How do you measure the success of email?
Rich: We look at a few different metrics. First, we look at email open rates. Of all the email types that we send, pre-arrival open rates are the highest. We also look at click-through rates, which typically average 1-2%.
But upgrade emails can be as high as 30%.
We also look at resulting reservations, room nights, and revenue booked. Because Revinate Marketing is integrated with the PMS, we can easily see how emails convert to revenue.
How much email is too much?
Rich: I would say that it depends on relevancy. If emails are personalized and relevant, people won’t mind receiving them once or twice a month. But if the emails aren’t targeted, recipients will start to ignore
your emails.
In other words, content is more important than frequency. In fact, we have some hotels sending two pre-arrival emails and each one does well since it’s information that is targeted and that guests will care about.
How does automation help?
Rich: There is no doubt that hoteliers are incredibly busy and resource constrained. That’s where automation becomes important. We can automate pre-arrival emails, birthday campaigns, ‘we miss you’ campaigns,
etc.
In fact, I heard a great story from one of our clients that experienced a ton of staff turnover during a certain period but emails went out as normal so there was no impact on communications or revenue.
