Hospitality Email Marketing: How To Get a 4200% ROI With The Right Strategies

Welcome back to the Boostly podcast where we give host the tools, the tactics, the training and the confidence to increase their diary bookings. And today there's a, a really big part of diary bookings that I want to delve into and that is email marketing. For those who've been tuning in for the 580 episodes plus, you'll know that I'm a big, big fan of email marketing for short term rental businesses and the hospitality businesses. It was, it will ever be and is right now, in my opinion the best form of marketing. The problem is, I would say that 90% of the people who are tuning into this podcast and this video right now aren't doing it properly. And I've been always looking for solutions and software that will make life easier for a short term rental host. And when I discovered Switchback, I was really happy and to be able to get them on the podcast and to be able to get them on the show and talk about it, delve into it and just sort of get an expert's view around email marketing. But more importantly, how they're helping short term rental hosts directly is, is something that I'm, I'm excited for. So, Ryan, thank you very much for coming on, for answering my message and for coming onto the show. If you could just do as a massive favor, give them like the sort of 30,000 foot view of the background that you've got when it comes to email. But more importantly to switch back and where we are today in 2023 and just the work that you're doing, please.

You got it. Yeah. First, Mark, thanks for having me. It was a big honor to see you pop in my inbox and really kind of be part of this. So it's been on my list for a while. So I'm excited to be here with you. Email marketing has been part of my world for about 16 years now and during that time it's all been short term and vacation and holiday rental. Switchback was founded about a year and a half ago, summer of 21 and it's just a small boutique kind of email marketing agency that all we do is email marketing for the vacation, short term and holiday rental industry. We all come from different backgrounds, but it's all email and it's all vacation rental. Most of us come from an agency called Blue Tent, started there in 2006 and then left to found Switchback. I saw a need for an email marketing only agency where we don't do anything other than email marketing and that's our core value and whatnot. There. So over the last year and a half we've partnered with a handful of agencies and one being Stayfi, which we're really excited about. Brilliant.

So when it comes to emails and I'm sure you've had many conversations with business owners over the last how many years when it comes to emails, what do you think and what do you feel is the biggest pain point that they have with it? And then what do you feel is like a second point? Question, what is the biggest mistake that most people make, not just host, but business owners on a whole make when it comes to email marketing?

Email is really kind of one of those forgotten tools that people just don't. I don't know if you want to say don't take seriously or just don't see the power. So I think the hard thing with email marketing is everybody thinks you need to do it yourself. It's, you know, go grab something like Constant Contact or mailchimp and really kind of do your best on your, on your end. The challenge I see is a lot of, you know, people take the direct booking websites really seriously and their branding and then they just go grab kind of a poor template and hope for the best. With email, I think where people struggle is really kind of don't know where to start from your domain verification, getting your list set up correctly, sending the right email to the right person. Some of the mistakes I kind of see out of there is based on data and automation. You can do so much with email marketing on the personalization and the segmentation, but that could be kind of daunting. So it's similar to again your direct booking website. You're not going to want to do that on your own. And that's where I feel like people kind of fumble with email a little bit, is more like they feel like they have to do it on their own. It's not too many email only agencies out there, so certainly a need in there. We tend to either help get clients set up and manage their email marketing on their own, but regardless, if you're going to do it yourself still to get that professional kind of setup, branding list and data and automation all set up, then you can certainly run email on your own. But kind of like a website again, you want that built professionally and then you can maintain that ongoing.

So where does switchback come in and like how are you sort of bridging the gap and, and helping with this? What was the sort of the idea behind it and how has it evolved over the last 18 months?

Yeah, I got a cold Call today saying, how much is it? So where we come in to start with is consulting. There is no set price. Where we bridge the gap is an initial phone call, understanding the client's needs. Whether you know you're 1 to 10 properties or 100 to 200, that's a different conversation, a different strategy. If Your list is 500 or 5,000 or 50,000, that's also very different strategy and conversation. So bridging the gap is really starting with a personal conversation of knowing where you are on your journey, where we can come in and help, and if it makes sense to do traditional email or automation. So kind of after that initial call, that's where we decide, okay, here's the strategy. It also comes down to not only number of rentals, but what property management software are you using? Have you ever done email before? What's your website built on? How many past guests do you have? Are you using tools like Stayfi? Where are we gathering email addresses? So a lot of kind of out of that first initial conversation and then we can kind of put some strategy and package together from there.

If you're struggling on how to get direct bookings and overwhelmed on where to start, then I recommend you go and book in a call with Boostly and our team right now. We can walk you through exactly what we're offering, how we can help you and give you a portfolio of websites that we have worked with that are matching not only your niche, but could be in your location as well. Boostly has helped over 2000 hospitality businesses all over the world increase their direct bookings. And if you are interested, then all you need to do is go to Boostly. B O O s t l y.co.uk forward/call and booking an appointment with one of our sales team. So let's talk about the, the packages. First and foremost. Is it, is it cut and dry? Is it black and white or is it a little bit bespoke? How, how does that sort of work?

