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April 2019

Email Marketing Ideas for Hotels and Travel Agencies - Use Email to Get More Customers

By Gabrielle Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

Thanks to the rise of the internet and social media, it's getting easier and easier to find great deals for holidays and getaways. One way for you to get ahead of the game is by putting together a solid email marketing strategy for your hotel or travel agency.

Here are just a few reasons why you should consider email to communicate with your customers...

  • Low cost - Especially compared to costly TV ads or unsustainable print media.
  • Direct access - Share tailored offers directly with your customers.
  • Quick conversion - Transport your customers straight to the offers on your website.
  • Visually effective - Get creative to convince customers through HTML design.

In this guide, we're sharing our top tip on creating an effective email strategy for your business, as well as some great examples of best practice in the hotel and travel industry to help you get inspired.

Email Marketing Best Practice for Hotels

1. Building an email list for your hotel or travel agency

Although there are ways to obtain large numbers of email addresses without putting in a lot of work, it is always better to go for quality over quantity and try to encourage organic signups. This will mean your email content is being sent to people who actively want to receive it.

Potential customers visit your hotel's website to find out more about your offers and deals. For this reason, it's likely they'd be interested in receiving this information straight to their inbox. By building a newsletter sign up form on your site, you will attract more customers with a genuine interest in staying at your hotel or booking a holiday with you.

Here are some great examples:

Trivago

On their website, Trivago go for the subtle option of integrating a sign up box into the footer area. This is simple and effective, but only if customers can find it first!

Booking.com

This sign up box from Booking.com is bright and uses convincing wording to encourage curious customers to sign up:

Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook have gone for an even more eye-catching option. The pop up window is a great way to grab customers' attention and inform them of your email newsletter:

Connect Mail Designer 365 to your website, with a dedicated sign up form builder for seamless lead generation. How it works →

2. Segmentation

To ensure you're sending the appropriate emails to your customers, it's helpful to have an idea of what they might be interested in when it comes to holidays and travel. You can do this by using list segmentation to split all of your contacts into separate audiences based on their tastes and preferences.

What do your customers want?

One of the first things to identify is whether your customer is travelling for business or leisure. This will help you set the tone of your email as well as knowing which types of deals to send out to them.

In this example from Thomas Cook, customers signing up to their mailing list are asked to answer a few quick questions:

Let customers tell you what they want while they sign up for your newsletter.

Tip: Easily implement this strategy into your Mail Designer 365 sign up form using the customer attributes field in the form builder.

Offer optional holiday types (e.g. families, couples, or party) for users to choose from to show you their preferences. When they sign up, the chosen attribute will be assigned to their contact in Mail Designer 365 Delivery Hub so you can send them tailored offers.

More information →

3. Email design tips for hotels and travel agencies

Without effective email design, your newsletters will not pack the punch you need them to in order to get customers onto your website. Here are two tips you can use to make sure your design stands out.

One of the most important elements of any email is the CTA (call-to-action.) Particularly for a travel related email, where there is a lot going on, it's a good idea to make this as clear as possible so readers know where to click to access your deals. This example by cheapflights is a bold and clear way to showcase their best deals:

Make your CTA buttons vibrant and clear so your readers know how to access your deals.

Another key aspect is the choice of image. In order to sell your hotel or holiday package, you have to let the image do all the talking. In this example from easyJet, their winter deal takes centre stage. The choice of a festive feature image will instantly help customers imagine themselves in the location and entice them to click to find out more.

Use strong, powerful images as your featured image in order to grab readers' attention straight away.

4. Email subject line ideas for hotels and travel agencies

When you're ready to send out your email, you'll need to craft an effective subject line which will convince subscribers to actually open it once it lands in their inbox. This isn't always as easy as it sounds. For some advice and inspiration, you can check out our quick guide.

Here are some simple, yet effective tips to try out:

  • Keep it short and snappy
  • Use holiday keywords to get straight to the point
  • Mention a key offer or deal to entice customers
  • Include time sensitive language to create a sense of urgency
  • Use emojis to brighten up their inbox

easyJet get straight to the point in this subject line, enticing customers to get booking.

Stuck on your subject line? Try out Mail Designer 365 TextScout AI for AI-generated subject lines. Just enter your campaign keywords and go!

5. Transactional emails

Your initial email has worked its magic and you've managed to sell a holiday or take another booking for your hotel - the hard work isn't over yet! A good email marketing strategy will also concentrate on the after sales aspect, including booking confirmations, up-sells (e.g. upgrades, car hire), flight reminders and the all important customer satisfaction rating.

In contrast to your sales emails, the key to a good transactional email is simplicity. Here it's important to provide the customer with all the relevant information for their booking so they can refer back whenever needed. Remember to always include contact information for your support team, in case customers have any questions.

This flight confirmation from easyJet is simple, but contains all the relevant information the passenger will need to know before taking off.

We hope you have found this guide useful and that you'll consider these tips if you're building up an email marketing strategy for your business. Mail Designer 365 is the perfect choice for any travel agencies, tour operators, or hotel owners starting out with email marketing, due to the easy-to-use nature and stunning design tools.

Find out more about our email marketing solutions for hotels and travel.

