9 Powerful Email Marketing Tips for Travel Brands in 2021
The travel industry was built for email marketing.
Or perhaps it’s the other way around.
Whatever the case, there’s no denying that travellers are some of the biggest dreamers on the planet.
We love window-shopping for vacations. Picturing ourselves scaling snow-capped mountains. Imagining an orange sunset seen through the blurry warpings of a cocktail glass.
Done correctly, email marketing gives travel brands the opportunity to tap right into the pining heart of every traveller.
And these 9 email marketing tips for travel brands are designed to do just that: Help you connect with avid tourists, even when they’re not being tourists.
Let’s dive in.
First impressions matter
Manners go a long way – especially in the spam-soaked landscape of email marketing.
Beginning your email campaign with a friendly welcome series is one of the best ways to reassure your readers that you’re not yet another pesky marketing bot.
Thank your new subscribers for signing up. Introduce yourself. Tell them all about your core values and your brand mission.
Get people excited about all the great content you’re going to be sharing with them and they’ll be just as excited to invest in whatever it is you’re selling.
The idea is to leave your readers hungry to receive your next email, not squinting at the fine print in search of an “Unsubscribe” button.
Don’t be afraid to be human
If there’s one thing people love, it’s people.
Besides being boring as hell, emails that are full of technical jargon and meaningless statistics carry very little value for the average traveller.
You’d be surprised how much more effective it is to say something like:
“Grab your towel; Croatia’s beaches are getting toasty!”
Instead of,
“There are approximately 489,568 megatronical alpha-photon rays embedded within the average Croatian skyscape right now...”
Talk to your readers like they’re a family member or a friend, and they’ll be far more interested in what you have to say.
Speak to one person
A classic email marketing trap that businesses can fall into is not addressing the recipient directly.
If you’re sending somebody an email, you ought to already know their name. So use it.
Even if you don’t, starting your email off with “Hey Traveller” is a million times better (hyperbolically speaking) than saying, “Greetings, Travel Community”.
Why is only speaking to one person so important for email marketing?
It goes back to what we covered in the last section: Treating people like human beings.
You’re not delivering a massive speech from your lofty balcony above the town square. You’ve been invited into their home (aka their inbox) and are offering them a piece of useful information over a cup of tea.
Use “you” and “your” as much as possible throughout your emails. Make your message all about the reader and you’ll form long-lasting connections.
Speaking of making it all about the reader...
Provide great value
If there’s one surefire way to build brand trust within the travel industry, it’s providing travellers with extremely valuable content.
Thankfully in tourism, our “medium” is Planet Earth. That means there’s a near-infinite number of topics related to the industry that you can write about to inspire and inform your readers.
Plus, the more they learn from you through your emails, the more they’ll see you as an authority on all things travel.
Even if you’re trying to sell a specific product or experience with your email (i.e. Direct Response), you can frontload the message with all sorts of valuable travel content to get them excited to buy before they get to your CTA.
Remember, content isn’t just king; it’s queen-tessential to good marketing.
*Pro Tip* - Don’t use awful puns like that one^ in your email campaigns. I’m very sorry.
Get specific with your campaigns
Segmentation, or tailoring certain email series to specific demographics, is a big step towards successful email marketing.
Most college students looking for a two-week vacation probably aren’t interested in dropping $150K on a luxury cruise.
Senior citizens aren’t likely to care about the latest in selfie-stick technology (or are they?).
Think about the various groups within your consumer base and write emails appropriate to their specific wants and needs.
Here are a few ways you might group your audience:
Age
Genders
Nationality
Personal Interests
Wealth
Personality
Occupation
Segmenting your audience into different email lists based on these factors will allow you to really get personal with your messaging.
Keep your subscribers up to date with brand changes
This tip is all about developing that sense of community that can function as an incredibly powerful marketing tool.
If you’ve made big changes to the way your business looks or functions, added new features to your product or service, or just hired a brand new CEO - let the people know about it.
They’ll be grateful for the transparency and feel more connected with your brand for sharing these things with them.
Never underestimate the power of open communication.
Get them excited
Optimism is contagious. The same goes for anticipation.
While safety is certainly important to today’s travel market, you needn’t focus solely on the negative.
Highlight any significant milestones in the return of travel, for example:
Countries that are opening up to tourists.
Vaccine passport progress
Tour companies returning to action.
And since we’re on the topic of excitement, don’t forget to remind travellers of their upcoming adventures!
If you’re a tour operator or an airline, then sending your customers useful information about their upcoming destination is an excellent way to ensure they don’t change their minds at the last minute.
More excitement = less refunds.
Test, test, and test again
There’s no denying that email marketing is a fickle mistress at the best of times.
What may result in twelve click-throughs using Subject Line A could garner 12,000 with Subject Line B. Chances are, you won’t even be able to give a good reason for why.
And as much as thoroughly researching your consumer base can help you produce good emails, there are no guarantees in marketing
The solution?
Trial and error, of course.
Split testing will give you a clear idea of what your readers want to see, and what makes them click the little CTA button at the bottom of your email.
You can run A/B tests on all kinds of things, including:
Subject lines
CTAs
Greetings
Time of sending
Colour schemes
Happy emojis vs sunglasses emojis
For maximum accuracy, try to limit the number of variables when running tests to be sure that the thing you're testing is the only element affecting your results.
Get the reader involved
Asking for a response at the end of your emails can serve multiple purposes beneficial to your business.
Firstly, replies let the spam detectors know that you’re probably not a robot, which helps to keep your stuff out of the Junk folder.
Secondly, asking your audience directly for their opinion on your latest email content is even better than split testing for creating the perfect campaign. Real reviews are far more informative than stats and data will ever be.
You don’t need to include a question or poll in every email you send, but it’s certainly a good tool to implement from time to time.
And…
That’s it!
You’ve got your 9 tips for writing better emails. All that’s left to do is start writing!
P.S. For even more free advice on nailing your digital travel marketing strategy, check out this blog.
P.P.S. If you’d rather let someone else handle the email marketing stuff, consider hiring a professional copywriter.
