In their guide, Cheetah Digital reviews four broad areas of email best practices.
Introduction
The porthole of email best practices. At Cheetah Digital, we’re fortunate to work with some of the biggest and most respected names in the travel and hospitality industry, including brands located all across the seven seas.
One of our favorites, Norwegian Cruise Line, recently invited us to speak at their Week of You event, a series of curated virtual webinars looking to inspire and inform their travel partners. During the “NCL Tools To Grow Your Business” session, our very own Julian Bracey-Davis joined Jason Krimmel, Vice President of International and Trade Marketing at Norwegian Cruise Line, to discuss NCL’s extensive marketing platform. This platform allows travel agents to create customised digital assets — such as video, social media, and email — they can share with their clients when promoting NCL’s unique travel experiences. For the latter asset, Julian discussed some best practices when it comes to email, to help these travel partners maximise results and convert their marketing efforts into bookings. These tips are, of course, useful for all.
The importance of remaining engaged
Before we dive off into the main deck swimming pool, a note that this session also provided a timely reminder of the general importance of using email to remain engaged with clients throughout the difficult days of COVID-19, and especially as we can start to see how life may look in 2021. Such points were also raised during our Signals 20 chat with Holly Moorland on the Travel and Hospitality panel.
Keeping top-of-mind
Customers may not be ready to spend yet, but they are reading communications from brands. You can’t stay top-of-mind if you’re not in their inbox.
A familiar voice and enjoyable content
You are talking to people who have opted into hearing from your brand. Providing some bright aspirational content can go a long way.
Light at the end of the tunnel
Customers are starting to plan to have some fun again. Let them know what is possible and how you can make this future happen, safely.
Turn the negatives into positives
A whole year has been upended, things people didn’t fully appreciate before are now returning. Tap into this new enthusiasm and joy.
The continued power of email
To start off, a quick reminder of why email is still the most important marketing tool you have at your disposal. Note we say that with Cheetah Digital proudly promoting and helping to enact multichannel strategies for brands, but email still is the Captain. Aye aye, Captain.
Here are a few quotes and stats from the eConsultancy survey co-authored at the start of the year. *Note this report came out early 2020, pre-COVID-19, before customers and brands rapidly increased their time online.
- Almost three-quarters of US consumers have purchased a product directly as a result of an email they received.
- Email also tops social media native ads by 134 per cent and an organic branded social post by 151 per cent.
Read the full report here.
In their guide, Cheetah Digital review four broad areas of email best practices. For each area, they can broadly discuss some key points to keep in mind.