A masterclass in email marketing for hotels

Masterclass in Email Marketing Presented by

Cara Callaghan,

Online Training Manager

Michelle Conaghan,

Business Development Manager

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What we are going to cover?

1. Legislation

2. Building your Database

3. Types of Email

4. Social Media

5. Guidelines

6. Best Practices

7. Stats

8. Deliverability

What is email marketing?

The process of delivering relevant, engaging and timely marketing messages about your products and services to a specific group of recipients via electronic mail.

“

”

How important is email?

Well executed email affects

brand attitudes.

The quality of email affects

brand perception.

The expectation for well known

brands are higher!

Legislation

Ireland & UK Legislation

For Ireland and the UK:

1. Businesses can be opt out. (B2B)

2. Individuals must be opt in. (B2C)

3. Should include a clear, prominent privacy statement.

4. Easy, free unsubscribe process.

Email Footer should include: (2007 in 'business letters' & 'order forms’)

• Full company name, with "limited“

• Place of registration

• Registered number

• Address of registered office

US Legislation

For the US:

• The CAN-SPAM Act covers commercial email messages, the primary purpose of which is the advertisement or promotion of a commercial product or service. • The CAN-SPAM Act allows direct marketing email messages to be sent to anyone, without permission, until the recipient explicitly requests that they cease ("opt-out"). • Every message must include opt-out instructions. The sender must honour the opt-out requests of recipients within 10 days.

Glossary

1. Open Rate - The percentage of total recipients who open a given email.

2. Clickthrough Rate - The number of times the links in an email were clicked compared to the

total list size, represented as a percentage.

3. Below-the-fold: Refers to the area of a web page or email that is not visible until the mouse or

arrow keys are used to scroll father down the page.

4. Email Service Provider (ESP): Service that provides clients with platform from which to create

and deploy email messages, as well as the ability to access reporting tools. Depth of service and

sophistication of systems vary depending on the ESP.

5. Forward: An email function allowing subscribers to relay a previously received message in full to

another email address (or addresses).

6. HTML-based Email: An email comprised of HTML code. Essentially, an HTML-based email is

the equivalent of emailing a web page, complete with colours, graphics, and other visually

appealing methods of delivering content.

Signing Up.....

1. Offer a good description of what they can expect to receive.

2. Allow segmentation – e.g. tick areas of interest

3. Offer HTML or Text Version

4. Link to a current issue so they can see what they’ll be receiving.

Building a Database

Web Signup form

Easy to find

Offer benefit

Easy to use

Non intrusive

• Face-to-face data collection

e.g. trade shows, events, call centres etc

• Drive traffic to form

• Viral database building – Forward to a friend

Growing Your Email Database

1. Link to your signup form from every page of your website.

2. Place a link to your email signup form in your email signature (ask everyone in your company to do it too).

3. Offer free giveaways to one lucky subscriber .

4. In your "Contact Us" form on your website, add a checkbox to "signup for our newsletter“.

5. Offer a relevant incentive, such as email subscriber discounts.

Growing Your Email Database

6. Include on relevant printed material like feedback forms etc .

7. Include a ‘Forward to a Friend’ link in your email.

8. Include the link in post-stay emails so guests who have stayed can subscribe if they haven’t already done so.

9. Include Social Media – mention on Facebook, Twitter, Blog and encourage social sharing

Growing Your Email Database

More than 1,100 marketers were asked to indicate the level of effectiveness of each list growth tactic used by their organization. See the results in the chart below.

Short editorial

Long Editorial

Alerts, press releases, tip of the day or week and product launches • These messages are short and to the point. • They inform your subscribers about news and tips • The content should be focused on editorial rather than promotion. A suggested balance is around 70% editorial 30% promotion. “THIS IS NOT A SALES HAMMER”

Email newsletters, long press releases and industry guides. •Allows you to write a little bit more •Many companies choose to send long form editorial to customers & prospects. •This is not a sales pitch •You can utilise space to promote offers and buying information.

