“Travel brings power and love back to one’s life.” - Rumi
Indeed it does.
People love to travel. In fact, even saying this seems like an understatement. However, in 2020, the travel industry had to face some serious challenges due to the unfortunate pandemic.
Statistics say that the decline in travel spending due to Covid-19 resulted in a $500 billion loss. But hey! The rough patch is over, and it’s high time that you and all other travel marketers start inviting people to resume their jet-set lifestyles.
And with 80% of businesses using email to acquire and sustain their customers, it’s safe to say that email marketing is the best way to build and nurture relationships with new and old customers.
Doubtful? Well, then the following reasons will convince you why travel email marketing is advantageous.
How Beneficial Is Travel Email Marketing Exactly?
If the animal kingdom represented marketing, then email marketing will be the lion, for sure.
Email marketing earns this title because of its consistent record of informing subscribers well, effectively boosting sales, and promoting brands.
According to research, 58% of people say checking emails is the first thing they do in the morning. Plus, email marketing allows you to send segmented and personalized messages to your customers. Segmented campaigns alone result in a 760% increase in revenue.
Additionally, the success of email marketing can be proven by the fact that 87% of B2B marketers use it for the successful distribution of content. Also, the travel industry has a pretty high average email open rate, i.e., 20.44%. The competition is crazy.
So, if you want to win over your subscribers, you must go the extra mile to be the best. Keep on reading to know all the tips and techniques to run a successful travel email marketing campaign.
We’ll start by telling you the types of emails that you can send as a travel agency.
Types of Travel Emails You Can Send to Your Subscribers
Contemplating on what exactly to send? Well, you can send different types of emails to your subscribers depending on where they are on their customer journey. These types are mentioned below;
Welcome emails
Welcome emails are the first impression you give to your subscribers; make sure it’s a solid one. Welcome emails are reported to have an open rate of 91.43%.
You can add more charm to your welcome email by giving your subscribers a special discount offer, introducing your brand, or by giving them instructions for the future.
Here’s a welcome email template that you’d love to use or take inspiration from.
Exclusive offer emails
Want to secure your customers for another trip with you?
Then send emails that have a loyal customer, birthday, or a basic discount offer. You can do this by giving a special discount offer for their next trip or creating a campaign where you give them reward points for each trip they take.
It’s a clever tactic to keep your customers hooked on traveling with your company. Here’s a sample template that you can use or refer to;
Newsletter emails
Newsletters are great for nurturing relationships with your subscribers. You can give valuable information about your services, feature the best locations to visit, or add useful details about some tourist destinations.
The following newsletter template will allow you to add the information mentioned above perfectly and its eye-catching design will stand out in your reader’s inbox.
Thank you emails
Thank you emails make your customers feel that they are appreciated. Also, it provides you with a chance to get valuable feedback about your services.
You can send these right after your subscribers book your service or after they have traveled with you. Add a vibrant call-to-action button if you wish to take their feedback through survey or review forms.
Take a look at this attractive-looking thank you email template below;
Notification/Confirmation emails
If your customer books a holiday or tour with your company, then send them transactional or confirmation emails.
These emails have an open rate of 65%. You can give them trip details, an order summary, or a general heads up about the trip they are going to take with you in these confirmation emails.
Take a look at this template below and you would understand better;
Promotional emails
If you want your subscribers to make decisions in your favor, then send them promotional emails. You can tell them about special places to visit, introduce them to new services you’re offering, or help them select the best package.
Here’s a promotional email template below that can grab your customer’s attention instantly.
10 Tips to Create High-Performing Travel Emails
Convincing people to travel with you is not that easy. People are super picky (read: sensitive) about their travel experiences.
But we’re here as your knight in shining armor; because below, we have mentioned the 10 necessary tips to create a travel email marketing campaign that is highly likely to convince your subscribers.
1. Think of campaign ideas that customers will love
First things first, select a campaign idea.
If your mind feels like a blank slate, look at the campaign ideas mentioned below. These can help you create high-performing travel emails.
