SCRUMPY’s email feature allows you to send professional emails directly from your website. Read on for our hints and tips of what to send and how our auto populated templates can get you more direct bookings.
Getting in touch
Not so long ago, the humble address book was an integral part of how we stayed in touch with one another. If you wanted to talk to someone, it was just a matter of flicking through the pages and searching for that individual. You may have looked via their first name, to then realise they are listed by Surname, but nevertheless you had their contact details recorded. (Sometimes with a white border of correction fluid, from where you had to Tippex out their details when they moved house!)
Today, things are not too dissimilar. We still have the contact information of our loved ones and acquaintances - but they are now saved into our phones. So instead of browsing through your diary, those numbers are readily available at the touch of a button, or even via the sound of your voice; with the likes of Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa and other sound-activated technologies.
Here’s the takeaway. It has always been easy to get in touch with someone you already know, this has not changed. However it’s harder to say the same when trying to get the attention of someone you don’t know, or have never met before… So, have you considered selling to those who already know you?
The easy sell
Unless you are starting out from scratch, you’ll already have customers. Regardless if you’re relatively new to the industry, or have been doing this for a few years; you will have those guests who have previously stayed with you and who make up your client base.
Unlike a stranger, these individuals know you. They know who you are, what you can offer and probably have an incline as to whether they would return or not. If you were to approach them, there would be little need to re-sell your business, with more or less a little reminder of who you are. By not having to invest time, and money, in explaining who you are, you can instead focus on enticing them to consider you again. This can be a really simple and effective way of getting bookings - especially so if you have their email address.
SCRUMPY’s broadcast tool
We include a series of features, as part of our all in one solution for property management, that makes it easy for you to market your business to your clients. The broadcast tool is a powerful feature, that allows you to send email to your subscribers via your website.
At the touch of a button, the system can pull together your information, such as images from your gallery and descriptions of your properties, to quickly create professionally formatted mailshots. Your company’s branding, logo and contact details are incorporated into the header and footer, along with links to your properties page for direct booking.
Automated templates
The broadcast tool keeps things simple, with the option of a blank canvas or 4 templated designs. Our range of layouts focus on particular aspects of your business, intelligently pulling information from different areas of your website, so in no time at all you can have a professional sales email ready to go. You are of course able to edit and amend before pressing send. Take a look below at the automated templates:
Offers - If you have created a special offer on your calendar, this will draw in details of the price reduction, dates and include a ‘Book Today’ button. As well as an image of the property and it’s description.
Properties - You can utilise the information that is already available on an accommodation page. Just pick the property or properties you’d like to promote, and it will pull through the blurb, key features and links to find out more.
Destination - A page that promotes your local area and what it has to offer is worthwhile on its own. So if you’ve already got one, use it and its enticing writing to draw in guests and tempt them to want to stay.
Holiday Idea - Use a page that is tailored to a particular type of attraction, activity or guest, to further promote that type of stay to your guests. You could use this as a way of reminding subscribers that you are “Pet friendly” or to focus around the likes of a “Swimming pool” etc.
Ideas
Whilst you won’t want to bombard your subscribers with too many emails, or send them too frequently, by adding variety, you can keep them interesting and intriguing. You may also want to start from a blank template. Take a look below for some topic suggestions and opportunities to reach out to your customers:
Local Events - There may be an opening to promote your accommodation if there are the likes of an upcoming occasion or event. You don’t have to strictly be next door to the location, as even a 10 minute drive is favourable to a guest, who would otherwise have to travel all the way back home. If it is for a one day event, why not think of ways they could pad out their stay and make into a week long holiday.
Start of the Season - This one is a no brainer. You can market this is a way of giving your “loyal customers first refusal” or even as a “sneak preview for subscribers”. However which way it is worded, at the end of the calendar year, just ask if they would like to book for the following season. This straight talking approach really works, allowing creatures of habit and those who have expressed an interest, the chance to organise and plan ahead for the future.
Late Availability - In contrast, if you have dates that you have struggled to shift, there is no harm in asking your customers if they are interested. If you are successful you will fill the dates, or potentially get a booking for another time, or nothing will come of it. There is very little to lose.
Cancellations - Similarly, a guest cancelling a booking presents itself an opportunity. The previously reserved dates may be attractive to another customer, or might happen to fall upon a particular night that could be in demand, which gives you a chance to make something of it.
Special offers - We wouldn’t recommend that you reduce your prices all of the time, otherwise it will devalue what you offer and there may be an expectation that it will become cheaper at some point. Yet, if you struggle to shift a particular week, mid week or weekend, it’s worth slashing the cost and letting everyone know about it. A paying customer is better than no customer at all.
Holiday Extras - Do you offer your guests something a little bit different? Promoting the additional services that turn you from just an accommodation provider, into a holiday location will get you noticed. Especially the likes of offering walking tours, mountain biking lessons, private spa treatments, and personal chef’s. There are so many suppliers out there and if you’ve not yet looked, you might just be surprised at who’s on your doorstep.
Refurbishment - If there is a fairly drastic change to one of the properties, then why not keep your customers in the loop. This may be to keep them informed of the new bathroom suite, the new landscaped garden or new disabled access. Whatever it happens to be, it might be reason enough for them to click on your link, and find themselves on your website.
New property - Sending out emails to your customers to alert them of newness is a must. Especially if you’ve just added to your portfolio and are now promoting another holiday let. There’s even the case for pushing it well in advance, to give your loyal fans a heads up and tease with its development. So when it’s ready for its first guest, you’ve already got customers queueing up.
Website Launch - New to SCRUMPY or are considering joining? Well, to ensure that when your site goes live as successfully as possible, you shout about it! This is a great opportunity to increase your exposure and let people know that you’re offering a modern online solution, where your guests can easily book direct.
Building your subscribers list
So we’ve given you lots of ideas of what to send, that will hopefully inspire some creative marketing. This is all well and good if you’ve got people to send them out to, but fear not, as the SCRUMPY platform is one step ahead and is already helping you build a subscribers list.
Every time there is an interaction with your website, whether that is an enquiry on your contact form or a booking placed via the calendar, visitors can select ‘Please add me to mail listing’. This unobtrusive method allows your customers to opt into marketing from yourselves in the future. Our websites also offer a simple mailing list sign up page, that just requires a Forename, Surname and Email. This can be posted or tweeted on social media pages, along with a short write up to encourage people to stay in the loop - a sure fire way of gaining new subscribers.
The backend system also allows you to manually add in your customer's data. So if you have collated your guest's data or want to import it from another system, we can accommodate for that.
See here for our guide to building your subscribers list
The legal bit
On Friday 25th May 2018, GDPR came into place and brought with it widespread scaremongering and a general misunderstanding of what it would mean for businesses to communicate with their customers. More than a year on, those four letters haven’t been as prominent as possibly expected at the time, with only a handful of cases coming to light. Yet there is still some uncertainty as to how you can contact your customers post Spring 18.
On the basis that those who you are contacting are your customers, you have a legitimate interest to talk to them again. For more information you can go to these following guides https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/
Disclaimer, SCRUMPY do not take any liability or offer legal advice. Our website platform is fully GDPR compliant, providing users of our system the tools to run their businesses, with all emails sent via the broadcast tool including unsubscribe buttons. You can find out more here https://help.scrumpy.co.uk/article/109-gdpr-overview