Strategy is the foundation upon which a business is built. Without a clear strategic framework in place, it is impossible to effectively manage or develop a hospitality company. How can you reach your business goals and ambitions without an actionable plan for fulfilment?
“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”
Jack Welch, retired CEO of General Electric.
When looking at email marketing for your hospitality business, the same rules apply.
Whether you’re a hotelier, own an events venue or are a restaurateur – successful email marketing starts with a carefully crafted email marketing strategy.
Why Is A Structured Email Marketing Plan So Important?
Email is one of the most effective channels for hospitality businesses that are looking to make profit through marketing and engage with their customers. Email marketing can reach a large audience of people already interested in your brand, whilst allowing you to target and personalise your messages on an individual level – vastly improving the customer experience.
However, in a world where [1] 269 billion global emails are being sent daily, it’s easy for your emails to get ignored if not setup correctly and sent as part of a thought out, actionable strategy.
So Why Is This So Relevant To Hospitality Businesses?
Email marketing is a direct revenue opportunity for hospitality businesses, interacting with past, present and future customers. Whether used for branding, personalised communication or for promotional purposes, few other marketing options allow for such a targeted approach. Keep in mind, in most cases all email subscribers will be customers, or at least interested and aware of your brand.
For an example of hospitality email strategy, see online hotel booking site Expedia; or more specifically, how they used a carefully crafted and personalised strategy in their automated email marketing [2].
Expedia’s goal was to increase bookings from logged in website users who started the booking process, selected dates, but didn’t complete the process.
- In step one of their fulfilment plan, an automated email pulls in the name of the specific city that person was booking, with email content focused on booking a package deal.
- Step two, the city name from step one stays in the subject line, but now it’s also used in the emails title, body copy and in the
This strategy successfully aligns what the customer was thinking about completing, with a relevant email and subject line that would get their attention and likely lead to a booking. Focus, Goal, Tactic, Action.
Or as another example, imagine how impressed you would be as a customer if:
- You booked a restaurant table, and immediately received a personalised booking confirmation email.
- You then get a reminder two days before, including details on the restaurant’s location and best places to park.
- One week after the meal you receive an email thanking you for visiting – then one month later you get offered a return diner promotion.
The customer journey has never been more important in the hospitality industry, and engaging with customers at every point of interaction ensures you’re always on their mind.
What Makes A Great Strategy?
A great email marketing strategy for hotels, venues & restaurants can be summarised with four core steps;
- Set Goals
- Decide Tactics.
- Action.
- Learn, Optimise & Repeat.
Each step is equally important, however step four brings the process full circle and gives you the vital information on subscribers, required to tailor future goals. Being able to learn from results (data) and adjust tactics accordingly, is the difference between a basic marketer and expert-level email marketing strategist.
How Can My Hospitality Business See What Works?
Email marketing service providers offer hospitality brands the tools to create, personalise and analyse their email campaigns. At LeadDigital we recommend using the online software platform MailChimp, due to its wide range of features, extensive history and affordability.
For more on why to choose MailChimp, Click Here.
LeadDigital are also officially recognised MailChimp Experts, and have the knowledge and experience from over 20 years of email marketing to craft bespoke email strategies for your hospitality business. We start by auditing all aspects of your email processes, and lead on to setting goals and suitable tactics, removing any guesswork and maximising your return on email investment!
To Speak With An Email Strategy Specialist
References
[1] Is Email Marketing Dead? LeadDigital. 20 Mar 2017.
[2] 7 Lessons from top Performing Drip Email Campaigns. Shopify.
