Mark Simpson (Boostly) explains how small physical mailings—Christmas cards and "lumpy mail" hampers—can drive pre-bookings for accommodation businesses. Key tactics: collect guest data, use the 80/20 rule to target top guests or corporate referrers, hand-write or personalize cards, include time-limited coupon codes (examples: 10–20% off or "book 3 nights get 1 free") and clear expiry dates to track ROI. Practical details mentioned: send cards in late November (start writing after half-term; post around the 20th), typical send volumes (500–600 cards historically), modest spend ("a couple hundred pounds" including postage), and a recommended posting window of 7–10 days from the recording date (recorded Tuesday 17th November).
Questions this video answers
Tuesday 17th November.
Between 500 and 600 cards.
"Maybe a couple hundred pounds" (approximate).
Examples given: 10%, 15%, 20% off; or offers like "book 3 nights, get the 4th night free."
Start writing after half-term and post around the 20th of November; aim to post within 7–10 days from the recording (to avoid sending too late).
Having a blast gonna get it on the Bruce Lee podcast Bruce Lee like Bruce Lee cuz it's so hard and the tea is loose leaf Making up those rhymes don't write it, just do it loosely if you want my respect you'll better butt direct mmm. Here are the words in the podcast. That's what comes next.
Alright, so what we're gonna do tonight, we're gonna talk about Christmas, Christmas cards, lumpy mail in general. So what I want for you to do is if you are seeing this, whether it's live or on the replay below, put your favorite Christmas emoji. That's all I want for you to do. Put your favorite Christmas emoji below. What are we gonna be talking about? Is pretty obvious. We've been talking about Christmas cards. So this is being recorded on Tuesday 17th November and anywhere between two to three to four weeks time everybody's gonna be fed up of getting Christmas cards. So it's something that we did for years and years. The granary and it always worked really well. We would start writing our Christmas cards after the half term holiday. So basically start in November, would start posting them round about the 20th and we would send between 500 and 600 Christmas cards. And the reason why is that it was number one, it's nice to get something in the post. Number two, it's really good to keep top of mind. But number three, we would put especially special coupon code in each of these Christmas cards that somebody could redeem and we put a date on it. Now what this meant was for us we would get so many pre bookings for the next year before the next year had even started. So we could already plan ahead for our occupancy, our rates, our sort of budget for the pre for the year from just doing this every single time it had such a good return of investment. We would spend anywhere between, I don't know, including postage and all other things, maybe a couple hundred pounds and depends on how bespoke you went with the cards. We would range from doing them ourselves one year we even printed them all out, which was insane. I wouldn't recommend that. You can go to a local printer and you could get them bespoke or you could just go and just order them in or just go to the local shop and just buy hundreds of them. So I think the best way to start off this is number one. Please make sure that you are collecting your guest information. I will explain later in this episode, in this podcast on what you can do if you don't now, if you don't want to be doing hundreds, then here's a tactic that you can do. Number one, go through everybody that stayed with you over the course of the last couple of years and what you're going to do is you're going to work out the 80, 20 rule. So find 20% of the guests that either brought in 80% of the revenue or just, you know, really good time or good reviews. So you could either go down the revenue route or just people that you remembered had an amazing time at you. Now that will instantly cut down hundreds into maybe five or ten to start off with. And what you can do is you can hand write a couple of real nice Christmas cards to somebody that has stayed with you over the course of the last couple of years. What you're going to write is totally up to you. But what I would always put at the bottom of the Christmas card would be something along the lines of, if you would like to Pre book your 20, 21 stay with us, then all you need to do is call us, give us your phone number, make sure that you quote Christmas or Christmas card or make sure you know about this Christmas card and we will apply X discount. We would do anywhere between 10, 15, 20%. It really does depend on what you want to do. Or it would be, if you book three nights, you get your fourth nice day. We varied on everything, but it always, always worked and we could always track it back to the Christmas card. Now we would put a couple of stipulations, you know, dates and availability. You got to use it up by a certain date. And this is the key, you've got to use it by a certain date because we used to not put that. And we had people calling up in sort of July and August when we didn't have a lot of availability for the summer holidays. And they were calling up and they were using their, their code, their discount code. And we're just like, we should have really put a limit on it. So learn from our mistakes, put a limit on it. So again, maybe put it for the middle of January, the end of January, but make sure you add