When email first bounded onto the scene hospitality marketers called it the “killer app”. Email would revolutionize marketing, allow luxury hotels to economically reach out and touch each customer and prospect, create a dialogue, build relationships and ultimately provide a steady stream of loyal guests immune from competitive pressure. It would level the playing field allowing smaller independent hotels to effectively compete with the Goliath chain hotels.
Unfortunately far too many small luxury hotels have never seen email marketing live up to its true potential. Failing to effectively tap into the full power of email has all too often meant it is relegated to “just another way” to try to fill last minute rooms.
Small luxury properties are renown for providing superior, personalized experience. They should extend that same personal experience in their email marketing program to further deepen their relationship with customers and prospects to achieve a strong competitive advantage. They can utilize email to achieve superior service delivery before and after a guest’s stay.
As a marketing company specializing in luxury hotels we monitor far more hotel email newsletters than we care to admit. Some are very good however the majority suffer from one or more of the 7 deadly sins described below. In an effort to understand why email marketing has failed to live up to its initial potential we analyzed competitive newsletters to identify where some hoteliers are falling short.
We present the findings as The Seven Deadly Sins of Email Marketing for Luxury Hotels – sins that undermine the effectiveness of email and reduce revenue. Sins that can easily be avoided.
