10 Tips to Increase Hotel Revenue with Email Marketing

However, many hoteliers don’t know where to begin when it comes to guest email marketing, or they don’t know how to optimize their campaigns. If you want to learn how to do hotel email marketing properly, look no further than these 10 tips that will help you increase your revenue and make more money from your email drip campaigns in 2024 and beyond!

1. Write an excellent email subject line

When it comes to email marketing, the subject line is the soul of the email that you’re sending to your list. When a recipient sees an email in their inbox, they typically spend a mere six seconds reviewing it before deciding whether or not to open it. If the subject line doesn't catch their eye, chances are they're going to delete it without ever knowing what was inside.

To get your emails opened and read more often, try these tips that Dan Kennedy has suggested in his book “The Ultimate Sales Letter”.

According to the author, we find inspiration in the accounts of people who overcame significant challenges and humiliation from others to succeed. You'll want to know if the successful individual shared your uncertainty, fear, or disability if this headline describes anything you considered attempting but talked yourself out of doing.

You can use subject lines like:

They Didn’t Think I Could_____, But I Did. [They grinned when the waiter spoke to me in French – But their laughter changed to amazement at my reply!]

Who Else Wants____? [Who else wants a screen-star fatigue?]

How____Made Me___? [How a simple idea made me “Plant Manager of the year.”]

Are You____? [Are you smarter than your boss?]

How I____? [How I raised myself from failure to success in selling.]

How To_____? [How to improve marketers’ productivity – for just $19.95]

If You Are___, You Can____ [If you are a nondrinker, you can save 20% on life insurance.]

Secrets Of_____ [Secrets of Four Champion Golfers.]

Thousands (Hundreds, Millions) Now_____Even Though They___. [Two million people owe their health to this idea even though they laughed at it.]

Warning:_______ [Warning: Two-Third of the Middle Managers in Your Industry will Lose their Job in the Next 36 Months.]

Give Me_____ And I’ll_______. [Give me a chance to ask Seven Questions and I’ll prove you are wasting a small fortune on your advertising.]

_____Ways To_____. [17 ways to slash your equipment maintenance costs.]

P.S.: Fill in the blanks to make an adjusted headline for your email campaign. And it’s always a best practice to do A/B testing between a couple of subject lines.

2. Include link to unsubscribe the list

When sending emails for promotion, there’s always a chance of email spamming. One thing that is important to avoid this issue is that you need to include a link to unsubscribe from the list at the end of the email’s body. Doing this will reduce the spam score of your email campaign and you’ll have a list of readers who like to read your emails.

3. Educate yourself on best practices for emails

Email is one of the best ways to engage with customers and keep them coming back. But it's also one of the easiest ways to annoy them, which can lead to a high unsubscribe rate.

So, if you want to avoid that situation, follow the best practices for emails. Most of the best practices are mentioned on this page. So, make sure you educate yourself on those implementations and follow them while sending emails to your subscribers.

4. Include images and videos in your emails

When sending an email, include high-quality images and videos that showcase what your hotel has to offer. You want customers who view your email online or open it on their phone to feel like they can imagine themselves staying at your hotel without feeling any hesitation. Graphics also help when trying to convey the benefits of staying with your hotel.

5. Send an offer once per week or less

Email marketing is one of the most popular and effective means of communication for your business. With it, you can reach more people, engage more customers, and generate higher profits from sales. However, if you're not careful, you can also annoy your customers with too many emails. We recommend sending a new email offer once per week or less.

However, you can send daily reader digest to your subscribers so they are engaged with your business regularly.

6. Use the subject line again in the body of the email

Using the subject line in the body of the email makes it more relevant which leads to improved click rate and conversion rate as well. And it also improves the overall quality of your email campaign. Make sure you provide enough information in your emails so people know what they are signing up for without being too pushy or spammy.

7. Personalize your message with customer data

For hotels, email marketing is a great way to engage with their guests and get more reservations. To get the most out of it, you should personalize your message as much as possible, try personalizing each message you send by addressing the guest by name or referencing their preferences. It gives a good experience to your audience and they are more likely to convert into your customer.

8. Invest in your website

Having a website is one of the biggest parts of your hotel email marketing campaign. If you don’t have your hotel’s website, you will lack the main part of email marketing which is lead generation or client acquisition.

A website is one of the most important tools a hotel can invest in. It's the first thing potential guests will see when they go online, and it can make all the difference when it comes to winning new customers.

Investing in a website that showcases your hotel's services, rates, and amenities is an investment in your business's future.

9. Get your guests engaged before they even check-in

The key is to start engaging your guests before they even check-in. This means that when they book, they get an email with a personalized message from the hotel welcoming them and offering them a variety of options for directions, parking information, and popular attractions in the area. Upon arriving at the hotel, you can greet them by name and tell them how much you're looking forward to their stay.

For all these tasks, you can create a particular email campaign and then see what worked well and what didn’t work.

The next step is sending a few follow-up emails during their stay.

10. Collect data so you can better improve your campaigns

After you launch a campaign, you need to collect data which will later be used to improve and optimize the campaign for better results. Now, this data could be open rate, bounce rate, click-through rate, conversions, bookings, at which point of time, most/ fewer emails are opened.

Email marketing is a powerful branch of digital marketing and it works well for hotels too. So, give it a try! And, stay tuned to BotShot blog for more related articles.

Conclusion

Most hoteliers think that e-mail marketing is DEAD, however, it’s the most important channel of communication that every hotelier should leverage. When all your social media accounts get banned, then e-mail is the only medium of communicating with your guests. 

One research study found that every $1 you spend on email marketing gives you a return of $38. This means that e-mail marketing constitutes an important part of your digital marketing strategy.  

As a hotelier, you need to go for a multi-channel approach, and taking extra steps can help you strengthen your relationships with guests and enhance their experience. Following the above-mentioned e-mail marketing tips can ace your hotel’s marketing game. 

At BOTSHOT, we offer eMARK-IT solutions for hotels of all sizes to ease their marketing game. They can send personalized e-mails to the right audience at the right time. Thus, they can promote their hotel online.