It’s no secret that email marketing is a widely traveled path on the journey of reaching consumers and convincing them to convert. This simple and inexpensive marketing method boasts infinite possibilities making it easy to saturate inboxes across the globe. With more than 3.2 billion email accounts worldwide, brands easily become lost in a sea of subject lines.
Hoteliers uncomfortably find themselves between Bath and Body Works’ latest lemonade fizz hand soap and a reminder of your upcoming credit card bill on auto-pay.
The challenge of standing out begins long before your carefully crafted digital message is relinquished into the hands of the ever-changing consumer. It bubbles up in the infancy of its concept and coding through the depths of its developer’s desktop.
In a world ruled by technology, the success of your email is dependent upon criteria deemed crucial by the consumers’ actions.
What does the consumer care about? Value.
How do you get the consumer to recognize your value? Well, that’s another story.
Two words: Subject line. This small collection of words plays a pivotal role in the outcome of the life of your email.
- Create a succinct, attention-grabbing subject line that sparks the consumer’s interest.
- Personalize it. Personalized emails improve click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10%. (Aberdeen Group) This is an easy to way to make the consumer feel appreciated.
- Take a risk! Don’t be afraid to experiment with rhymes, phrases and even emoticons.
Mix it up. Add variety to the value of your messages to keep the consumer engaged.
- Give someone an excuse to take a sick day or start a new tradition.
- Promote an exclusive special or giveaway with distinct calls to action.
Minimize un-subscriptions and maximize click through rate.
- Do your research. Most un-subscriptions come on Tuesdays (0.52% unsub rate) and 6 a.m. has the highest CTR of any hour. (HubSpot)
- Test it out. Email marketing stretches across all industries and consumer types. Determine exactly what your consumers want with simple A/B tests. Try sending the same message to different groups of your database at various times throughout the week to find a time and day that your particular audience engages most.
Evaluate your messages. Consumer activity and engagement is easily tracked through email marketing.
- Take full advantage of everything your email-sending platform has to offer. Review deliverability, open rates, click activity and revenue generated from your unique message.
- Manipulate future email designs based on how consumers interact with your sends. When you find a subject line that resonates with your audience, create similar versions and compare performance.
- When you find a body format that generates a lot of clicks, use that body format in future sends to determine if success was based on format or content.
- Design for mobile and other devices that have surpassed desktop open rates. Use of internet on mobile devices will continue to grow and email is not being left behind. It’s essential that your emails are easy to read and interact with on mobile devices.
Don’t over-communicate.
- Often, marketers send messages because they feel the need to keep contact with their consumers. Be sure to only send if your message benefits the consumer.
Email marketing shouldn’t be a snack, but rather a staple in brand communication digested by consumers daily.
Done well, this inexpensive, customizable and easily measured marketing platform can increase revenue and create customer loyalty. Hoteliers should take full advantage of minimal effort for maximum return with increased email marketing efforts.
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