Using email to improve sales and loyalty
14 August, 2007 | Hints
| Using email to improve sales and loyalty |
Email should form part of your resorts online strategy. If it isn’t, you’re missing out on an opportunity to build significant long term relationships with your existing guests.
When you carry out a successful email strategy you are communicating with recent and past guests and create an increasingly loyal customer base and extending your resorts brand value.
| A few simply benefits of email |
There are many benefits to communicating with guest using email.
Email marketing is an extremely cost-effective marketing tool and when used properly, can catapult your sales to new levels. From as little as 3 cents per email, it is by far the cheapest way to communicate with large groups of guests.
Email enables your resort to send timely messages about upcoming specials, or entice previous guest to stay at your resort again by offering them exclusive rates and offers.
Consistent emails that build upon your existing relationship with past guests will ensure your resort will be at the top of their list in the future.
By using email you can separate your database of guests into different categories. You may like to offer locals who have stayed at your resort previously a special to come stay again for a weekend.
Good email marketing services provide detailed statistics on which you can measure the performance of your strategy. Resorts should have a long term focus when analyzing email marketing strategies because taking the time to develop long term relationships with guest’s increases customer lifetime value. And regardless of whether or not you think that guests will return, you can be certain that they have a friend or associate that they will recommend you too if you keep your resort fresh in their minds.
| Here are some things you can do |
If you’re stuck for ideas about what kind of email to send, here are five simple ideas to boost brand awareness and loyalty and increase web bookings.
1. Be the bearer of great news and let past guests know about exciting events that are happening in your region.
2. Let guests know about things you are doing to improve their stay at your resort. Tell them about reservations and new resort features you are planning.
3. Offer past guests a special rate to entice them to return to your resort. If you find out that an airline is having a sale to your area, combine that with a special offer for a weekend away and you’re bound to generate some interest.
4. Automatically send guests an email after they checkout to thank them for their business and offer a special coupon for next time they visit.
5. You can target a specific group of guests and using ELRes coupons you can offer exclusive packages just for them.
| ELRes Communicator – email communication made easy |
To be able to bring our clients a mass email marketing system, eTourism have partnered with Australia’s leading email marketing software maker to bring you simple, email marketing functionality built right into ELRes.
You can now mass communicate with your ELRes guest database and send them an email introducing specials, news information or details of special deals.
You can either send the email in plain text or HTML. When you create an email campaign, you will be given an estimated cost with emails being charged at 3cents each. Once the email is sent you will be invoiced in your next monthly invoice. You can review details of your campaign and get detailed information on emails sent including click through’s and unsubmits as well as other helpful statistics.
eTourism can also assist in adding addition guests from existing databases - call us and ask us how.
ELRes Communicator can help enhance your business and help create an increasingly loyal customer base, extend your resorts brand value and ultimately get more bookings.
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