Transactional vs Marketing Communications Campaign: What’s the Difference & Why It Matters for Hoteliers.

With the introduction of SMS into For-Sight’s transactional and marketing campaign setup, we thought it’d be a good time to give you a refresher on the difference between transactional and marketing communication campaigns and how your business needs to adjust based on the type of campaign you’re sending.

In this blog, we’ll cover the following:

• What is a Transactional Communications Campaign?
• What is a Marketing Communications Campaign?
• What are GDPR requirements?
• How can I obtain consent for sending marketing communications?
• How For-Sight makes sending campaigns easier.

Digital communications channels like email and SMS are some of the most important touchpoints hoteliers will have with their guests outside the time they’ve booked a stay. You can get them excited for their stay, reward loyal guests, nurture relationships, and reward loyal guests! We all love a little something extra. However, hoteliers need to be conscious of the types of communications they send and ensure they have received consent to market to their guests.

What is a Transactional Communications Campaign?

Transactional communication campaigns are for anything related to a transaction your guest has made, whether they’re staying at your property or have made a spa booking, tee time, or dining reservation. You do not require opt-ins to send your guests information related to their transaction.

Some goals of transactional messages include:

Provide Information

This can include a reservation confirmation, check-in details, or critical updates in the event of a storm.

Enhance Engagement

Provide helpful suggestions for local attractions and highlight amenities. While you cannot offer promotional codes, you can still focus on offering a great experience when your guest comes to visit. You can go even deeper with personalised recommendations based on their purchase history, demographics, or room booking code.

Request Feedback

Feedback is an important part of building trust and solid guest relationships, both during and after their stay. Asking for feedback early on allows your team to fix minor issues before they become big ones. Requesting a review after your guest has checked out is a great way to connect with your guests and build your reputation.

For-Sight CRM users can now access powerful guest feedback tools without leaving their CRM environment. Create segments based on review scores, automate campaigns to save your precious time, and reach your guests on the right channel at the right time. Learn more about our partnership with GuestRevu here.

What is a Marketing Communications Campaign?

While transactional communications are focused on a guest’s specific transaction with your hotel, marketing messages are broader ways to capture their attention, whether or not they’ve made a purchase at your property.

These can be regular communications, like a monthly newsletter, one-off emails highlighting new offerings, or seasonal offers such as a Black Friday deal.

Check out this example of how we created a Black Friday campaign with an automated programme.

The key difference between marketing messaging and transactional messaging is that marketing messages require your guests to consent to receive these types of messages from you.

This means that if someone books a stay with you, you’re able to send them information about their reservation, but it doesn’t mean that you can automatically include them in your marketing emails.

What are GDPR requirements?

The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR, protects how personal information is used by organisations. While this framework refers specifically to processing consumer data within the EU, similar regulations exist for data processed in the United Kingdom (UK GDPR), the United States (CAN-SPAM), and other countries around the world.

Specific

The consent must be specific to the intended purpose of data processing. You should have separate opt-ins for different channels, such as email and SMS.

Freely Given and Unambiguous

Consent must be given through a clear affirmative action, such as ticking a box. Setting opt-in as the default or requiring consumers to take an added step to opt out of communications is not compliant with GDPR.

Easy to Opt Out.

Just as consent must be clear and easy to give, it must be easy for consumers to opt out of communications. For email, you’ll find this as an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of the email. For SMS, this could come in the form of a link or a stop word that your contacts can reply to unsubscribe from further communications.

If my hotel isn’t located in the EU, do I need to worry about GDPR?

GDPR regulations are designed to protect individuals living in the EU, so if you have any guests visiting from the EU, those requirements still apply. As a hotelier with guests potentially visiting from all over the world, you need to do your due diligence and ensure that you are only processing data within the scope of these guidelines.

These regulations may sound intimidating. The good news is that it’s easy to make sure you’re set up to obtain permissions and ensure compliance.

How do I get marketing permissions from guests?

Preference centres are an easy way for hoteliers to collect marketing permissions from guests.  By using preference centres, you’re keeping your business safe with documentation showing when and how consent was given or updated.

Preference centres aren’t just for communication channel opt-ins, though. They give your guests the power to engage with your hotel and tell you exactly what they want to hear about, whether it’s holidays, spa deals, or family-friendly activities. Think of it like a buffet where your guests can self-select what they’re most interested in!

Learn more about the power of preference centres here.

You can resend preference centres to guests yearly to update permissions and do reengagement campaigns to find unengaged contacts and clean them from your marketing lists.

If a guest opts to unsubscribe from your email communications, you can redirect them back to your preference centre to update the types of messages they’d like to receive.

For example, your guest Taylor may have initially opted in to hear about weekend getaways, spa deals, and your general newsletter. After a few emails, she decides that while she’s no longer interested in the newsletter, she doesn’t want to miss out on any spa communications. She updates her preferences accordingly.

Taylor feels listened to, and she knows that whenever she receives an email from you, it’s going to be something she’s eager to open.

By integrating these principles into your data collection, you’ll build trust with your guests. They’ll even be more willing to share data on their own!

 Make Guest Communications Campaigns Easier with For-Sight

Our latest product update makes it even easier for you to send single-send marketing campaigns directly from For-Sight. For-Sight’s CRM and Marketing Platform builds in protection for users by automatically excluding contacts that do not have channel consent for the action selected. You also get the benefit of our platform’s dynamic segmentation capabilities that allow you to tailor your messaging to different audiences.

Our team also works with our partners to support your communications with preference centres, feedback tools, and so much more!

We remove the guesswork so you can focus on what’s most important: your guests!

Stay up to date with the latest from For-Sight! Make sure you’re subscribed to our newsletter for the latest blogs, product updates, and events.