How to Utilize Email Marketing for Vacation Rentals
Email marketing is one of the oldest tricks in the digital marketing book, so it’s no wonder that you are interested in using it for your vacation rental. Whether you are a vacation rental owner, or a property management company these tips will be helpful even if you have 1 or 100 properties. So let’s dive in on how to utilize email marketing for vacation rentals!
Which email marketing software is best for my vacation rental company?
There are thousands of different email software’s out there and the three that email marketing companies use are MailChimp, constant contact, and Active Campaign. Here at Coastal Marketing we are active campaign believers but we will take a few minutes to discuss the benefits of all three.
Mailchimp - free email marketing software (at first) usually this is where people who are just starting out their vacation rental business start with. It’s easy to use when creating email newsletters, but you need to manually build out your email funnel or nurture sequence and if you’re not an email marketing professional, it can be extremely difficult to get this platform to do what you need it to do in a timely manner.
Constant content - this is a great tool that is just a step up from mailchimp. It’s drag and drop tools make it easy to create a seamless email sequence that will be perfect for you and your home rental business.
Active campaign - a personal favorite of ours at coastal marketing. Not only do we love this tool because it allows us to send amazing email campaigns, automations, and make for seamless marketing funnels; but the CRM feature allows us to set up the deal pipeline and allows us to track our customers from leads to conversions.
Different Types of Email Marketing for the vacation rental
Email Newsletters for your vacation rental
This is one of the simplest tools to touch base with your audience once a month. You can show off featured properties, give your guests a rundown on what’s happening that month, and link out to your vacation rental blog articles to get more eyes on them to a) learn more about your blog topics and also to b) give more view time on the blog to boost up your Seo score!
Sending a monthly newsletter is a great way to touch base with your audience. We like to send out newsletters bi-weekly to ensure that we are staying top of mind for when people need our services.
Vacation rentals & Automations
Automations are such a great way to continue to touch base with potential customers that are not quite interested in purchasing their vacation right now. These are people who could be in the planning phase, idea phase, or even people that are ready to purchase but are currently checking out other businesses as well. If you send them through an automation or “nurture sequence” which are 6-7 emails geared towards getting them to make a purchase you are sure to be able to convert more customers.
In your automation you are able to tell them more about your vacation rental business, why to pick you. Do you have an amazing rental team geared towards customer service? Let them know! Do you offer exclusive Xplorie packages that offer discounts to events in your area? You can let them know that too. Just gearing each email to just make them more pumped to rent from you, their personal vacation rental company that is guiding them around their ultimate beach destination.
Email Campaigns for your Vacation Rental Company
Email campaigns are slightly similar to your email newsletter. They are considered to be one-off emails and are usually used to send out announcements like sales and/or new properties on your rental program. People don’t mind getting these emails because usually there is important information in them, or a deal is to be had! Make sure to include a promo code so you can track how many people are purchasing from your email!
When you decide to use email marketing for your investment property or vacation rental it allows you to connect with future guests and current customers allowing your home or business to stay top of mind. That way when they are looking for tips for booking their next vacation or are looking for a place to stay they immediately think of your business because you have stayed in contact with them. If people become disinterested in your home, then they can unsubscribe and will stop receiving future emails from you.
For more information on email marketing and many other vacation rental tips and tricks check out the Coastal Marketing blog where we are making waves in the vacation rental industry!