With AI, social media, messaging apps, and more at your fingertips, email may seem like a Stone Age method of guest communication. After all, it was invented in the 1970s. You may as well carve your offer on a tablet and carry it to the next town, right? Wrong!
Email is still a relevant, impactful way to reach guests—as long as it’s targeted and personalized. In fact, according to DMA, segmented campaigns drive a 760 percent increase in revenue over one-size-fits-all campaigns. Your property management system (PMS) provides all the necessary data and functionality you need to send tailored emails to each guest, streamlining the process through automation while increasing open rates and return on investment. You don’t have to reinvent the template each time!
Why Targeted Emails Matter
Customers desire thoughtful, personalized communications that are relevant to them; 76 percent of consumers become frustrated when personalization doesn’t occur.
The key to success isn’t about creating emails that appeal to all your guests—it’s about delivering value to each guest by speaking to their individual preferences. When crafted well, personalization makes a difference. The transactional rate for personalized emails is six times higher than that of generic ones.
Get this right often enough, and you’ll gain loyal guest relationships built on trust. Get it wrong often enough, and you’ll end up in their spam folder.
Segmenting with PMS Data
Effective personalization starts with guest segmentation. A guest segment is a group of guests that share a common characteristic such as location or booking source. You don’t have time to write individual emails for every guest, but you can group them based on these shared characteristics.
There are four main types of guest segments: demographic (traits such as age, gender, interests, and income), behavioral (how guests purchase, loyalty status), geographic, and psychographic (personality, opinions, and attitudes). Your PMS contains valuable data to support guest segmentation strategies. Even the most basic data, such as booking dates and source, empowers you to segment guests successfully.
Behavioral & Booking Data
Booking data—including stay dates, booked packages, and booking sources (direct, OTA, social media, etc.)—provides insight into your guests’ purchasing behavior and preferences.
Previous stay dates indicate when a guest may be interested in booking next and can even tell you about the purpose of their stay, allowing you to select promotional materials appropriately. For instance, business travellers generally reserve during the week, while leisure guests choose the weekend.
You can also time promotions around a guest’s celebration dates. For example, an anniversary makes your romance offerings especially relevant. Sometimes, you learn these dates through casual conversation; other times, past purchases provide a clue. If a guest previously purchased your honeymoon package, it’s reasonable to assume their anniversary is around that time of year.
Booking sources should also shape your marketing messages. If a guest books direct, remind them to take advantage of any special perks—but don’t push them to switch from an OTA when they’ve already done so. WebRezPro PMS uses market and source codes to track reservations made through your website, OTAs, Facebook page, etc. so that you can see exactly where your bookings are coming from.
Geographic Data
You can easily collect guests’ address and location data through your booking engine and use it to place them in the appropriate segment. Different countries and regions have distinctive vacation habits, travel patterns, and holidays, and your offers should reflect these differences. For example, why not invite guests for a special meal to celebrate Lunar New Year?
Even knowing how far away a guest is from your property can help you target your promotions more effectively. Staycation packages, for instance, are best promoted to guests within a 50-mile radius, not 500.
Demographic & Psychographic Data
Demographic data includes details like age, gender, family status, and interests. These factors can tell you what kind of packages and promotions may appeal to your guests—and which might miss the mark. For example, families with children are more likely to appreciate pool toys and extra sunscreen than a wine basket—unless those kids are really misbehaving.
Psychographic data—such as a personality, attitudes, and values—can be inferred from guest interactions, special requests, and package selections. WebRezPro’s booking engine makes it easy for guests to choose add-ons that make their stay extra special while providing you with valuable insight based on those selections.
Other Data
WebRezPro enables you to gather the data you need, regardless of whether it falls neatly into the above categories. Information that doesn’t fit a standard field can still be recorded in the guest’s profile using the notes section. You can also create custom fields for your property’s booking engine to capture specific details such as a membership number or the guest’s favourite drink or anything else that isn’t covered by the default fields. Don’t hesitate to ask for the data that matters to your operation!
Automate the Smart Way
Use your PMS to create email templates that automatically personalize communications for each guest.
With a robust PMS such as WebRezPro, you can assign an email template to a specific room type and/or rate so that it’s only sent to guests who reserved with those specifications. This assists with guest segmentation to guarantee emails remain relevant. No sending upgrade offers to guests who already booked your penthouse suite!
Using WebRezPro’s automated send feature, you don’t even have to remember to email guests—the PMS will do it for you. Simply set a trigger date for the email template to go out, e.g., three days before the guest arrives to offer relevant add-ons, or six months after their booking date to invite them back with a special discount. Even if sent to the right guest segment, emails won’t be relevant unless they’re also sent at the right time.
If you are also using CRM software, automate the flow of information from your PMS to your CRM through integration. A good CRM enriches your guest data, allowing you to draw from website interactions, social media, campaign results, and past communications. When integrated with your PMS, it receives reservation data in real time, powering even richer guest profiles and higher-level segmentation. A PMS-CRM integration is a definitive asset to any property looking to supercharge their email marketing strategy.
While email is an older, time-honored marketing technique, it remains a powerful and relevant tool, especially when enhanced by personalization and automation. With the help of your PMS, you can revitalize your email campaigns to unlock revenue, strengthen loyalty, and drive more direct bookings.
