential new guests. Building
relationships online helps build sales and increase profitability for your hotel.
Remember to be relevant, be personal and build trust with your guests and
remember that good relationships aren’t always about making a sale.

NEED MORE INFORMATION?
We hope you have enjoyed this email marketing primer. We hope we have
stimulated some new ideas and thoughts as it relates to building your business
through email marketing.
 

Pease contact us for more information or visit our website @
www.webtachospitality.com or drop us an email at emails@webtachospitality.com