Design: Types of Email

Short Promotional

Long Promotional

E-Cards, sale announcement and reminders. • Keep this type of email short and sweet. • The aim is to get the reader off the email as quick as possible • Take one key message and promote it. • Must have a clear benefit to the recipient. • Most effective in driving bookings for hotels.

Sales Letter and Catalogue email. • Allows you to present many benefits of your product or service. • Also allows you to present many products on one email. • Ideal for products or services that require more explanation. • Direct sales driven so your copy should reflect this.

Design: Types of Email

Short Promotional

Short Promotional

Social Media & Email Marketing

Integrated campaigns

• Add social icons

• Add a social element or reward to the campaign

• Encourage user to become a fan

• Unlock the reward or offer once they become a fan

• Build your database through social

• Welcome new fans

• Track new fans

• Record ROI and engagement achieved

Social Media & Email Marketing

Case study – stats on integrated campaign

• Grew fans by 10%

• 50% of new likes in first 48 hours

• 1,040 views on the ‘exclusive fan offer’

tab on their FB page

• Top referrer to website

• 28:1 ROI on campaign

• 18% revenue came through Facebook

channel

Email Marketing Guidelines

Email is an inexpensive yet effective way to reach a large audience quickly.

Following some simple guidelines can ensure that your promotional emails

don't get lost in an inbox full of messages or deleted without being read.

Be Respectful

Keep it Short

Build an Effective Plan

Consider the content:

1. Subject lines should be short and should clearly communicate the message.

2. Only use 1 or 2 images per email.

3. Be sure to have an HTML version and a plain-text version to send.

Best Practices

1. Employ Target Segmentation to maximize relevancy. Develop target specific messaging.

2. The Subject Line is the most important 35 characters of the email.

3. The Message Body should contain a compelling offer and a call to action.

4. One Click Unsubscription

5. Ensure Testing is Carried Out

6. Avoid the Spam Filters

Best Practices

Best Practices continued…….

7. Personalise where possible

8. Tuesday / Wednesday = Increased Response

9. Link-Click Testing

10. Make it easy for people to give you their email

11. Track all actions

Stats

Stats for the Travel Industry* • Open Rate - 24.97%

• Clickthrough Rate – 4.96%

• Soft Bounces – 2.17%

• Hard Bounces – 3.74%

• Unsubscribes – 0.39% *Average Email Campaign Stats of MailChimp Customers

Response Rates (Not specific to travel industry)

• 0.5% is considered terrific

• 0.2% is considered great

• Calculate it on a cost per sale basis – how does it compare to other mediums?

• Small changes can make a big difference in results – subject line, sender name, offer placement

• Testers achieve 68% higher return over non-testers (JupiterResearch)

• Good news: most marketers don’t test ;-)

Test, Test, Test

Graphics Call to action Image

Color Offer Deadline Price

Design Incentive Benefits

Copy Discount (%) Description

Format Discount (€) Name

Creative Offer Product

Test Product, Offer and Creative

Email Deliverability

1. Minimise spam complaints

2. Manage expectations at the beginning

3. Validate email addresses at opt-in

4. Optimize design and HTML coding for delivery and rendering

5. Use a dedicated IP address

6. Set internal ground rules for list additions

7. Perform regular list hygiene

SPAM Filters

What they look for…

Phrases

Coding

Header structure

Phishing

Image/text balance

Reputation

ISP Filter Corporate filter

Inbox filter

Some phrases, words and styles to watch out for (visit spamassassin.apache.org)

FREE

HOT CLICK HERE >>

BOLD TEXT

STOCK

ENHANCED

SHOUTING Using all caps Very Large &

small text

Font

Colour

Email Marketing Resources

1. http://www.newsweaver.com/emailmatters

2. http://blog.mailchimp.com/

3. http://www.clickz.com/type/column/category/email

4. http://www.emarketer.com

5. http://blogs.boomerang.com/blog/category/email-marketing/

6. http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/email-marketing-guide/

Any Questions?

Thank you for joining us today.

Questions to [email protected]

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