56.6% average open rate for one-time newsletters as drip campaigns

Hotels throughout NAM made use of drip sequencing for both one-time and automated campaigns in 2022. In most cases, the average open rate, click-through rate, and conversion rate were lower for one-time campaigns.

But one-time newsletters actually fared better as drip campaigns. The average open rate was 56.6% compared to just 40.7% for newsletters that weren’t sent as drip campaigns. The average click-through rate and conversion rate were also higher for newsletter drip campaigns.

Why would this be the case? Let’s say you set up a drip sequence with 2 emails. The first was the monthly newsletter that highlighted a number of upcoming musical performances. The second email included a discount for a pre-show dinner before the performances mentioned in the newsletter that was only sent to guests who opened the initial newsletter. It’s easy to see how this approach would boost metrics.

When it came to automated campaigns, drip series drove more conversions than standard campaigns in every case. This was particularly true for campaigns that used Shopping Cart Abandonment — the average conversion rate was an impressive 13.2%.

For NAM one-time campaigns that used A/B testing, performance was overall lower than for standard one-time campaigns. But newsletters were a notable exception — A/B campaigns had an average open rate of 47.3% and an average conversion rate of 0.3% compared to an average open rate of 38.9% and an average conversion rate of 0.2% for standard newsletter campaigns.

Given the considerable difference in open rates, in particular, this likely means that NAM hoteliers tended to experiment more with newsletter subject lines. It’s quite possible that a particularly effective subject line can stick with guests enough to influence conversion rates as well.