How To Build And Grow An Email List For Your Travel Business

Email marketing has been around for ages. It is a tried and tested tactic that businesses can use, no matter what industry they’re in.

So, when it comes to marketing your travel business and building better customer relationships, a good email marketing strategy is crucial. But first, you need to build an email list filled with the addresses of potential customers.

Before we get into how to build an email list for your travel business, we’ll give some insight into the benefits of email marketing and why it’s important.

The Benefits Of Email Marketing

There’s a reason why email marketing is one of the most common marketing tactics. It’s a channel that can deliver a high return on investment (ROI) with very little cost to your travel business.

People who sign up for your newsletter and give you their email addresses are already interested in your brand and what you offer. They are asking to receive your marketing. With a mailing list filled with an audience that is already engaged, you can target your marketing and see higher conversion rates.

It would be a big mistake not to tap into a target audience of people who are already primed and ready to purchase from you. Not only this, but email marketing is simple to do, can be automated, and is cost-effective and easy to measure!

Build And Grow Your Travel Business’s Email List With These Simple Steps

1. Determine Your Ideal Customer

The most important aspect of any marketing strategy is making sure that you reach the right people. Before you start anything, determine your ideal customer so that you can create more focused and targeted messages. This will help to ensure that you catch the eyes of people who are interested in your offer.

These leads are more likely to become paying customers than if you were putting out a broad message to people who aren’t actually interested in traveling.

2. Set Up Your Travel Business’s Email Account

Once you know who to target, it’s time to create your email account that is dedicated to email marketing. Using an email marketing service, like Mailchimp, makes email marketing much easier.

These services provide automation, analytics, custom templates, A/B testing, and more so that you can make the most out of email marketing.

3. Give Your Target Customers A Reason To Get Onboard

To get people to opt-in and give their contact details, you need to provide them with a compelling reason. They aren’t going to sign up just to receive updates. You need to give them something of value.

For example, you could incentivize with a helpful checklist or travel guide download. Some businesses might even offer a small discount for a customer’s first booking - which is a great incentive for them to sign up.

4. Send The First Email

As soon as someone signs up and hands over an email address, you need to send them their first email. This email needs to include what they signed up for - whether this is a PDF, package deal, discount, or whatever lead magnet you’re offering.

With your email marketing service, you can automate this process so that they immediately receive their email no matter what time of the day they sign up.

5. Think About The Timing And Create An Email Marketing Calendar

Your first email to your subscribers will be when they sign up. But what happens after that? To keep your subscribers engaged, work on an email marketing calendar that lays out when you will send them emails, and what will be in them.

When doing so, it’s important to consider your audience and how often they would like to receive emails. There’s a fine line between being engaging and being spammy.

It’s also tricky to know exactly what to send your mailing list. There should be some exclusive value that your email list receives. For example, you could send them discounts, useful travel content and tips, as well as business updates and monthly newsletters.

6. Grow Your Email List

Now that you’ve got the basics of building an email list for marketing all set up, you need to keep at it. To grow your email list, you need to be consistent and continue to provide useful content and tips so that people don’t unsubscribe.

Tips for keeping your mailing list engaged include sending them videos, personalizing the emails, and making your offers seem urgent. Setting a time limit on offers can actually help you convince unsure travelers to book their next tour because they don’t want to miss out.

Extra tip: Make sure that your opt-in form is easily accessible on your website! Put your form in plain sight so that people know exactly where to sign up.

Making The Most Out Of Your Email List For Marketing

Effective email marketing tactics take some practice. So, while you might not get it right away, make sure to analyze your email marketing metrics and see which strategies work best. From there, you can adjust and adapt your strategy to see more conversions.

To make the most out of your marketing mailing list, be sure to leverage your customer base. Tap into this pool of leads by keeping them up to date with new, exciting offers, events, and campaigns. This will help you to see more conversions for your travel business and keep your target audience more engaged in the long run.

Once you start to develop a sizable mailing list, segment them into different groups. These groups could be based on demographics, interests, or where they opted in from. This allows you to personalize your emails so that they specifically target and appeal more to each segment.

In A Nutshell

Many businesses may think that a monthly newsletter is good enough, but proper email marketing can do so much more for your business if you put some effort into it.

If you’re not sure how to start building a mailing list for marketing, simply follow these steps and you’ll start seeing more conversions in no time!