Email marketing is one of the best, low-budget strategies that can have a huge return on investment for your vacation rental business.
Writing a newsletter is easy, but writing a newsletter that your potential guests will actually enjoy reading can be a challenge. If you want to write a great vacation rental newsletter, there is a formula you can follow which will help engage readers. You need to have a goal, create good content, be consistent, write it well, and make it visually appealing. Read on to find out how to write a great vacation rental newsletter.
1. Decide on a goal
You should have a purpose when you begin to write your vacation rental newsletter. Any piece of writing without a distinct purpose risks mediocrity and will turn off readers. So, ask yourself, why are you writing your newsletter? Come up with some short-term and long-term goals and let them be your guide as you produce content. Do you want to educate your guests about your area before they arrive? Is your goal to build trust, or perhaps promote a special offer at your rental? The better defined your goal, the more targeted and effective your newsletter will be.
2. Make it about content, not just announcements
Your vacation rental newsletter should be about more than just announcements and promotions. Focus on creating some interesting and valuable content. Give your subscribers some good reasons to open it when they see it in their inbox. Your audience should look forward to seeing what you’ve got for them every time. Keep your newsletter interesting and relevant by including information that adds value to your guests and potential guests’ lives.
3. Work out frequency
Decide how often you would like to send out your newsletter and then focus on consistency. Will you send it monthly, quarterly, or yearly? The right answer is what works for your goals, and what you can commit to creating at a high level. Newsletters can take some time to put together, so don’t get ahead of yourself. Think of a realistic plan for sending your newsletter, and set a reminder so that you’re always able to fit your newsletter writing into your busy vacation rental owner schedule.
4. Craft some eye-catching subject lines
One of the most difficult tasks which any newsletter writer faces is simply getting recipients to open the email in the first place. Travelers who are looking for accommodation receive a ton of messages every day, and if you have a boring subject line, many people will not bother to open your email and you could miss out on converting them into guests. When it comes to your subject line remember these four “U” words: unique, urgent, ultra-specific and useful. Make your audience think they could miss out on something really exclusive if they don’t open your email. Stand out from all the other senders with your striking subjects Make your message clear and indicate that your newsletter contains a value that guests won’t want to miss out on.
5. Make it look nice
Visuals matter a lot when it comes to your vacation rental newsletter. Find an appealing looking template you can use as your go-to this will also help your consistency. Free email sites such as Mailchimp can help you with this. Place your logo at the very top to help readers associate your rental with the newsletter and its quality. Use headings to break up the text, as you would if you were writing an article for your vacation rental blog. Find some quality images that suit the content you’re discussing. Make sure you keep elements like font style and size consistent throughout each issue of your newsletter for a more professional feel.
6. Improve your writing skills with free online tools
Any good newsletter requires quality writing and a good imagination. But a lot of people struggle with writing and don’t even realize where their deficiencies lie. Before you get cracking on your vacation rental newsletter, check out free online writing tools such as Grammarly for all your grammar needs, or CoSchedule’s email subject line tester.
Writing a vacation rental newsletter that people look forward to reading can be difficult for first-timers, but if you follow a few tips you can achieve great results!
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