In an affront to gourds everywhere, this year my local chain coffee shop started steaming up Pumpkin Spice Lattes on a balmy August 27th.
I remember when pumpkins were respected harbingers of autumn; humble gateway gourds to more exotic seasonal delights.
These days, Cucurbita maxima is pimped out a solid three weeks before the equinox.
Misplaced seasonal cheer is real. And it’s pushed onto the public a little earlier each year much to our plaintive sighs and tweets.
September and October are perfect for holiday strategizing—just not executing. That way you don’t annoy the public and you can kick back with some eggnog rather than scramble to create campaigns come Black Friday.
Now’s the time to prep your holiday 2014 promotions, emails, image updates, and social media posts so they’ll be ready to launch when the appropriate time frame for seasonal merriment begins. (AKA, after Halloween.)
Here’s a few good places to start!
Segment your emails by audience
Yes, email marketing is here to stay and each holiday season the bid for customers’ attention grows fiercer. According to emarketer.com, marketers who segment see significantly higher open rates, lower unsubscribe rater, and better deliverability.
Your guests aren’t all the same. Some stay with you for family vacations, others for retreats, business travels, or romantic getaways. Blanketing them with the same standard message just isn’t as effective as sending each group a targeted email with the specific amenities they’re looking for in a hotel.
Besides boosting your metrics, you’ll be elevating brand affinity and building loyalty with guests who expect a personalized experience from hotels.
Provide value
I love a good cat in an elf hat gif just as much as the next gal, but staying top-of-mind with guests November to January means providing targeted, relevant content.
What would really make your readers have a “Meowy Christmas” is dropping some knowledge on them—like where to get the best hot toddies in town, which neighborhoods have the awesomest light displays, what’s on the menu for your Harvest Buffet, and the best locations for seeing New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Don’t forget to include details on how they can plan their holiday party at your hotel! Unless you hate bags of money.
I like how the Adrift Hotel opens this value-packed holiday email with a short narrative about the whimsical first signs of the season in their area, then goes on to provide serious value.
Nestle in some coupons
According to Experian’s Q4 email benchmark report, welcome emails with coupons have 2.5x higher transaction rates than those without. Treat your email list newcomers to a discount in their welcome email. Coupons are also a great way to show repeat guests how much you appreciate their biz.
Experian says $10-off or 20%-off coupons cause higher click-through rates than other promos. Emails with coupons have higher open, click, and transactions rates, plus, 48 percent higher revenue-per-email than other promotional emails. Opus Vancouver sent out this gem on December 2nd last year. Nice timing, eh?
Plan and schedule your social media posts
Don’t scramble for social media content while the gingerbread is cooling. Get crafting your masterful holiday posts now! Start by checking out our blog article on how to create killer posts. Next, use a free app like buffer to efficiently schedule your posts across multiple social media accounts at once. Your posts will magically go up throughout the season while you chillax with that leftover frosting. Nice job, boss.
Prep your site’s holiday facelift
Nothing gets holiday travelers in the mood to book like a winter wonderland scene to the face. Since the homepage is where your guests are likely to land first, make it festive. It’s as easy as swapping out your everyday homepage slideshow for one that’s holiday themed. Perhaps you throw in a couple of pictures of your property lit up at night or a local festival. Look at you go. If you decorate individual rooms, include pictures with your room descriptions. Knowing they won’t have to open gifts under the mini-bar is nice info for those traveling during the holidays.
Ready to get started? Pour yourself a real coffee and check out more holiday website readiness tips here. Or, raise your email newsletter game by downloading this free eBook.
