Tourism Internet Marketing U

Effective E-mail Marketing For Your Tourism Business

When it comes to e-mail marketing, there are some things to think about if you want your target market to take your tourism business seriously. First among these is to get their permission first. Before you send out your first e-mail to anyone, you need to be sure that they are interested in what you have to offer. That means, getting them to “opt in.”

You can use off line marketing techniques to get e-mail addresses. That’s not a problem. But try to drive that targeted traffic to your website where the potential customer can fill out your online e-mail opt in form. Then, send them a confirmation e-mail that allows them to confirm their permission by clicking a link. If you get that confirmation then the person has told you twice that they are interested in what you have to offer. That will cut down on any accusations of spam.

But that’s not all there is to it. There are other things to consider for successful e-mail marketing. Your tourism business will see a lot more success online if you consider all the possibilities for e-mail marketing before you start. Some of the things you need to think about are:

• Will you publish a newsletter or use e-mail marketing in other ways?
• Will your e-mails be plain text or HTML?
• How often will you send out e-mail notices (too often can harmful and not often enough may mean people forgetting who you are)?
• Are you a good writer (you may need to hire a copywriter)?
• Can you design your e-mail marketing materials yourself?
• Are your e-mail marketing materials consistent with your look and feel and the message of your website?

Before you start sending out e-mail messages to everyone you know, think about your overall strategy and how each e-mail piece you send fits in with that. For more help with this, pick up a copy of my book, 101 Ways to Promote Your Tourism Business Web Site!

-Written by Susan Sweeney