Engaging with your guests can be done using email marketing in many different ways, and yet there are best practices you can follow to supercharge your marketing efforts and boost guest engagement.
The right strategy can make you thrive in the very competitive hospitality industry. The following suggestions were developed first-hand by our marketers and our client success team who support hoteliers like you, to connect with their guests.
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This blog article is an excerpt from our new guide.
Why measure and validate?
When it comes to email marketing, content is king! But reporting and measuring your data and campaigns allows you to understand the bigger picture and ensure that your content is actually working.
Measuring and validating your data and performance of your email campaigns allows you to:
- Make informed decisions,
- Create data-driven strategies,
- Track your progress and your goals and
- Review and align your marketing efforts efficiently.
Now looking into more details, what does this actually mean?
1. Make informed decisions
Reporting on your email marketing is important when it comes to making decisions. Measuring the performance of your email campaigns can give you detailed insights into what works and what doesn’t, especially when it comes to A/B testing. A/B testing allows you to send two different versions of the same email, for example with two different subject lines, headings or images. Reporting on these emails then allows you to see which version works best in terms of open and click rates. Once you have those metrics, you can then use that knowledge to take appropriate action.
Example: If the email with the subject line featuring emojis has a higher open rate than the email that doesn’t, then you would be more inclined to use emojis in subject lines in the future.
2. Create data-driven strategies
By measuring and validating your data and email campaigns using the reports, you can use your findings to ascertain which contacts and areas of your business are most important to you. Analytics can transform the way you approach your email marketing, as they give you insights into your guests, your data and how engaged your audience is. You can then use this information to improve and optimize your efforts. Making data-driven strategies starts with looking at the data that you already have. Who’s opening your emails? More men than women? More couples than families? Measuring the performance of your email campaigns can help you identify these trends, allowing you to take that knowledge and see where the opportunities are to improve.
Example: If guests with families are clicking on your emails less than guests who stayed at your hotel as a couple, then you can tailor your next email campaign to focus on families with family-focused activities or special promotions.
3. Track your progress and your goals
The next vital part of measuring and validating your email marketing is to track your progress. To evaluate the progress of your email marketing, you need to compare your current performance with past campaigns and other channels (social media, PPC etc) to see how you’re improving. Within the reports, simply utilise the widgets and date filters to see how your latest emails compare to previous ones. This will give you invaluable insights into how your marketing efforts are performing. But remember! Different campaigns have different goals, so it’s good practice to not just have a blanket approach when it comes to running reports.
4. Review and align your marketing efforts efficiently
Measuring and validating your email campaigns isn’t just a one-time thing! It’s vital to continuously monitor and assess your performance to ensure that you’re staying on the right track, with the right audience. Running monthly reports on your email campaigns and comparing them to previous ones can give you invaluable insight into how your marketing efforts are improving, or in some cases, declining. Regular reporting is a great way to catch any issues early and nip them in the bud with re-engagement campaigns, in order to stop your audience from shrinking or becoming unengaged.
Ensure you’re reporting at regular intervals (weekly, monthly, annually) to help you identify trends and create goals on those all-important metrics!
For-Sight’s email platform also allows you to connect your Google Analytics account to gather even more valuable information. By adding the tracking codes to your campaigns, you can not only report on the email’s performance but also the revenue generated from it.
