The holiday season is a goldmine for the hospitality industry, offering a unique opportunity to significantly boost revenue and occupancy rates. To make this happen, though, hospitality marketers need to strategically plan their timing, build unique campaigns, and use resort data to segment their guests by behavior and preferences. Holiday marketing is most effective when you add a personal touch and make it memorable for your guests.
The following best practices and strategies will help you elevate your marketing, attract more guests, enhance their experience, and ultimately maximize your bookings!
When to Start Planning Your Holiday Campaigns
Timing is crucial when it comes to holiday marketing. Ideally, planning should begin several months in advance. This allows you to outline your strategy, design creative elements, build targeted audiences, and set up necessary automations. Starting in the summer or early fall gives you enough lead time to address any unforeseen challenges that may arise.
Additionally, early planning provides the flexibility to test different campaign elements such as subject lines, visuals, and promotional offers. This way, you can identify what resonates best with your audience and optimize your campaigns for maximum impact when the holiday season arrives.
Unique Ideas for Holiday Promotions
Standing out during the holiday season requires creativity and a unique approach. The people who receive your marketing messages are also being inundated by hundreds of other holiday offers at the same time. Consider offering bundled packages that combine accommodation with local experiences or dining options. These packages can provide added value and make your offerings more attractive to potential guests.
Another idea is to create themed events or special holiday experiences within your property. Whether it's a Christmas dinner, New Year's Eve party, or winter wonderland-themed activities, these events can attract more guests and provide memorable experiences that encourage repeat visits and positive reviews.
It’s also important to cater to your most valuable guests, which includes your repeat visitors. If they’ve stayed with you multiple times in the past, they’re likely to want to return. You can reward your loyal guests by providing them with special discounts, exclusive offers, or upgraded accommodations during the holiday season.
.png?width=375&height=546&name=image%20(19).png)
The Importance of Segmentation
Segmentation is key to the success of any marketing campaign, especially during the holiday season. By dividing your audience into specific segments based on their preferences, booking history, and demographics, you can tailor your messages to be more relevant and engaging.
For instance, you can create separate campaigns for families, couples, and solo travelers, each highlighting different aspects of your offerings that would appeal to them. Every guest is uniquely different, so one-size-fits all messaging doesn’t quite hit the mark. You have access to a wide range of guest data living in your hospitality systems, such as PMS, ticketing, booking, dining, spa, etc. Using that data allows you to personalize your marketing, which not only increases the likelihood of bookings but also enhances the overall guest experience.
Leveraging Automation for Efficiency
Automation can significantly streamline your holiday marketing efforts. Utilize email marketing automation to send out timely and personalized messages to your segmented audiences. Automated workflows can help you manage follow-ups, confirmations, and even post-stay surveys more efficiently. Some of the most impactful automated campaigns include:
- Pre-arrival information to prepare your guests for their stay
- Reminders about special holiday events during their stay
- Upgrades, special offers, and discounts available to them
- Post-stay surveys and thank you emails to show your appreciation
Automating your holiday marketing campaigns ensures that you are always reaching your guests at the right time, all while allowing you to focus on other marketing efforts while your automations run in the background.
In addition, consider using chatbots and automated customer service tools to handle inquiries and bookings. These tools can provide instant responses, improve customer satisfaction, and free up your staff to focus on delivering exceptional guest experiences.
Maintaining Compliance in Your Campaigns
Compliance with spam laws and regulations is essential to avoid penalties and maintain the trust of your audience. Ensure that your email marketing campaigns comply with regulations such as the CAN-SPAM Act in the United States or the GDPR in Europe.
This includes obtaining explicit consent from recipients, providing clear opt-out options, and including your business's physical address in all communications. Regularly review and update your compliance practices to stay in line with any changes in regulations.
Make the Holiday Season Fun!
The holiday season can be a stressful time for marketers but at the end of the day, the holidays are all about fun, joy, and creating special moments. Don’t forget to create that same feeling for your guests when planning out your campaigns!
If you need help setting up campaigns, segmenting your audience, or building automations, Ascent360 has you covered. Our guest data and marketing automation platform is built for hospitality leaders who want to improve their guests’ experience and drive more direct bookings and revenue. The key to any successful marketing strategy is your guest data, which Ascent360 can ingest from all your systems into one platform, enrich it for accuracy, and turn that information into high-impact segments and automations. With reliable data at your fingertips, holiday marketing has become one less thing to worry about!
See for yourself—request a custom demo of Ascent360 today & let us help turn your marketing into a revenue-generating machine!