- Add testimonials to woo your subscribers
Want to know the power of testimonials?
According to research, 93% of consumers say that online reviews influence their purchase decisions. So, create and send emails that have testimonials from happy clients. These can be in the form of videos, pictures, and/or written reviews.
By doing so, you increase your reader’s confidence in your brand, which further motivates them to travel with you.
- Suggest them travel destinations
Your suggestion should vary according to the time of the year. Give them suggestions to visit places during the high, low, and shoulder season.
Something that goes like; Hey! Guess what? Paris - the city of love, has its arms open for you with a 20% discount on return tickets.
You can also suggest which place is more economical or safe to visit during specific times of the year.
- Give them an incentive
One of the greatest attractions for a tourist to travel with agencies is their incentives or discounts on travel destinations.
You can offer free or discounted adventure park tickets, or free food at a particular restaurant.
It’s almost impossible for someone to turn down such an opportunity.
- Understand their interests through questionnaires
You won’t be able to entertain your subscribers or send them personalized emails until you understand their interests, would you?
So, here’s what you can do; send your subscribers questionnaires or review forms to collect information from them. This will skyrocket the engagement rate of your emails and help you nurture relationships with them.
- Suggest limited time offers
They say, “Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value.” So, let’s cash on people’s desire to avail limited time offers.
Send them emails with limited-time offers and see how impulsively they rush to travel with you. We’ll discuss the importance of such email designs later in this article but for now, just shortlist this idea for your travel email marketing campaign.
2. Be cautious about your subscriber list
Creating a subscriber list is similar to making friends; make sure you shortlist the most reliable ones.
You can create your subscriber list by placing a sign-up option at a visible and prominent place on your website. You can also use social media posts to collect subscribers’ email addresses.
Apart from this, you can also collect email addresses in person from people who make reservations at the resort that your company collaborates with.
Lastly, you can use double opt-in forms for careful screening of your subscriber list.
3. Segment and personalize your emails
We can't emphasize enough the significance of both of these practices.
Segment your subscriber list based on criteria like age, customer’s interests, or your subscriber’s travel history. This allows you to send personalized emails conveniently.
Speaking of which, you can personalize your emails in different ways, such as through email subject lines, by adding names with the help of merge tags, or by sending emails that are specially designed for a specific segment of subscribers.
Research says segmented emails are responsible for a 14.31% higher open rate than non-segmented campaigns. Besides this, both segmentation and personalization are responsible for creating a better user experience.
4. Convince them with written content
Your email copy is the voice of your brand. Not to add pressure on you, but it has the tendency to make or break your deal.
Keep it as personal and conversational as possible. It makes your reader feel that you are talking to them exclusively, which keeps them interested in your message.
Moreover, using industry jargon is a big no-no because how will people respond to your message if they don’t even understand it? So, use comprehensive and personalized language in your travel emails to connect with your audience.
5. Create visually appealing travel email designs
Did you know that 90% of the information received by the brain is visual?
Yep, that’s right. So if you want your brand’s identity imprinted in your subscriber’s brain or wish to deliver your message more effectively, then you need to give some serious attention to your email design.
You can do this in many ways;
- Wisely add images
As a travel company, the easiest way to lure your subscribers to travel with you is by embedding breathtaking images of travel destinations. But if overdone, it can backfire.
There are 2 important things to be careful about when you're embedding images in emails. First, use only high-quality images, and second, always add text along with the image.
Also, be wise in the image selection. It’s your embedded image that is most likely to turn your subscriber’s response positive.
- Cleverly select a color scheme
Go for a color scheme that will complement your brand, your message, and the interactive elements embedded in your emails. It’s preferable to use color contrasts as it can attract your customers’ attention.
- Necessarily opt for responsiveness
There’s one element or design feature that you must never compromise on, and that’s your email design’s responsiveness.
Research says, 51% of emails are opened on mobile. So, ensure that the designs you select are responsive on all kinds of devices.