You know, once we figure out what we're doing, it's pretty, pretty basic, cut and dry. We don't really do hourly, so it's per campaign, initial setups, it's pretty flat fee from there, but again, it's conversation. So if you don't want to connect your website, what does that mean? If you want to connect your property management software, what does that mean? So we. And then how many emails are you doing? Monthly, quarterly, yearly? And that also kind of comes into play. So it's, again, it's a conversation. There's an Initial one time setup fee. Whether it's a light onboarding or a premium onboarding, if Switchback's going to manage your email marketing, we do require this kind of what we call premium onboarding. And really what that comes into is a very custom branded, you know, industry focused template that's going to have like rentals, layouts, search bars, not a template you're just going to find in like a template gallery. It's something we build custom to a point where we even ask for like the brand guideline. So we're following exactly how your brand is on that. But from there it's like automation, segmentation, you know, where are we going with all your data and how do we connect everything? Because it's not always just send an email. Some of the highest converting emails can be your automated. So think if you got a WordPress website and your contact us form, that confirmation email can actually see a ton of revenue. So there's a lot to talk about when it comes to email, when it.

Comes to the last 18 months and starting to switch back to where we are now. What's been one of the biggest learning curves that, that you have made since setting this up and chatting to people, chatting to hosts, their pain points and the results that you've been getting. What are some of like the, the big core takeaways that you've personally learned as you've grown and expanded Switchback in this industry?

Yeah, you know, once I branch out it was like we could focus on different parts of the industry. I was so focused mainly on what we call property management companies. So when I founded Switchback I partnered with Statefi there and that was really a learning curve for me, working with a lot of the hosts, if you would, rather than a property management company. And it's been a really fun journey to work with these people. Kind of like, hey, I own my five homes and I'm just getting started, what do I do? So that's been the learning curve for me is different types of strategy for that part of the industry because it really is separate from a property management company. Now coaching these hosts, again, if you would, is a different strategy than a property management company. So that's kind of been fun for me to learn the other side of this industry. I guess the other really big takeaway for me is learning how big that side of this industry really is. Again, working with the top tier property management companies for so long now, working with individuals and supporting a two person team has been really fun and again the strategy will be different but that's kind of where I've enjoyed it and kind of branched out outside of the what I've always focused on in this industry which is more companies than hosts.

Well, it's the biggest part of this industry. 80% plus is, is made up of the 1 to 10 property owner category. Whether you know, it's a very small property management company, whether it is a owner to short term or medium term let or people doing the, you know, the rent to rent model, it's it, it makes up the majority of it. So it's, it's, it makes no surprise to me that you're getting a lot of people coming to you who are in that sort of one to ten or going right. We need help with, with email. And obviously the partnership with STAFI came about which has been, which has been big. This is what got my attention because I know Arthur really well at Stay and he was giving me a latest tour behind the scenes and obviously we then jumped into integrations and there was Switchback. And so how did that come about and what does it mean now for StayFi members and clients? Because there are a lot and it's growing. It's probably one of the best data capture platforms that I've seen in the industry. And obviously now we switch back being part of that, there's a lot more awareness of what you're doing. How did that came about and again like how are you providing that help and support for the typical StayFi customer?

Yeah, great question again. Big fan of Arthur and the whole team over there at Statefight. Just so great to work with again, someone taking email seriously. It's just eye opening. I love it. But I think Arthur and I kind of bumped into each other about four and a half years ago, something like that, where we just had a couple mutual clients at the time and then really trying to figure out how to work together more and more. When I founded Switchback, he was one of my first phone calls and then really it came down to how do we offer Stay Fi clients professional email outside of Switchback? Because again our clients are more focused on property management companies. But I loved helping Arthur's clients. So what we ultimately did is got Arthur to utilize the same software that Switchback's been using. And I guess I'd been on it for about 10 years, maybe 11. The software is called Campaign Monitor. So it's similar to mailchimp or Content Contact, but it's really built for agencies. So that's where I got StayFi to kind of drum up their own Agency account with Campaign Monitor and then really worked with his team and kind of connected it with not only StayFi but now we're connecting it with a bunch of different property management softwares. So having that direct connection to PMS is a pretty big one. And then last summer we really kind of announced the true partnership where StayFi is more the software company, but to offer email marketing, he wanted to make sure his clients were doing it properly, like you were saying, and then really, you know, utilizing it to the best they can. And that's where Switchback came in. So if you get to know Stayfi, if you are a Stayfi client, you'll see Switchback in there listed as a the premium partner in there that is managing the email marketing. So if you need help on onboarding or consulting or even managing your email ongoing, that's where we come into play. And really the Stayfi clients have been so great to work with. For us, partnering is, it's one of the tools that offer our clients, even outside of Stayfi clients, but switchback clients, the best way of kind of growing your list organically. So when you have a WI Fi splash page and you collect that email address, you know, if they're coming from an ota, it's your first opportunity to show your brand, show the guest experience through your company and not Airbnb. Start automating emails on book direct. And everything that's coming in from the WI fi now becomes an educational part outside of the person who made the reservation. And even then it's a big one. So now the collecting of data is not just an email address. You actually get the rental, the time they logged in, you can do property groups and then now with the PMS integration you can do, you know, date driven from property management software data. So the automation piece Once you connect StateFi is so powerful and that's what it is for us is that collection of data and helping these short term rental hosts gain their brand awareness and that Book Direct. So that's where kind of we partnered with Stayfi and what we really push is that automation and data collection.

