This is a guest post from Carl Sednaoui of MailCharts.
As the summer heat rises, so does the need to get consumer’s attention. In this post we’ll explore some of our favorite Travel and Hospitality emails from May. Before diving into the emails, let’s go over some industry stats.
On average, companies sent just above one email per week, bringing us to a 5.8 email average for the month. The send-volume distribution is heavily impacted by both top-senders and low-senders. Here’s the breakdown:
Nearly a quarter (24%) of email subject lines included some form of promotion (e.g. sales, promo, discount, etc). The average subject line was 60 character long and only 22% of emails were mobile-optimized. Here’s the subject line distribution length:
Monday and Thursdays were the two most popular send days accounting for 19% and 21% of emails accordingly.
This makes sense from a marketing standpoint: on Mondays, you’re fed up with work and are more likely to plan a getaway. On Thursday, you’re just about ready for an adventure.
Note: These numbers come from MailCharts’ email marketing reports, where you can find other industry-specific information.
Enough data-talk. Let’s now look at some great emails.
The first email comes from Virgin America, the airline. Virgin’s emails tend to be beautiful and packed with colors. Here are a few recent campaigns:
The “Flyo de Mayo” email was particularly fun. Notice the playful language, engaging subject line and subtle Virgin Signature Visa Card upsell.
Subject: 3 Days Only: Flyo De Mayo with fares from $55 one way.
Our next email comes from Secret Escapes, a hotel deal site with curated offers. We loved their clean design, vibrant imagery and clear calls-to-action. The focus on locations “close to home” is refreshing, reminding us that we don’t need to go too far to enjoy that much needed vacation.
Subject: An old-fashioned and family-friendly resort on Cape Cod’s Atlantic coast, plus NYC, Boston, the Hamptons, Westchester, Vermont and more
Our last email comes from CheapTickets, an airline deal-finding website. Their “cheap of the week” email provides a great opportunity to regularly send emails to their subscribers. Come to think of it, it’s easy for someone to anticipate these emails and see where they could escape to next.
This emails does a few things very well: the promo code is used as the main CTA, the main image makes us day-dream (and it’s clickable!), and the headline has some spunk to it. Also, notice their use of pre-header text: “Get 22% off hotels during happy hour with promo code CHEAPARITA” which complements the subject line very nicely.
Subject: {{name}}, your EXCLUSIVE promo code is here
Check out Movable Ink’s eBook, 12 Next-Gen Travel & Hospitality Emails.