Three A/B Tests for Hotel Marketing Emails

Your hotel marketing and surveys efforts are only as effective as the emails you use to deliver them. When it comes to email communications with guests, your hotel could probably be getting better results–more opens, more clicks, more conversions. We’re not saying that what you’re currently doing is bad, per say, but could it be better? Is there something you’re missing?

A/B testing is one way to find out. Serving as a data-backed way to inform your marketing decisions, A/B testing is an often overlooked test that could mean the difference between a good email and a great email.

Here are three simple A/B test suggestions that you can run on your next marketing email. With learnings from A/B testing, you can learn, adjust, and get more out of your hotel marketing emails.

Email Timing

We’ve previously discussed how the timing of your post-stay surveys emails relative to the guest’s stay affects survey completion rates, but what about other kinds of emails? How successful are marketing emails at driving conversions when they’re sent on Monday versus those sent on Friday? What about emails sent in the morning versus early evening? Experian, Campaign Monitor, and GetResponse all have varying answers. Pick one of these factors to A/B test and see how the time of day or the day of the week affects open rates.

Subject Lines

We’ve previously talked about crafting a subject line. Now it’s time to consider ways to test your efforts. It’s important for marketers to define what works and what doesn’t, to ensure that your emails are effective. Rather than putting all of your eggs in one subject line basket and hoping for the best, consider the benefit of A/B testing with two different variations.

For example, you can try:

• Testing first name personalization against no personalization
• Testing a subject line formatted as a question against one that is not
• Testing a more straightforward, informative subject line against something vague and catchy

Sender Name

Would you be more likely to open an email from a brand or a real person? Testing different sender names could reveal a great deal about your audience. Try exploring this concept by testing the send name “Your Hotel” against the personal version, “Amy from Your Hotel.”

Many brands have seen success with this approach, but your results will be largely dependent on the recipient’s familiarity with your brand. While the name of a widely recognized member of your team might be well received, recipients could be easily thrown off by a name they don’t recognize. It’s worth a try if you’re a very small team with a high level of personal interaction with your guests.

Overall, when your emails are optimized for success, you’ll get more guest feedback and your marketing campaigns will generate more revenue.

Want to learn more about increasing revenue per guest? Join our FREE WEBINAR and learn how Guest Lifecycle Management can help you build loyalty and drive revenue.