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

Welcome back to the Boostly podcast where we give hosted tools, the tactics, the training and the confidence to increase their diary bookings. And today there's 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 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 excited for.

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 but and then left to found Switchback. I saw a need for an email marketing only agency where we didn't. 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.

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 and 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, the 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 can 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. It's 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 set up 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.

Where does switchback come in and like how are you sort of bridging the gap 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 in 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.

So let's talk about 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 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, 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 a brand guideline. So we're following exactly how your brand is, 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 has 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 branched 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, I partnered with Stayfi there and that was really a learning curve for me working with a lot of the hosts, if you would the rather than a property management company. And it's been a really fun journ 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, this industry really is. Again, working with, you know, the top tiered property management companies for so long now, working with individuals and supporting, you know, 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.

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 I 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 having a blast. Gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast. Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee. Cause it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loosely.