- Carefully insert countdown timers
Well, it’s the holiday season, and everyone’s planning to travel. It’s the ideal time to use the FOMO element in your emails.
To gear up the urgency factor in your emails, add countdown timers. If you find yourself puzzled about doing so, here’s a glimpse of Unlayer allowing you to embed countdown timers in your emails with great ease.
- Sensibly create and place CTA buttons
What if your subscriber agreed to travel with you but kept scratching their head about what action to take next? Yep, let’s avoid that.
Add prominent, well-designed, nicely labeled, and properly placed call-to-action buttons in emails. This allows the readers to take further action more easily and increases the clicks up to 371% and conversions up to 1617%.
6. Give them reasons to choose you
The bitter truth is that you’re not the only one who wants your subscribers to travel with them.
So you’ve got to earn those stripes by showing them what you have is the best. For instance, create a humorous email. Something like, “We heard you settled for less. So we’re here to help you reconsider and choose the best.”
You can also mention how your travel package is better than anyone else in the market. It could be either because of the lower prices or better travel destinations and accommodations, etc.
7. Send trigger emails
Research says trigger emails result in 24 times more revenue per send as compared to other emails.
Well, this statistic alone should be enough to convince you. You can send trigger emails based on your subscriber’s actions or behaviors. This will increase their interest in your email and also boost click and conversion rates.
For instance, send your user a welcome email after they sign up. This can include special deals and discounts (as mentioned earlier).
If they buy your service, then send them a transactional or confirmation email. If they complete a trip with you, send them a thank you or feedback email.
Take a look at the automation flow chart below to understand this better.
8. Use software that can boost your email’s performance
You must have heard people say, “Work smart, not hard”. Well, that’s exactly what email marketing software offers you.
Here are the 3 most useful and reliable email marketing software that can help you create the best travel emails.
Unlayer
Unlayer is a user-friendly drag and drop editor that helps you to create and modify professional-looking emails. The best part is that you don’t need coding skills to design top-notch emails with Unlayer.
They provide a range of attractive travel email templates that can be modified according to your choice, and yes, all these templates are responsive on all devices.
Using it can save your time, effort, and cost of designing captivating travel emails.
Travel Email Templates That Convert Crazy Good
Moosend
This is the best and most economical tool for email automation.
Some of the best-selling features of Moosend are its behavior tracking, lead generation, A/B testing, and email segmentation features. Besides this, it also provides excellent workflows.
Optinmonster
It is the most powerful lead generation software.
It allows you to create multiple quality lead forms such as lightbox popups, floating bars, scroll boxes, gamified wheels, etc.
Some major plus points are that it doesn’t require any coding skills and has a very powerful segmentation engine that reaches out to the right people at the best time.
9. Ensure your email is friends with the law
If you skip this step, there's a major loophole in your travel email marketing campaign. Always comply with the legalities to save your email from landing in the spam box or facing any penalties.
Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography And Marketing or CAN-SPAM act is a set of rules for commercial email marketing.
According to CAN-SPAM, you must;
- Avoid the use of fake or wrong headers.
- Give recipients an option to opt out whenever they want.
- Give a valid postal or physical address.
- Monitor what people are doing on your behalf.
- Avoid misleading subject lines.
- Not send messages that identify as an advertisement.
This act is specially designed to eliminate false identities and ensure authenticity. Make sure you abide by it.
10. Encourage travel email marketing in the holiday season
Can’t emphasize enough the importance of email marketing during the holiday season.
It’s the textbook definition of doing the right things at the right time. People are in the holiday mood and ready to travel around with their loved ones.
So try to create holiday-centric email designs, give them special holiday or limited-time offers, or tell them which destination is ideal to visit during a specific holiday season. People are more vulnerable to the discount offers and promotions that you are going to offer. So, don’t miss out on this chance.
Final Word
Well, that’s about it.
You’re all set to create the best travel email marketing campaign. Just follow the tips and guidelines mentioned above, and you’re golden.
Good luck and safe travels.
