Are your marketing emails going unnoticed – or being totally ignored? The answer for a lot of companies is yes. 

The average open rate for marketing and newsletter emails in the travel, hospitality, and leisure industry is 20.2%. 

-Campaign Monitor.

Email marketing is a great way to relay important information about your business, deals, events, new offerings, and so much more. However, if your audience doesn’t open the emails, this strategy isn’t serving your business to the fullest.

Whether all of your marketing emails are not being read or just certain campaigns, this guide will provide several tips for you to improve your open rate.

Use a consistent and believable sender name

Use the same sender (or “from” name) for each email you send to customers. This will create consistency. This can be your company name or a specific person from your company.

Note that in most cases, you should use your company name. If your customers signed up to be on your email list, they would expect emails to be from your business rather than the owner’s or marketing manager’s name.

That being said, if you want to make your emails more personal, you can say something like “Aaron at Mountain Adventures” to incorporate both. If you have a well known face of your company that everyone would know (i.e. pet, mascot, lead tour guide, etc.) you can choose to use their name as the sender. 

Draw them in with a great welcome email

As customers subscribe to your email list, you should have a welcome email ready to send automatically. If they sign up on a sheet in person, send the email within 48 hours, which is when customers will be the most engaged (Campaign Monitor). 

This can be the same email for each customer and should include details on what they should expect from subscribing, information about your business, and anything new that you may be offering. For instance, if you run a zoo, you can mention a new animal that was born or an upcoming petting zoo event. 

Welcome emails have been shown to generate an 86% lift in unique open rates. (Quite higher than a typical open rate!) 

-Campaign Monitor 

Pro Tip: Include a discount code in your welcome email that will entice new subscribers to participate in a tour or activity. This can be a “welcome to the family” message to get customers excited and make them feel connected to your business.

Be consistent in email frequency

Once you introduce your presence with a welcome email and continue to send from the same name, it’s time to think about email frequency. A good starting point is to send two emails per month. 

You should send them on the same day and time so readers will know exactly when to expect them. For example, always send one on the first Monday of the month and the other on the third Thursday of the month.

Companies sending emails twice a month saw the highest average open rates in 2021. 

-Backlinko

That being said, you want to pick a frequency that works well for your business. One email per month or quarter can work if your business does not have a lot of new information to report. 

But, if you choose to have two or more emails per month, ensure the content for each is unique and adds value. You do not want to overcommit and let your readers down. 

When you choose a frequency, tell your readers within the email. For instance, if you want to send a monthly newsletter, you can add a subject line like “June Monthly Newsletter” so people will know what to expect. (At least for the first couple months you start sending it!)

Send emails in the optimal time for the reader

When you send your email at the “right” time, you will have a better open rate. To find the optimal send time for your email list, determine which days and times have the highest engagement in terms of when people open or click the email as well as when people tend to subscribe to your list. 

If you do not have any data to go off of, a general rule is to send Monday through Thursday during business hours, 9am – 5pm. 

Pro Tip: Start using an email marketing platform to help you with your strategy. These softwares will automatically record and save data that can guide you to success. Some also have an option to send your emails at the optimal time based on when they historically have had the highest engagement. 

Create quality content

All of the tips above will help with open rate, but if you do not share interesting, relevant content, your subscribers will not continue to open them. They may even unsubscribe!

As you create your emails each month, ask yourself the question “What’s in it for the subscriber?” before you hit send. For example, if you run a kayaking business, do not share a personal story about your trip to an amusement park. This does not add any value for your customers. 

Your readers subscribed to hear about your business and local area. Share travel tips, exciting news or promotions, upcoming events you are hosting or one in your town, local businesses people can visit after your tour or activity, and anything else related. 

Pro Tip: Join the FareHarbor Distribution Network and partner with other local FareHarbor businesses to resell their tours or activities. You can share their company links in your emails and when your customers book through that link, you will get a 15% commission!

In order to improve your ROI and other key metrics, keep your subscribers engaged by following the tips above. Emails are a great marketing tool when executed properly. Check out the guides below to learn other email marketing tips.