it in there because this is how you're going to track the return of investment, your time investment and your money investment. So if you have done this tactic before, this is obviously something that I want to share. You know, I give the idea, but I always find that the best ideas are from you. So if you're listening to this on the audio version, if you're on the Apple or the Android or whatever, Please jump onto Facebook and Twitter and social media and Ostleruk and tell me and tell me what you do. If you're watching this on the video form in the comment section below, below, tell us your stories. Have they worked? How do you make it work? How do you make it work for you? Do you get bespoke ones? Do you just go out and buy a pack 100 or whatever and just use them? Be really interesting to see what you do. Now. If you haven't been collecting your guests addresses for whatever reason, then this is what you could do. And this is particularly important. If you deal with a lot of contractors, a lot of business workers, then what you can do if again, working on the 8020 rule, if 20% of your bookings from this year have come from one or two offices, particularly with key workers and, you know, contractors and whatnot, with all the restrictions that have been going on in 2020, if there's one office or one person, then what you can do is you can find out which office they're located at and you could actually put in a lumpy mail or something and you can go a little bit more than just a Christmas card. You could organize maybe a little gift hamper, maybe some chocolates, just something to specifically if this is like a PA or somebody that places people on business, because it will do you the world of good in good karma, because nobody else is thinking of doing this. So if you do this, then you will stay top of mind. So when it comes back into January and they come back into the office and he or she or whoever has got loads of people that they have to get out for accommodation, you'll be the one that stays top of mind. So it's little things like this that you can do. That's why it's called lumpy mail, the present in the post. So these are the sort of things that you could be thinking of doing and putting it into the post. And the reason why I wanted to do this episode and the reason why more than ever I wanted to do this now is because if you think about 2020, if you think about everything that has happened, every single person has got a story of how it's being affected. And with the world as we know it going more and more and more online, where less human interaction is happening, and if you were just to take a couple of minutes to just do something like this and put a card in the post and send it to someone so it physically comes through their door where it's not a bill or a whatever, then again it just sets you out from everybody else. In a world where everybody's going online, where everybody's zigging. If you can zag and do this, then who knows what that could be mean for 2021 in the long run. My top tip to finish with this is that if you are going to do this, don't send it on the plain white card. That's boring. It looks like bills. Get a nice colorful card, something that stands out. So when all those letters drop in the post, yours is the one that they're going to reach to reach to first again, I like to give the ideas I love to see how you can expand on. And I can see everybody in the live video that's joining in, which is amazing. Please do leave your favorite Christmas emoji in the comments below. If you're watching us back on the replay, please share what you do. But most importantly, please, can you share this video, share this link, share it in a Facebook group, share it with a friend, share it with a community, email it to somebody that could do us some of these tactics and tips. That's all that I need from you from watching these videos and just from doing all this free content for you is just help spread the word, make sure that other hosts know that there are something that can help them. Okay, that is the end of this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in. If this is the first time that you've tuned into a boostly podcast episode, head to boostly.co.uk pod podcast. We've got 10 seasons worth of material in there. You can start all the way back at episode one or you can just dip in and out. Doesn't matter what you are listening on. But if you are listening on, please do leave a review before you leave. It really does help us boost up the algorithms and keep us in the charts and keep people finding us. I know that this works because today I got a message on Instagram from somebody who lives in Bali who found and discovered us on the itunes chart, listened in, and then sent me a message on Instagram. So this does work, which is amazing. I can't believe this is worldwide, but thank you. All right, I will be back very soon for another episode of the boosted podcast. Until then, please make sure that you send out Christmas cards and do it within the next seven days. If you are listening to this live, this is Tuesday the 17th. I reckon you've got seven to 10 days to get these posted out. So you had a thirst you'd never want to be at a last you don't be sending these on the 14th or 15th of December, because then it's just people are fed up by then. Beaver first. All right. Speak to you very soon. I will leave you as always, with our sign. Take care. Speak to you all soon.
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.
