Hospitality sector signifies personalized service, premium service, tailor made products and above all highest level of care. With an industry that makes the highest profit from these intangible offerings, the emails need to be a direct extension of the same!
Rendering these services in person is pretty much manageable as you are in company of your target customers. But when it comes to offering the same level of personalization and care remotely, many things can go wrong. So, here’s a compilation of some key points that marketers need to bear in mind while executing email campaigns, accompanied with some significant examples to learn from.
1. Use figures in subject line and in the email copy
While you are talking to customers who have myriad choices when it comes to picking the best service provider, you can’t miss out on the first few seconds when the customer receives your email – the subject line.
Use figures to convey the value you are offering in your subject line itself and win them right in the mailbox. Eg: “INR 599 for a Hotel? Book to believe!” by Oyo Rooms and “20% off on your Next Drink at Club Mango” by Club Mango have done a fantastic job at this. The crisp subject line in OYO Rooms email nailed the customer’s attention bang on. And the copy sealed the deal with a compilation of deals to die for, highlighting the figures to draw attention.
2. Event based emails to get more customers
Using ongoing seasons, events, festivals or international days to get customers to your restaurant is another way of doing it. Zomato very smartly teamed up World Cup fever in this email, with a list of their restaurants that offer large screen view of the match and a clear call to action. Honestly, this is an offer not many of us can deny!
3. Promote and increase engagement with quizzes
Just selling your services right in the face will make you look salesy and bore your customers to death. In a nice twist, you can take some lessons from Tripadvisor here. They have used a quiz to drop a hint of curiosity among their customers to check out the #1 island in the world, thereby getting customers to view all their top island holiday listings. Not only this, but they have completed the email with important links to hotel and flight reservations thereby offering everything to the customer in one single place. All the customer needs to do is give the dates.
4. Tell them you care
Many a times, customers get stuck in the purchase cycle on your website and most of the cart abandonments occur due to this. Why lose worthy customers when you can fix this by sending them a quick personalized email, seeking their grievances? I happened to lose out on savings while booking movie tickets on BookMyShow and here’s what I received in the next one hour! Believe me, after receiving this, I sure don’t hold a grudge against them anymore.
5. Real time inventory
Real time booking and inventory gives your customers a chance to choose what they like. Showcasing real time inventory of seats like this airline, adds a touch of interactivity thereby elevating the personal service quality towards your customers.
6. Keep your emails interactive
With the increasing competition in the inbox for grabbing the attention of customers, make your emails more interactive with GIFs, images, quizzes, reviews, etc. These interactive elements allow more interaction within an email which improves subscriber engagement and helps them to explore more within the email.
7. Email content
Keep your email content crisp, precise and relevant. Create dynamic content using artificial intelligence that is based on the information that you have gathered about a customer (eg. search history, previous purchase, etc.) which will help marketers to connect directly with their subscribers and will increase their conversion rates. This will yield a beautiful email which would look and feel like a personal message.
8. Email design
Emails with simple, clean and attractive designs look good on mobile phones. Highlight important phrases and have a clear Call-to-action, which stands out from your email body and compels your reader to click.
Emails, as we know by now are very personal elements of communications and the first 10 seconds when your customer receives it are very important. Nail the subject line and give them the purpose of your email immediately, and you have won them over. Have you come across any such awesome emails from any Hospitality brand? Let us know!