When you optimize your marketing strategy, you can turn email leads into bookings

A smartly optimized email marketing strategy will help you accomplish two important business goals:

• You can use email as an effective form of mass communication to reach a wide audience; and
• You can use it to generate leads.

With these goals in mind, your first step is to create a plan that will allow you to transform your email marketing strategy so that it will work effectively for your business, and to turn leads into concrete bookings.

Use a mail service

Email marketing service providers, such as MailChimp or Constant Contact can help you to automate your newsletter service, optimize your email for mobile (more on that below), and help you perform the analytics necessary to discover exactly what is, and is not, working in your messages.

There are many options on the market today to aid you in your email optimization efforts and help you break down your marketing strategy by demographic or campaign.

Target your audience

Your highly targeted message is going to get results; segment your lists so that you send relevant messages to your audience. For example, if mailing to your existing customer list, you’re likely going to be working on customer retention and relationship management. Such an audience might appreciate learning about special offers for return guests, discounts on vacation packages, improved amenities, or new attractions and activities in the area. If mailing to prospective new guests who may have expressed interest in traveling to East Africa, your audience might appreciate information about the area, the logistics of traveling to and from, and discount packages that will enable them to get the most out of their trip.

Get the reader’s attention with an eye-catching subject line

The subject line is your first chance to engage your reader, and to entice them to open the email. Without a proper subject line, chances are your potential client will delete the message without ever opening it. Keep subject lines short and snappy, personalize them whenever possible, and use action words and phrases like “join now” or “claim your…” to entice action.

Keep it short and to the point

While there will surely be a wealth of information you want to pass along to your readers, a wall of text will do nothing but become fodder for the trash can. Keep each email concise and on target, and easily digestible for the busy reader.

Create clickable calls-to-action

One of the most effective ways you can encourage readers to go beyond a simple glance at your message is to include clickable calls-to-action in the form of graphics. Not only will they visually enhance the email, they’ll result in the conversions that become returns.

Your goal here is to attract readers to your website; once there, you can provide them with the deals that will get them booking with you. Your call-to-action (CTA) graphic should be large without overwhelming the rest of the copy, and exist close to the top of the email so that readers see it almost immediately upon opening.

Make it sharable

When you include the option for your reader base to share your content with their networks, you open your business to a whole new database of possible leads. Create email content that is engaging and interesting, in addition to the usual marketing offers.

Include buttons for social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google +, LinkedIn, TripAdvisor, and Pinterest, so that readers may choose their preferred method of sharing. The more sharable your content is, the more people will see it, and the more leads it will generate.

Personalize

When users sign up for your email alerts, include optional fields to gather personalized information. If you obtain information such as their age group, geographic location, and name, you can not only determine where they fit in demographically, you can pull their details and use them to personalize their emails with their name. This immediately engages your readers far more than a generic “dear traveler” ever would.

Be mindful of mobile

Because smartphones and tablets are so prevalent nowadays, you can be sure that most of your potential clients will be using one to read their emails at least some of the time. If your emails are not optimized for a mobile platform, their appearance and functionality can suffer, which leads to a quick trip to the recycle bin instead of the intended click conversion. Ensure that your emails will translate across desktop and mobile platforms to properly take advantage of this technology.