Vacation rental businesses make many game plans to attract more travellers into their direct booking funnel. Among all the effective marketing initiatives, vacation rental email marketing is an old buddy. Email Marketing plays a decisive part in marketing strategy alongside lead generation, brand awareness and building guest relationships. You can share your blog posts to get traffic, create email marketing campaigns to increase customer retention, and attract new customers to book from your website. In 2021, HubSpot reported that email generated $42 per $1 spent, which was a staggering 4,200% Return on Investment (ROI). In this article, we are going to delve into the 7 best practices to notch up vacation rental email marketing success.
Grow Your Email Marketing List
The best way to collect your guests’ email addresses is to automate the process. You can ask for email addresses as a booking requirement to later update them about the info on their stay. Install a guest Wi-Fi network on your property and get your guests’ email addresses once they log in. A booking confirmation process can also help collect real email addresses from guests coming through OTAs. Another alternative would be to encourage your potential guests via lead magnets. Lead magnets are incentives they receive in return for their email addresses, such as newsletter subscriptions and discount offers. Whether you ask for email addresses or capture them via automation, building your vacation rental email marketing list is gold.
Set Up an Email Drip Campaign
In the modern-day marketing world, automation is a powerful tool. Setting up a pre-planned automated chain of messages proves that drip campaigns are a guaranteed timesaver in nurturing emails. Your guests usually receive a series of emails at different stages throughout their guest journey. Pre-arrival and post-arrival vacation rental emails are the most popular drip campaigns. They include a messaging workflow with a welcome message, booking confirmation details, rental management agreement, payment reminder, property arrival information, thank-you email and review reminder. You need to maintain your relationship with your guests constantly, so they stick with you when deciding on their next getaway. Modern drip marketing platforms such as MailChimp pave your way to a successful vacation rental email marketing campaign.
Drive Bookings with Limited Time-Offers
Offer limited-time deals during the off-season. Launch email campaigns at designated intervals up to the sale’s closing. Encourage your past guests to plan a return trip by updating them about what’s new. Keep a record of your guests’ birthdays or anniversaries and offer them a discount on their return visit. You can also plan offerings on the anniversary of your own business. Treat your loyal subscribers as VIPs; offer subscriber-exclusive discounts, free add-ons, late check-outs, or even a unique amenity upon arrival. Share specials with subscribers earlier than the public. You can also schedule your offers based on the timing of local events closest to your properties, like festivals and expos. Bear in mind that rewarding your engaged subscribers is a win-win.
Establish an Effective Email Frequency
Consistency plays a pivotal role in the success of vacation rental email marketing. It would be best to keep your subscribers intrigued to click on every new email they receive from you. That’s why it’s essential to work out the frequency of emails and newsletters. Decide on how often you want to send out emails. Select a specific date for sending out deals and discounts and another date for the newsletter. Specify whether your newsletter is to be sent quarterly or monthly. Check when the open rate is highest and determine how many emails you would like to send out per month. Keep covering interesting facts and trivia in your emails and informing subscribers about available specials. Value your readership and watch your click-through rate increase steeply.
Craft Your Vacation Rental Email Message
What makes your company’s email stand out in an overflowing inbox is your skill in crafting a subject line subscriber can’t pass up. Optinmonster.com claims that among the entire email recipients, only 33% open emails due to intriguing subject lines, and the remaining throw emails in the spam folder without even opening them. Awaken the curiosity of the readership with your subject line and make sure the body is relevant to the subject line, and that delivers value. Keep your tone professional and approachable. Close every email with a simple and straightforward call to action (CTA). This action is mostly just a click through to your direct booking website. Make a two-way communication with your prospective guests with a proper call to action.
Follow a Mobile-Friendly Email Design
According to statistics, more than half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. Make sure your email design is optimised to render perfectly on the mobile screen. Adopt a mobile-friendly template on your email marketing software. You don’t need to be a software expert; platforms such as MailChimp have various tools to help you figure out your vacation rental email marketing style. Create your desired email with just a few clicks. Launching a mobile-responsive email design can also boost unique mobile clicks by 15%.
Make Your Emails Visually Appealing
They say a picture is worth a thousand words; it’s important to keep text at a minimum when running a vacation rental email marketing campaign. Since your business is part of the travel and hospitality industry, images have a better chance of triggering potential guests to make a reservation at your property. Include as many high-quality images of your vacation rental as possible. Set eye-catching templates. Let them visualise their experience. A well-thought-out copy and a well-shot photograph of your short-term rental will spare you much of the talk.
Concluding Remarks
Here, we have highlighted the top 7 vacation rental email marketing practices, but there are many more to help your business engage guests throughout their journey. Send personalised and automated emails that drive revenue and nurture leads. Turning onetime visitors into lifelong guests through email marketing is a sprint, not a marathon.
