The Art and Science of Email Marketing
The Art and Science of Email Marketing
If the average attention span of an adult is eight seconds, your emails better capture your prospects’ attention right off the bat and keep them engaged or you risk missing out on an engagement opportunity. That’s why every part of a promotional email needs to be great and why any marketer will tell you that email marketing is part art and part science.
As Revinate’s Senior Hospitality Marketing Strategist explains in Lesson 8 of Revinate’s online email certification course, emails contain seven components that all need to be on point to drive a prospect to click. The components include a headline, image, content, call-to-action, social integration, contact details and SPAM compliance.
How these seven components come together is critical for your success. In the lesson, Darya presents some best practices for success.
For example, the content of an email should be short, direct and easily scannable, as you can see from the example pictured above. Your audience should get the point of your email with just one glance, which means they shouldn’t have to scroll much to read the whole message. Remember, most people will see your email on their mobile device so most of the content should fit on the screen. One of the hardest parts of developing emails is making them succinct. Once you write the message, you should spend some time cutting words and phrases.
Images are as important as text. Use compelling images to add meaning to your emails and help readers make an emotional connection. Hotels have no shortage of great property photos but you can also use your guests’ photos (with permission/credit) for a fun addition. Darya suggests ~60% of the email be image(s) and 40% text.
Don’t neglect your call-to-action. While we often think of the CTA as being the last thing your readers see, since you want to tell them about the offer and then have them click, your CTA should actually be above the fold. The button should stand out and the text needs to be compelling. Keep it action-oriented. CTAs like ‘Book now’, ‘Order here’ and ‘Upgrade your stay’ will get more clicks than ‘Reservations’, ‘Menu’, or ‘Upgrades’. And, include just one CTA button in each email since more choices cause fewer conversions.
You’re not done when the email is assembled. Darya advises that before you press send you take some time to ensure that everything is working correctly. Have you checked all your links? Is your unsubscribe link visible? (Hidden unsubscribe links can affect deliverability.) You should have a checklist that you go through for each email to ensure there are no mistakes.
For more email best practices and to learn what else should be part of a pre-send checklist, take the certification course today. Each training module is around ten minutes so they’re easy to squeeze into any hotelier’s day.
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