The holiday season – Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year – brings prime opportunities to connect with your audience. For hoteliers looking to capture the magic of family getaways and gifting, a strong focus on email deliverability is essential to maximizing engagement and driving bookings.

While eye-catching subject lines and compelling offers help, a high sender reputation is crucial to reach as many inboxes as possible and convert subscribers into guests.

Keep Deliverability at the Forefront this Holiday Season

Delivering festive cheer requires more than holiday spirit – maintaining email deliverability depends on several factors, and a proactive approach is key. Regularly reviewing and resolving any issues with your email campaigns can prevent your emails from ending up on "Santa’s naughty list" (i.e., spam folders).

IP and Domain Reputation: Your sending server’s IP reputation and your domain’s reputation with email service providers (ESPs) – like Google and Yahoo – are critical to deliverability. ESPs evaluate your domain based on factors like list hygiene, engagement, and sender authentication. Frequent reviews help identify and address any potential issues that could lower your reputation.

Quality Over Quantity in Your Campaigns

Effective list management is essential. Emailing inactive subscribers or sending to addresses that bounce can harm your domain reputation. Instead, focus on maintaining a highly engaged list – it's better to have 1,000 engaged subscribers than a bloated database with low engagement.

Boost Deliverability by:

• Regularly analyzing email performance and addressing issues – aim for a 98% delivery rate and keep bounces below 2%.

• Avoiding misleading subject lines. While tempting, they increase spam reports and unsubscribes.

• Strategizing your campaign calendar to avoid overloading recipients with emails, which can lead to fatigue and unsubscribes.

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Segmentation: Deliver the Right Message to the Right Audience

Santa knows each gift should be personalized – and your email campaigns should be too. Segment your list based on past interactions and preferences to tailor content that resonates. For instance, promote family packages to families and gift experiences to frequent bar visitors.

Consistent Engagement Beyond the Holiday Season

A well-maintained email list is a gift that keeps on giving year-round. High deliverability and engagement are achieved with ongoing attention and strategic planning. To ensure holiday success, remember to:

• Regularly update audience lists with relevant segmentation.

• Evaluate engagement within each audience type; clicks from the last six months indicate engagement.

• Maintain consistent send volumes to protect your IP and domain reputation.

• Allow for a 7-day gap between emails, preventing email fatigue and maximizing relevance.

• Test campaigns on your most engaged subscribers first to gauge effectiveness and boost your domain reputation.

Hoteliers should start refining their holiday email campaigns now, ensuring optimal deliverability and strategic timing. By maximizing engagement, your holiday emails will not only boost bookings but also strengthen your sender reputation for continued success throughout the year.