Red C email marketing report : Holiday Cottages

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F E B R U A R Y 2 0 16

E M A I L M A R K E T I N G R E P O R T

HOLIDAY COTTAGES

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We have analysed the email marketing of 15 holiday cottage brands we received in one month from 15th October 2015 to 15th November 2015.

I N T R O D U C T I O N

T H E B R A N D S

M E T H O D

Despite the unpredictable British weather, short-break holidays in the UK continue to grow, and Mintel forecasts that the number of domestic holiday rentals will reach 6.1 million in 2016, a growth of 12.7% since 2010. And whilst good exchange rates against the Euro continue to make overseas breaks attractive, political instability in some popular overseas destinations is expected to have a positive impact on ‘staycation’ tourism in 2016.

In the UK holiday cottage market, consumers are opting for shorter breaks, with a decline in trips longer than four nights, but an increase in expenditure as holidaymakers look for higher quality, more authentic properties. Around half of all cottage rentals are booked through an agency, but competition is increasing, with low-cost ‘aggregator’ sites like HomeAway and Airbnb enjoying rapid growth.

Over 75% of all holiday cottage rentals are booked online, and coupled with the sharp increase in competition, we expect skilful use of online marketing techniques - both for attracting new guests and encouraging repeat bookings – to be a crucial factor in deciding the winners and losers in the sector in 2016. There is no more powerful technique online than the use of personalised, timely and relevant email.

In this edition of our regular Email Marketing Report, we have taken a forensic look at how the biggest brands in the UK holiday cottage rental market are using eCRM to attract visits, build relationships and drive incremental revenue. We have studied how effective each of the brands is at acquiring new email addresses, what data they collect and how frequently they engage with their audience. We have also identified some of the ‘best-in-class’ emails in the sector and highlighted the techniques that make them successful.

E M A I L M A R K E T I N G R E P O R T : H O L I D A Y C O T T A G E S : F E B R U A R Y 2 0 16E M A I L M A R K E T I N G R E P O R T : H O L I D A Y C O T T A G E S : F E B R U A R Y 2 0 16

‘‘Britain still has the most reliably beautiful countryside of anywhere in the world.

‘‘

Bill Bryson

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E M A I L S I G N U P

How did we ‘sign up’?

Brands excluded from this report

1. Entered email address on homepage

Brands which didn’t send an email 30 days after signing up

4. No method to sign up or request a brochure

3. Provided email address as part of a brochure request form, without giving permission to send emails*

Sent through to a specific sign up landing page

2. Signed up as part of a brochure request form*

*Given that there was no other facility to subscribe to emails.

*Sykes Cottages sent a “portal registration” email which required activation before being added to the email file (by default).

Home page footer

Email sign up landing page

Forest Holidays, Premier Cottages, Alastair Sawday’s, Center Parcs, National Trust Holidays and holidaycottages.co.uk

53%of the brands 20%

of the brands

13%of the brands

13%of the brands

40%of the brands



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D A T A C O L L E C T I O N

E M A I L S I G N U P

Email address

Confirm email

addressFirst name Last name Title Security

CodePostcode (optional)

Holiday Cottages

Premier Cottages

Alastair Sawday’s

Center Parcs

Forest Holidays

National Trust Holidays

Perfect Stays

Unique Home Stays

What information was requested at ‘sign up’?

FACTS: 2 out of 8 companies sent a confirmation link via email.

6 out of 8 companies have a specific sign up landing page for their newsletter registration forms.

T h a n k y o uC o n f i r m a t i o n o f s u b s c r i p t i o n

V i s i t t h e h o m e p a g eM a n a g e y o u r p r e f e r e n c e s

F o l l o w u s o n s o c i a l m e d i aS p e c i a l o f f e r s

131

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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14

What did it say on the website post ‘sign up’?

FACTS: None of the brands had a ‘pop-up’ window asking you to sign up for their newsletter.

National Trust Holidays had email sign up options at the middle and bottom of the homepage. The only brand to provide two places to sign up.

Where on the homepage do they ask for email ‘sign up’?

T o p o f p a g e

M i d d l e o f p a g e

M i d d l e a n d b o t t o m o f p a g e

B o t t o m o f p a g e

We appreciate that there is a lot of competition for homepage real estate, especially above the fold. However, if you have a requirement for new email data, we would recommend that you promote email subscription in the most prominent position possible.

How is email ‘sign up’ encouraged?

L a t e s t n e w sO f f e r s

M o r e i n f oH o l i d a y i d e a s

P r o p e r t i e sC o m p e t i t i o n s

N o e n c o u r a g e m e n t

68

23

13

6

0 2 4 6 8 10

Relevancy is the key to all marketing channels and email is no different, so we recommend that at some point in the subscription process you attempt to collect as much data as you possibly can. This could be at the point of subscription or an email follow-up driving recipients through to an Email Preference Centre.

