In the past couple of years, I have given workshops and spoke at various industry events about the importance of email marketing and including newsletters into the hotel marketing mix, in particular for hotels seeking to foster and improve customer relationships.
Earlier this summer, the folks at Revinate came up with this handy infographic that summarizes the process for an effective email marketing approach across the guest journey, which can be broken down into 5 stages:
- Stage 1: Inspiration
- Stage 2: Booking
- Stage 3: Pre-Arrival Upsells
- Stage 4: On-Property
- Stage 5: Post-Stay
In my experience, many hotels and travel brands tend to focus on Stage 1 – the inspiration – and perhaps on the booking message that will be sent out at Stage 2, but the three following stages are unevenly used, and often completely absent from the marketing strategy.
This absence is often due to a lack of proper technology in-house but also for a lack or time, resources or customer knowledge across the journey.
What stage do you think is the most important and where will your focus be in your upcoming email marketing efforts?
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