Transform your hotel’s approach to email personalisation and email automation with these easy strategies

Email has provided hoteliers with an incredible way to reach out to their guests, leads and past customers for decades. With the right strategy in place, it’s a powerful tool for driving up interest and reservations. For hotel marketing experts, the ability to personalise and automate is making their strategies even more effective and we’ve got some simple ways you can boost results too.

Email marketing means you can tap into your database to generate leads, improving revenue, and establish a trustworthy connection with travellers who have already made a booking. Strike the right balance and email campaigns have the potential to strengthen customer loyalty and increase the number of customers that return to your hotel. If your current email strategy could do with some new ways of working, we’ve got five hotel marketing agency ideas to get you started.

1. Get the personalisation basics rights

Personalising email correspondence should be something that you’re already doing. Just getting the basics in place can have a big impact so even if you’re already personalising emails it’s worth reviewing what you have in place to optimise performance. Did you know that an email with a personalised subject line can improve open rates by almost a third? It’s a simple, quick way to reach more people. Personalising the content of the email, such as by using an image from a destination they’ve been browsing or an offer that reflects their last stay, can boost your return on investment even more.

2. Create automated email series that are part of the experience

Emails that follow a reservation have exceptionally high open rates but for many hotel brands they’re an underused email marketing tool. Creating an email series that offers useful information in the lead up to your guests’ arrival can enhance the experience of staying at your hotel. For example, giving current weather information for your location, offering advice on the places to visit and providing a link to your app for speedy check-in are all excellent ways of building a relationship and improving brand loyalty.

3. Utilise opportunities to upsell

Your email marketing campaign needs to be useful to the customer but it’s also an opportunity to generate more revenue for your business. Emails sent after a guest has made a booking provide the perfect opportunity to upsell. Your confirmation email could note the available room upgrades, while your pre-arrival email can offer a deal for those customers that haven’t yet booked breakfast for their stay.

4. Target consumers that have abandoned carts

Emails that target customers that abandon carts is another automated email strategy that’s underused. Sometimes all potential leads need is a nudge back in the direction of your website. Remind them what they were looking it – cart abandonment messages generate a high level of engagement as the customer was already interested in the room. Boost your conversions further by adding a personalised offer to sweeten the deal.

5. It’s about the emails you don’t send too

While personalised emails and automation offer you plenty of opportunities to contact your leads, remember not to bombard them. Flooding inboxes will lead to a negative impression of your business, as will sending out promotional emails that don’t relate to the customer. Instead, focus on crafting content that’s personalised and timely to generate higher returns on each message.