Make your email marketing like a stay in a top hotel and keep your audience coming back again and again

Everyday people around the world pay more for that little bit of luxury.

And when it comes to hotels, as in the case of the email communications we send, customers are becoming more discerning and demanding more from the service they receive.

So, let’s look at how top email marketing compares to a stay in a top hotel… 

Food allergen information, the reason for your stay, if it's a guests' birthday or other special occasion, of if you need any special or specific things in your room -- hotels find out key information at the point of booking (or shortly after) so that the stay can be tailored to their guests' specific needs. 

For example, many of the top hotels offer a pillow and/or mattress menu, allowing guests to choose the type that suits them the best. 

Your email marketing should treat your subscribers in the same way as a hotel guest.

How can you tailor the experience they have with your brand (through your emails in this case) to meet their needs, wants and desires, to encourage interaction?

You’ll have many different data points in your business that you can use to get to know your customers; including previous purchases or behavioural data (see the next point).

If you want/need to find out more, or something specific that can’t be inferred from other data you have (such as when they anticipate something happening that will trigger the need to buy, for example), you can always ask! 

Right from the start of the relationship you can gather additional data about your subscribers that will allow you to personalise messages to better connect and engage them, for instance... 

Find out business critical information about your subscriber at the point of sign up so that you can start personalising and tailoring your campaigns from the first message. 

Only ask for information you will use in your segmentation, personalisation, automation, or analysis – if someone is giving you data and permission to use it, don’t waste that opportunity. 

But remember, the more information you ask for, the lower your conversion rate to completion is likely to be. Consider what data you want to ask for depending on where the sign up is happening in the buying cycle – for example, for B2B businesses, further down the funnel (e.g. signing up for a demo) you may want to ask for more information in order to qualify the prospect, whereas for B2C initial sign-ups (e.g. on the homepage), you only want to collect minimal, but business critical, information on which to start the relationship off.

Offer your subscribers a preference centre, where they can tell you what communications they’d like to receive from you, when they want to receive them, and what topics/categories best meet their needs.

This gives them control over what they’re receiving and allows you to add additional data points to your tactical plans.

Many hotels (such as Brown’s in London, shown below) have a range of luxury services available as standard. And if not, their concierge is there to meet your every whim (providing you have the funds to pay for it, of course!).

Think about what your subscribers want/need or would find helpful – this could be a step-by-step, easy-to-understand guide around how to use your software/service, or advice on how to make the most of the product they’ve just bought (with an demo video) in the post-purchase cycle.

Use the data you have about your subscribers to pre-empt their needs and surprise and delight them throughout the customer lifecycle.

For example…

> Offering additional products or content that follow up from the subscribers last action(s)/purchase(s)

> Using AI to anticipate what they are likely to engage with and convert based on to personalise content/products shown

> Feed their data back to them in a helpful and informative way to encourage further interaction (such as in this example from Netflix)

Every detail of hotel design creates an experience for customers - the best hotels work with the best designers from around the world to create this. From the colours used, to the type and placement of furniture, and the flowers adorning the lobby, everything is considered. 

In your email marketing, you need to strive to create the same ‘experience’ seamlessly with your website, other marketing, and all areas of your brand.

Through your branding, layouts, placement of design elements, and more, you can help create a connected experience that moves them to engage with your messages more easily.

As technology evolves and the way in which people interact online changes, email marketers need to consider using AI, personalisation tools, interactive elements (e.g., AMP), and the data they have, to influence the designs used and the subscriber experience offered. 

Photo by Patrick Robert Doyle on Unsplash