When evaluating your email marketing efforts, do you base success on your email open rate or your email click rate? If you only base success on your open rate, then you probably aren’t getting an accurate picture of how successful your emails are. Why? Because clicking a link within your email is evidence that your message effectively drove someone to take action. Whether it’s clicking a link to search your vacation homes or to read your latest blog post, your ultimate email goal should be to encourage action. So, once your subscribers receive your email, how do you get them to click and engage with your company? The following are a few helpful practices to increase your vacation rental company’s email click rate.
Create Segmented Lists
Sending the right message to the right people is done through segmentation, the #1 tactic for increasing the relevancy of your email. You are able to fine-tune your emails to target specific demographics when you segment them into separate lists based on certain characteristics or stages of the buying cycle. This increases your click rate.
What do you do when you receive an email that is completely irrelevant to you? You probably do what most people do and mark it as spam. Sending relevant content to the right people will not only increase your clicks but keep you out of the spam folder! Segmented lists for your vacation rental company might include:
- Families
- 55+
- Singles
- Special Event Vacationers (e.g. planning a family reunion or wedding)
Offer Targeted Content
After segmenting your lists, you will be able to offer specifically targeted content to your subscribers, which also helps to increase your click through rate. Targeted content might include lists, videos, and blog posts from your vacation rental company’s website.
For example, here are some good subject lines that correspond with the segments listed above.
- Top 5 Attractions on the Outer Banks for Kids of All Ages, & More!
- Experience Myrtle Beach’s 10 Most Relaxing Resorts.
- Check Out the Top 6 Places to Party While Vacationing in St. Augustine.
- Discover the 10 Most Beautiful Places for an Oregon Beach wedding!
As you can see, each of these subject lines represents different content that is specifically geared towards certain demographics. Sending different content to your different audiences rather than sending a general mass email will increase its relevancy to your subscribers, thus potentially increasing your click rate.
Send with a Purpose
Sending emails without a purpose, just to check them off of your marketing “to do list,” isn’t going to help your vacation rental company in the long run. Instead, send emails with an end result in mind. Do you need to reach more strangers and convert them into potential renters? Are you trying to determine whether your current subscribers will potentially become renters? Or do you need to nurture your current and past customers to become promoters of your vacation rental company, as well as repeat customers? Take these goals into consideration when creating your emails and segmented email lists, and focus on accomplishing these tasks with phrasing, targeted content, and special offers.
Monitor Your Results
Monitoring your email click through rates and paying close attention to patterns will help you to optimize your emails. Adjust your segmentation if needed and experiment with different times of day, days of the week, and ways to word your subject lines and email body copy. If something works, run with it, and if it stops working, evaluate and adjust.
Monitoring is a key component in improving your click through rate, as well as improving the other factors of your email campaign, such as open rates and unsubscribe rates. Creating the content and generating the emails and lists are only ¾ of the battle…the other quarter is fought in the analytics. So use each email as an opportunity to test your theories, and to listen for what your subscribers are telling you through their interaction or lack thereof.
For more information on ways to improve your vacation rental company’s online marketing strategy, check out Paveya’s Vacation Rental Marketing blog. Have you had any success with your email click rate, or have any questions about it? If so, please feel free to leave a comment below!
