USE THESE EMAIL STRATEGIES FOR DIRECT BOOKINGS!
With VRBO still on the rise and Google launching its new Vacation Rental platform it is getting harder and harder for Vacation Rentals to get their direct bookings. While booking direct is better for your business and the consumer – your guests don’t know that. They are going to use whichever is easier to plan their next vacation. With that in mind, Email Marketing is one of the best tools to stay relevant in your current, past, and future guests’ minds at the click of a button. People may consider this to be an “old” tactic, but we here at Twinning Pros call it old faithful! The real question is what makes a good email marketing campaign? Here are 5 simple tips you can use to help launch your next email campaign. Happy renting!
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Mobile Friendly
We live in a Digital world. Basically, everything we could ever want is at our fingertips thanks to technology and a little device called a smartphone. Blue Carona states “About 3 in 5 consumers check their email on the go and 75% of Americans say they use their smartphones most often to check email.” With this statistic in mind, if you don’t have a mobile-friendly version of your email marketing campaign, you may want to try revising it. Up to 70% of web traffic happens on a mobile device (CIODive) Not trying to pick favorites over here, but it’s best to play it safe and make sure it works for all devices.
Related reading: How Can Your Business Benefit From Email Marketing
Have A Goal In Mind
Staying focused and goal-oriented in your email campaign is vitally important to your cause. You don’t want to try and make bookings through your email. While getting booked is the ultimate goal, the goal right now should be to drive traffic to your website and stay on brand.
Although the email campaign can be attributed to the bookings through analytics to show the value and ROI (Return on Investment), this should not be the “goal” of this email.
What we mean by saying you should stay on brand is to keep your messages consistent. If someone clicks on your email because they see that you have specials going on and want to know more – make sure they see more! Whether they are sent directly to the home you are promoting, or your specials page they need to be kept on task.
Let your website or landing page do the selling for you. Long story short – Create Email – Send Email – Guest gets an email – clicks on website – website shows guest information needed to complete the process.
Related reading: Email Marketing with Twinning Pros
Creating A Message
The main thing we suggest with our email marketing is to never focus on a million different topics in your email. Focus on one message and drive it home.
Consider it a theme for your campaign. Focusing on a clear message lets your audience know what exactly it is that you are trying to promote and allows you to see firsthand what works and does not work for your audience. By sending a message that is clear and direct it will keep your audience engaged and on task.
If you ask someone to focus on several different things in one email, they may lose interest and close out of the email altogether. A better way to get all of your messages across is to strategically place all of these different topics into a few emails and send them over time. Unless you are Amazon or Target the likelihood of people wanting to hear from you multiple times a day or every day for that matter are slim to none.
Related reading: How to boost your vacation rental presence with Digital Marketing
Make It A Visual Experience
To make your message stand out you need to make something aesthetically pleasing to your audience. Sending something with 12 different types of text – 13 large images – and crazy color schemes is not going to work. Not only is it displeasing to your audience, but it is also most likely going to get flagged as spam before it even gets to their inbox! A good rule of thumb for an aesthetically pleasing email is to use the 80/20 rule. 80% text 20% images.
Another tip for a good visual experience is to use high-quality pictures. Use your images to show off a home that you are trying to promote, or people having fun in your local area. Making the images something that your audience wants to see is going to be more beneficial to you and the success of your campaign.
Related reading: How to Create Engaging Social Media Posts for Your Vacation Rental
Test & Measure
Once you have everything all done: It’s engaging and perfect and you’re ready to hit the send button.. take the time to preview your message on all the different platforms that your message can be seen on before sending it out. If it looks funky in your tablet mode or mobile version, you have a chance to fix it before sending it out to the masses.
Lastly, we come to our favorite topic of conversation, measure! You don’t want to put in all this hard work of creating the perfect campaign for nothing! Measuring the results of your campaign is key to seeing which works and what didn’t. You would have done all this hard work for nothing if you don’t take the opportunity to see how your email campaigns are performing.
Related reading: Elevating Vacation Rental Businesses: A Case Study on Gibson Beach Rentals
Final Thoughts
In Conclusion, there are so many things that go into creating successful email campaigns. These 5 tips are just dipping your toes into the email marketing waters. If you want to add or improve your email marketing, but all this stuff seems overwhelming or you have too much stuff on your plate already: reach out to us at Twinning Pros. We are more than happy to answer questions and get you on the right path to start sending successful email marketing campaigns!
Vacation Rental Email Marketing FAQ
What makes email marketing an effective tool for the vacation rental industry?
Email marketing can effectively reach and target specific customer segments, allowing for personalization and building strong relationships with them. It also allows for cost-effective and measurable promotions and campaigns.
How can I create an email marketing strategy for my vacation rental business?
An effective email marketing strategy should include defining target audience segments, determining the right message and offer, determining the right frequency and timing of emails, and measuring and analyzing the results.
What are some best practices for successful email marketing in the vacation rental industry?
Some best practices include personalizing emails, providing value to subscribers, segmenting your email list, A/B testing subject lines and call to action, and regularly reviewing and improving your email strategy.
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