Christmas, its illuminations, its markets, its gift lists… Isn’t it time to tell your customers about it? You lack ideas? Experience helps you prepare your hotel newsletter for Christmas.
Already? Yes, already…
There are moments in the year not to be missed, moments that we sometimes prepare several months in advance, that young and old are looking forward to, Christmas is one of those moments.
Is it necessary to add more? You will have understood, we are going to talk about emailing for the end of the year celebrations 🙂
The campaigns sent during this time are the ones that convert the most and generate the most revenue.
Not doing it until now? You don’t know how to do it, let’s go through it all together to make this newsletter successful and bring you lots of nice bookings under the tree.
Target your customers!
This is the first point, and perhaps the most important.
A campaign that works is a campaign that is aimed at the right target.
The importance of clearly defining your segments will avoid sending a “Family for the Holidays” offer to a corpo who has only ever stayed in a Single in your hotel.
You will tell me, but there are many people who go to Paris alone for the holidays to visit their family.
Well, this is an additional profile to which we will send a campaign with a different subject “take advantage of reduced rates to stay in Paris during the holidays”.
So, create as many profiles as you need and send them the message that is relevant to them, that will meet their specific need and that will have the best chances to convert.
What content for your newsletter and email marketing at Christmas?
We are talking here about creating a newsletter, or a one-time emailing campaign in order to “solicit” your customers to come and stay at the hotel during the Christmas period.
There is no question of “wishing” a Merry Christmas, this 2nd email of relational type must be entirely automated (just like the other events of the Calendar), and this for a simple reason:
Christmas does not fall on the same date in all countries, imagine sending an email on D1 to such and such a nationality of customers, then D2 to another, etc etc…
Here, we are talking about content that will allow you to generate sales.
Some tips:
1. Start communicating in October
When you made your list to Santa as a child, was it the day before D-day or 3 months before?
Think about the people who want to go on a trip, or make end of year gifts in advance.
You already practice the Yield of your rooms months in advance, do the same with your email campaigns.
And of course a reminder at the beginning of December and a few days before for the last minute latecomers.
2. Promote your good deals
Christmas is the time of the year when you treat yourself, but above all you treat others.
When we know of a “good plan” we like to share it with our loved ones.
Example: “Stay one more night and we’ll give you breakfast”.
Imagine packages that will allow you to make one more sale and for the customer to have the impression of having made “a good deal”.
Be careful, a good plan does not always mean a price reduction.
3. Send your special Christmas discounts
No package ideas, you can simply talk about more traditional promotions so as not to be on the sidelines of your competitors.
In any business, Christmas is a time of strong promotions, your customers expect you to do a little something.
If you don’t offer discounts, they’ll go find them at your competitors!
4. Offer gift ideas
Package to offer to relatives, highlighting your local partners, etc.
If you also work with a segmented customer base you will be able to offer the right gift to the right person.
For example, an email to the “family” segment to offer a free coloring book for any reservation.
For the Corpos, a mini Chinese puzzle or an origami to pass the time on the transport.
5. Send a sequence of pre-programmed emails
In order to generate interest, you can imagine creating a timeline of messages to set up a sort of countdown to the fateful date.
1st email, the hook:
Anticipate the Christmas holidays, as we’ve seen, several months in advance.
This 1st email should go out at the end of October and beginning of November.
Give some clues about what you have in store for your future customers for the event. Videos, images, GIFs, can give strength and fun to this email, it’s in the spirit of Christmas, to generate initial interest.
2nd email to reveal more:
To be sent after mid-November
Highlight your packages, your gift ideas, highlight your partners, your good deals.
Your future customers are still in the preparation phase of the “gifts”, it is the right time to make additional sales. Even for customers who have already made their reservation, they may want to add items to their “basket”.
3rd email:
Two weeks before the fateful date, to announce the last discounts on the last rooms, a special Last Minute offer, or some other discount, with a countdown which motivates to buy before the holidays.
Be careful to remove from these mailings customers who have already made their reservation.
There is nothing worse than offering a discount to someone who has already paid “full price” for their stay.
4th and last email:
On Christmas Day, it is no longer a question of encouraging reservations, but only of wishing happy holidays to ALL your contacts (staying on the date or not)
This is an idea of what is feasible, it is up to you to imagine the best possible sequence that corresponds to your image.
NOTE: Is it useful to specify that your hotel newsletter for the occasion will have to display a design and layout reflecting the Christmas spirit.
Don’t hesitate to put forward your team, original photos in the Christmas tone are very appreciated by the Internet users and have more impact than an “impersonal” email.
6. Stand out from your competitors
Many people deplore the commercial aspect of Christmas, and will directly throw away any communication pushing to purchase, even with a great offer
It’s the perfect time to compose emails that focus on “customer relations” and make you stand out from the crowd.
Of course, like everyone else, you will send your wishes.
But take advantage of this time to make an overview of your hotel.
Give the “visitors” the opportunity to know more about you and thus confirm them in the fact of coming to your establishment, not because you are less expensive, but because you are better known than the others.
Make connections, it creates links 🙂
Make a retrospective of YOUR most important events of the year
Thank your most loyal customers (through segmentation within your CRM)
Send a cool team photo gallery
Encourage them to follow you on social networks
Etc.
Examples of hotel newsletters sent at Christmas
To conclude, here are some statistics on Christmas campaigns carried out by some of our hotel clients in 2021.
- 3* hotel in the center of Paris – Latin Quarter
Generates an average of 5 000 € to 7 500 € every year thanks to Christmas emailing campaigns
- 4* Hotel – Restaurant – Spa – Nîmes :
In 2021, this establishment generated €10230 through a one-time campaign for the holidays, in which they promoted the hotel, the restaurant, good deals in the neighborhood and special offers on their “wellness” services
- 5* Hotel – Restaurant – 1st district of Paris
Nearly 11000€ with a one-off campaign sent to 6000 contacts.
With a simple presentation of the establishment in Christmas colors, and a preferential rate:
How to prepare your hotel newsletter for Christmas?
There are many examples of effective hotel newsletters… Now it’s up to you to create the best Christmas campaign, the one that will put stars in the eyes of your customers, the one that will make you the place to stay for the end of the year.
And of course, if our tips helped you achieve this, you are invited to share your testimonials and successful actions 🙂