Get started with Mail Designer 365 today

Start your 7 day free trial and use your Mac to create stylish email newsletters for your business.
No credit card required
Compatible from macOS 10.13 onwards

Email Marketing Guide for Restaurants

By Gabrielle Mail Designer 365 Newsletter Academy

With a market value of over 465 Million Euros in Western Europe alone, it's safe to say that the food industry is one of the largest, most powerful industries in the world. For the average restaurant owner, this makes it extra important for you to stand out from your competitors and strengthen your connection with your customers.

Here are some of our top tips on how you can use email marketing to boost sales in your restaurant and build up long-lasting relationships with your diners...

Branding and Style

To kick things off, let's start by thinking about your brand and your target audience. This will massively help you to determine the style of your email and create the right aesthetic to really speak to your customers.

For a down to earth, family friendly eatery, feel free to use bright colors and focus on the happy, fun atmosphere of your restaurant. This vibrant email from Giraffe shows customers that the whole family is welcome:

Use bright colors and bold typeface to show off your restaurant's fun atmosphere.

A more sophisticated restaurant may want to opt for a refined approach, focussing solely on the atmosphere and quality of the food. Pizza Express use a minimalistic color scheme in this email and shine the spotlight on their delicious food:

A down to earth, minimalist theme is a great way to emphasise the quality of your food.

Building up your email list

The best way of getting contacts for your email list is by recruiting customers who already know and love your restaurant and want to stay informed. These are the customers who genuinely want to read your emails and will give you positive click through results.

One effective way of getting customers to sign up for your newsletter is by advertising it on your website and in the restaurant itself. If you want to go the extra mile, you can even offer an incentive such as a discount code when they register.

Here are some great examples of sign up boxes you could try on your website...

Bright and eye-catching from YoSushi.

Sleek and cool by Nando's.

Warm and inviting design by Wildwood.

Classic and inviting from Bill's.

Types of Emails

Now that you've got your email list built and ready to go, it's time to start deciding which types of emails you want to send your customers. For restaurant owners, there is a huge variety of options available to you when it comes to contacting your customers. Here are some of the most popular ideas...

The discount email

One of the most effective ways to kick off your email marketing journey is by offering all your new sign-ups a discount to say thank you. This will encourage them to come back to your restaurant and also make them feel appreciated.

The seasonal promotion

If you're lacking in ideas, take a look at your calendar for inspiration. See what events are coming up and plan an email campaign around them. This Father's Day promotion from Toby Carvery is a brilliant way to get customers to come and dine with their families and celebrate their dads:

Get inspired by seasonal events to create tempting promotional offers.

The family-friendly email

Do you have a lot of families visiting your restaurant or cafe? If so, this is another great theme you can utilise in your emails. Offer busy parents an incentive to choose you by emphasising the family-friendly nature of your business. This "kids eat free" promotion from Jimmy Spices is a clever way of attracting families to eat at their restaurant:

Show parents that they are more than welcome to bring their whole family along.

The newsletter

Many of your customers will have signed up to receive your emails because they are interested in what is going on with your business. Keep customers in the loop by sharing your most important news with them via your email newsletter. Alongside offers and promotions, this could also include information about...

  • Upcoming events (e.g. Open mic, quiz night, charity fundraisers.)
  • New menus or seasonal menus
  • Booking information for busy holidays
  • Important news such as closures or renovation work
  • Themed nights (e.g. Mexican night, Italian night...)

The Birthday email

Sending out a Happy Birthday email is a great way to build on your customer relationships and make them feel valued. This can be easily achieved by asking customers to fill in their birthday as part of the newsletter sign up process.

This example from YoSushi also provides an exclusive birthday offer to make the customer feel even more special on their big day:

Wish your customers a Happy Birthday and leave them feeling appreciated.

Booking confirmation emails

Sending a confirmation email to guests who have reserved a table at your restaurant is a great way to welcome them in advance and get them excited for their visit.

Show your restaurant's welcoming atmosphere by using personalization and a warm greeting. Don't forget to include all the essential details like date & time of the reservation, number of guests, location, your contact details, and a link to your menu so guests can start planning ahead!

The follow up email

Last but not least, a follow up email can also be a super effective way of showing your customer you care about their experience in your restaurant. This is easiest to achieve with a loyalty card system in place, so you can track when customers have visited your restaurant. Alternatively, you could also provide customers with a website where they can give their feedback.

A good follow up email will give customers the chance to rate their dining experience and help you improve in the future. This example from Nando's is a cheerful and colorful way to get customers to share their views:

Follow up with customers and use their feedback to improve your service.

We hope you have found these tips and ideas useful and will consider trying them out in your restaurant. For more information on how you can use Mail Designer 365 to create and send emails for your restaurant, head over to our dedicated restaurants page.

Get started with Mail Designer 365 today

Start your 7 day free trial and use your Mac to create stylish email newsletters for your business.
No credit card required
Compatible from macOS 10.13 onwards

Mail Designer 365 Version 1.7 Update Guide

By Mail Designer 365 Blog

Hey Mail Designers! We've got another mini update for you. In particular, this update focuses on our Mailchimp users, as we have some important news regarding Mailchimp integration in the app.

However, as always, we've also included a few minor changes and improvements to ensure the best performance at all times. Here's what's new in version 1.7...
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