Chapters

You may already know first hand that the best way to promote your vacation rental is through marketing strategies and the use of social media. In this guide we will look at another way of marketing that has proven to be very effective for vacation rental businesses: email marketing.

What is email marketing and why is it important?

Email marketing is one of the essential digital marketing practices for the vacation rental industry. It is a relatively simple way to build and maintain relationships with both potential and repeat guests.

Smoobu Guide: how to attract regular guests for your vacation rental?

After all, everyone uses email as a form of communication and the investment is inexpensive, while it is often a practice that delivers good results. However, we recommend that you make a plan of action before you start emailing your guests. These tips will help you create a digital marketing strategy:

6 steps to start creating email marketing campaigns for your vacation rental

Never put the cart before the horse. The planning of promotions, a previous analysis of your guests and contacts, together with the application of other marketing techniques will allow you to obtain better results in the long term. To start the action focused on email marketing, these are the 6 steps you can follow.

Create a contact list

If you have been hosting guests in your vacation rental for some time already, you probably have a good contact list to start with. If not, it’s good to wait a few more months until you have enough contacts of potential clients.

It is not always easy to get their email addresses, especially if they book your vacation rental on rental platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com. However, there are several ways to do it to access future guests:

Create your own vacation rental website and let your guests book directly from it, so they can leave their email addresses on the booking forms.
Create a digital guest guide to send out before or during the stay to inform guests about your vacation rental rules, tips during the stay and emergency situations.
Offer a newsletter from your website or blog where you can share interesting information for potential guests to subscribe to for free.
Allow access to the Wi-Fi network by entering an email address when your guests arrive at the accommodation. In the future and through this account they will be able to receive your promotions.

It is always advisable to ask permission from your guests, both past and prospective, as to whether they wish to share their email addresses. Remember that with the Data Protection Act the user’s consent must be explicit. You should add at the bottom of the email specific information about the processing of customer data and make it clear that it is only for commercial purposes, i.e. you may not send emails that are not intended to pursue this activity, and also in a reasoned and justified manner.

Define objectives for each email marketing campaign

This step is perhaps the key to measuring the long-term success of your email marketing campaigns. Always opt for original content. If your content is not interesting, or is poorly written or lacks quality info for your potential guests, the chances that they will end up unsubscribing will be higher.

Therefore, consider a series of objectives before starting an email marketing campaign:

What do you want to advertise or promote?
Does it work for all your contacts or only for some?
How often will you send emails, only at special times, weekly or monthly?

Poor planning of content marketing can ruin all your work, so always try to define what you want to achieve with each campaign before you start sending emails without rhyme or reason.

However, there will be times when you don’t have special offers to offer or news to share, so you will have to send campaigns that are simply for contact or to re-invite your previous guests for the next season.

In any case, don’t be afraid to think big and let your creativity flow – your customers will appreciate it if you bring something fresh and different to the table!

Be relevant and create local content

As we mentioned in our vacation rental SEO marketing guide, providing good content is the most important thing.

In email marketing campaigns you won’t need to use keywords to gain authority, but you will have to create the content itself. Since the space you have in an email is quite limited, you will have to use concise and direct language, while at the same time being formal and structured.

Creating localized content will make you stand out from the competition and distinguish yourself as an expert on vacation rental trends. Don’t hesitate to share with users what’s new in the area, for example gastronomic fairs, cultural festivities, sporting events, concerts, and so on, with guides specially designed for the enjoyment of your visitors.

Notifications

If your contacts receive too many emails in a short period of time, they will probably end up ignoring them, deleting them or unsubscribing from the mailing list. In this case, it is better to be shy than annoying.

Also keep in mind that you will have to invest time in creating each of these emails. Set your goals based on your availability.

After your guests’ stay, you can send a message thanking them for their trust in you and inviting them to write a review and to subscribe to your vacation rental’s news through the newsletter.

Then, for example, you can plan email campaigns based on the holiday calendar or the seasons of the year. If your vacation rental is on the coast and you receive more visits between the months of May and September, you can connect with your users a couple of months before the start of the season, inviting them to book before everything is full. Wish them happy holidays, such as Christmas, Valentine’s Day or Easter. Do you have a rural house in the countryside, near the mountains or in the heart of the city? Apply the same logic: inform them about nearby events, the state of the ski resorts or the upcoming harvest, always inviting people to enjoy what the land has to offer.

Above all, do not abuse a tool such as email marketing. Think that you are interacting directly with real people, it is not a matter of saturating them!

It has to spark interest in the user

Always keep in mind that your email should capture the reader’s attention and make them click on it, so an evocative title and a good design are your best allies.

Opt for visuals: good quality photographs, careful and modern typography, catchy phrases… it must inspire your ideal guest!

Offer discounts and promotions

Promotions and special offers are a very practical way to build long-term customer loyalty. You can start by offering a discount on future stays of those guests who repeat in your vacation rental. With these better conditions it will be much easier for them to recommend you to their friends and family.

In this other guide you will find more tips to build loyalty with regular guests.

In short, these 6 tips will help you to start your own email marketing strategy for your vacation rental business. In this way, you will offer a more professional, and relatable side of your business. You will have the perfect way to interact with your future guests directly, analyze the interactions with the messages and see what type of structure or content is more attractive. Try different email marketing templates, colors and pictures in each email.

Smoobu helps you keep communication with your guests

In addition to the email marketing campaigns you carry out, keep in mind that communication with your guests should not stop there. Smoobu’s software allows you to automate messages and email templates that, although they do not replace email marketing itself, can be part of the daily exchange of messages between you and your guests.

Smoobu’s statistics also allow you to better monitor your business and make adjustments and changes when necessary. Don’t forget that Smoobu offers a 14-day trial with no commitment of permanence or upfront payment!

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