Quick break from the podcast to let you know that the two boostly books that we brought out, the Book Direct Playbook and the Book Direct Blueprint are two of the top rated and the best selling in the hospitality category on Amazon for just two pounds you can grab both of those books. Right now the foundations and the structures that you need to put in place is in the blueprint and then for 101 marketing tactics that is in the Playbook. So go and grab a copy on Amazon. Now just type in Book Direct Playbook or the Book Direct Blueprint and we'll see you on the other side. You're so right. When the data, because data is now probably one of the most valuable commodities out there. Is the reason why when you book, when you have a booking through your online travel agent, I. E. Airbnb, they don't share the email because they don't want to share the data. There's very limited data that you get because they want it for their own remarketing and what they then do with the terms of ads or emails themselves. This is what I love of what you and StayFi are doing, is you're giving posts and small property management companies like the tools and the data combined to then put it into a very powerful. So it's not just a blanket email that goes out once a year, say around Black Friday to do a Black Friday discount. This is several emails going out on a quarterly, maybe in a monthly basis that is heavily segmented, heavily customatized, and depending on the person who's reading it, they're going to see different things. And it's all done within the data that is collected from Stay Fi, Shared with the property management software and then collated by switchback and then presented to the person who's reading it. And that is powerful and that is how you increase your direct bookings. And you showed me and shared me a couple of numbers behind the scenes. And the return of investment is. Is massive. There are some emails that have generated high five figure returns of investments off one email campaign. And I think that this is where we talk about it has, it is, and it will always be the most powerful form of marketing because it's the one form of marketing, in my opinion, where there's no noise. So when you put a post out on Facebook, for example, and the end user sees that post, they're on the scroll and it's surrounded by noise. There's so much other things vying for their attention. When you put a listing out on Expedia or Airbnb, when you land on that listing, the Airbnb is saying, you like this, check out this, check out that, check out this over here. So there's tons of noise. When somebody gets your email in their inbox and they open that email up, it's a one on one communication. As long as that email is nicely presented, put together, got some good copy, got all of the things. And if it's personalized, they will read it from top to bottom and they are more likely to take action. And you get that with email you don't get with any other form. So it's immensely powerful, it's massively underused and this is why I love to get you on to the show, introduce Switch back and Stay Fi and and all that good stuff. So let's just say for example I come to you and I'm not part of StayFi. Can I still use Switchback and what's the best process of coming to do so if I'm not using StayFi?

Yeah, 100% switchback email.com you'll find us. It's not a ton of information on our website, it's more for a way to contact us. Like I was saying, it's more about a conversation rather than flat fees and whatnot. So you, you can work directly with Switchback on our agency account of Campaign Monitor. Certainly an opportunity just to kind of get email marketing started if you would. But yeah, the email marketing is so powerful. You know where you're talking about the return. We do take that really seriously on tracking. So of course there's the inbox tracking but also the web tracking and that's how we're going to see some actual e commerce transactions and whatnot there. But. And those are type of things we would go through on a demo. Kind of understand what a client is looking for and what we see for other clients as well.

But that domain was Switchback email. Com.

You got it. Yep.

And can they can book a demo in and a call from there potentially and a consultation potentially with you on that website. Can they?

There's just a contact form and then I follow up and give you a link to reach out. You can reach me directly at just ryan@switchback email.com as well.

Fantastic. Ryan, really appreciate this. I really hope all the best and for 2023 and I look forward to catching up with you next year when the growth has been huge and everybody's using your software. But for now want to say thank you for coming on and if anybody wants to find out more, just please head over to switchback email.com if you're already a Stay Fi customer, which I know a lot of you already are, jump into your dashboard, jump into integrations and it's just literally right there. So all the best. Thank you. And I'll catch everybody in the next episode.