Share

Are you thinking of sending out a holiday email this year? Don’t get lost in the annual flurry of uninspiring well-wishes that get deleted before they’re ever opened. Check out our best tips and tricks for putting together a festive holiday newsletter your past guests are sure to love. Consider it our gift to you!

• K.I.S.S: Keep It Simple, Santa. When creating the content for your email, remember that simpler is better. At RP Interactive, we generally break our clients’ emails into five easy parts: headline, opening sentence, offer presentation, supporting information, and client website link.

 

• Don’t re-gift your opening line. Be daring. Using generic “Happy Holidays” language is like re-gifting those white candles you got in last year’s white elephant game – they may be nice, but everyone will know you didn’t put any effort into it. Think of something original to say or a new way to put a twist on a favorite seasonal line.

 

• Include a fun family photo. Delight your online audience with a personal office or property photo they’re sure to remember. Dress your whole staff up as reindeer, decorate your lobby together, or go caroling – and snap a unique photo sure to bring a smile to your clients’ faces!

 

• Give something from the wish list. Now is the time to reward your subscribers for opening the 11 other emails you’ve sent out this year. Select a small gift – like a glass of wine, a mini-massage, or one-day free Wi-Fi pass – and include a note inviting them to visit your location to redeem it. They’ll appreciate the gesture.

 

• Trim the Fat. When it comes to holiday emails, less is more. Remember that you’re writing to potential patrons. They might like to know that you’ve had a busy year upgrading all of your guest rooms, but they probably don’t care that your General Manager just bought her child a new puppy.

 

• Check your list twice. As the new year approaches, take that extra 20 minutes to purge your contact list of old email addresses that get kicked back each time you send something out or people who constantly flag your email for abuse/spam. While you’ll probably never be able to eliminate this percentage completely, keeping it low will reduce your chances of violating the CAN-SPAM Act. For instance, Mail Chimp requires that all email campaigns remain below 0.1% of reported abuse.


 
Remember, your email inbox will be bombarded this holiday season with dozens of other similar emails from retailers and other hotels, so make sure that your email stands out from the competition. Be bold, be different, and entice the reader with an attractive call-to-action. Follow these 6 fun tips for crafting your holiday email and you’ll receive the gift of more repeated business in 2012.

 

About the Author

Kristin Arroyo

Kristin creates, edits, and optimizes written content for our clients. If she’s not at work, she’s probably out volunteering at church, making messy art, or watching her alter ego, Liz Lemon, on “30 Rock”. Fun fact: Her daydreams usually consist of traveling to the destination she is currently writing about.