Summer is over and so with it goes the 100% occupancy rate that your hotel has become so used to. The time has come to get your marketing machine into gear and focused on those special occasion weekends and events that you can target. The emergence of targeted digital advertising such as Google Adwords and Facebook among others have provided hotels and other medium sized businesses with effective and accountable advertising tools. Email marketing however is the most effective, best value for money and easiest marketing tool you have at your disposal. The worlds best hotels do it regularly and if you want to maximise your resources in the best way then you should get started today.
Getting started is easy
There is an abundance of free email marketing applications out there, such as Mailchimp or Sensorpro and you can get started with even the smallest amount of email addresses. Pick a template, enter some content and send. Email marketing for hotels is easy, you just have to get started.
Costs little or nothing
Most email marketing platforms are free until you reach many thousands of email addresses at which point the costs are still very affordable. There is simply no comparison to paid advertising formats such as Google Adwords, Facebook or traditional media formats such as print, radio or TV. Email marketing for hotels should not replace the new digital or traditional media channels but will compliment them by working in tandem.
40 times more effective than Facebook
A recent study by McKinsey found that email marketing is 40 times more effective than Facebook at acquiring customers. While Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms are am important part of the media mix, you cannot argue with the facts – email marketing works!
Reclaim your direct link to guests
Booking a hotel room has become one of the fiercest battles of the modern Internet age. An array of booking engines play the SEO game to be front and center when your guests want to book online. The result is that the booking engines suck up all the customer data and own the relationship with the customer. Your hotel simply gets a booking order with scant details of who your customer is or where they came from, minus a significant chunk of revenue for the trouble. Use whatever means you can to legitimately collect your guests email data such as surveys or using your free WiFi service and reclaim your direct link to guests. Send out special offers and deals where they can book on your site and where you can rightfully get 100% of the revenue.
Segmentation
Email marketing gives you the opportunity to segment your audience and target accordingly. Spa treatments and images for females and golfing offers for males – the opportunity to segment is a powerful marketing tool.
Get started today
These are just some of the main reasons to start embracing email marketing. Getting started is easy and it gets results every time. Email is the key piece of information you need on your customers – get their email address and you have a direct link to guests at any time that they will listen.