We encourage our clients to promote their products and services on the post sign-up page as a tactic to reinforce benefits.

FACTS: 3 of the brands mentioned the ‘unsubscribe’ option on the post ‘sign up’ page of the email subscription.

62.5%12.5%

12.5%

12.5%



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F R E Q U E N C Y

When were the emails sent?

W E L C O M E O R C O N F I R M A T I O N E M A I L S

Welcome emails were received from these brands:

Confirmation emails were received from these brands:

Welcome or confirmation emails were not received from these brands:

FACTS: NONE of the welcome or confirmation emails were personalised or incentivised.

100% of brands that sent a welcome or confirmation email sent it immediately

W H E N W E R E T H E W E L C O M E O R C O N F I R M A T I O N E M A I L S R E C E I V E D ?

Clients regularly ask us how often they should be sending their customers emails, but for us, it shouldn’t be a question of email frequency, instead a question of content and response. If you’re sending valuable and relevant content to your email recipients and they’re responding well, look to push the frequency as high as possible.

FACTS: Premier Cottages sent the same newsletter with different subject lines in Week 4 and 5.

Welcome Cottages sent the same postcard email twice with the same subject line, on two different days in Week 3.

We would recommend that a welcome or confirmation email is always sent post subscription. In our experience, we see better open and click-through rates when automated welcome emails are sent instantly at the point of subscription.

Personalisation within emails attracts high attention levels and is a powerful directional device. Personalisation is a tool to speak to each reader as if they are your only reader. It allows marketers to tailor relevant experiences for each recipient according to their buying patterns and email behaviour.

Confirmation email – email automatically sent to an email subscriber to confirm their decision to subscribe

Welcome email – email automatically sent to an email subscriber to begin the brand-customer relationship

Newsletter – multiple offer email containing added-value content (blog articles, advice etc.)

Postcard email – single-minded offer email


Week 1 15th-21st October

Week 2 22nd-28th October

Week 3 29th-4th

November

Week 4 5th-11th

November

Week 5 12th-15th November

Total number of emails sent

in 30 days

Sykes 6

Welcome Cottages 6

Alastair Sawday’s 5

Holiday Cottages 5

Perfect Stays 4

National Trust Holidays 4

Forest Holidays 3

Center Parcs 2

Premier Cottages 2


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E M A I L C O N T E N T

What type of content were brands using?

15th October – 15th November

Holiday Cottages Autumn Competition 17th Oct

Quirky Cottages (Halloween) 24th Oct

Last Minute Autumn 1st Nov

Festive Season 7th Nov

Group Offer 14th Nov

Premier Cottages November Newsletter* 11th Nov

Festive Season* 13th Nov

Alastair Sawday’s Autumn Adventure 16th Oct

Best British Hotels Guide 29th Oct

Fireside Escapes 13th Nov

Center Parcs October Newsletter 16th Oct

Short Breaks 20th Oct

Forest Holidays Free Eden Project Tickets Offer 3rd Nov

Christmas 12th Nov


Pre-Christmas Breaks 20th Oct

Festive Breaks 3rd Nov

Christmas Markets 11th Nov

Perfect Stays New Property 17th Oct

Festive Escape 22nd Oct

New Property 31st Oct

Last Minute Christmas Cancellation 7th Nov

Sykes Festive Christmas 16th Oct

Festive New Year 23rd Oct

Region Focused – Love Yorkshire 30th Oct

Autumn Short Breaks 6th Nov

Cottages with Open Fires 13th Nov

Welcome Cottages End of Year Breaks 22nd Oct

£100 off Winter Breaks 30th Oct & 2nd Nov

£50 off 2016 Breaks – Last Week Reminder 5th Nov

£50 off 2016 Breaks – Last Night Reminder 9th Nov

Next Year Bookings 13th Nov

*Same content – different subject lines

Property subcategories(e.g. for New Year, with hot tubs)

Holiday Cottages

Premier Cottages

Alastair Sawday’s

Dorset Cereals B&B Awards

Center Parcs Good Spa Guides Regional Awards 2015

Forest Holidays


Perfect Stays

Sykes

Welcome Cottages

Exam

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prop

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Prop

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su

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ies

(e.g

. for

New

Year

, w

ith h

ot tu

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Pres

enta

tion

of

new

ho

liday

hom

es

Pet f

riend

lyfa

cilit

ies

Blog

arti

cles

Com

petit

ion

Owne

r re

crui

tmen

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Upco

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Partn

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Vote

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Gift

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Competition Vote for... Last Minute Christmas CancellationQuirky Cottages (Halloween) Festive Christmas

What was the theme of the emails?

Good examples of added-value content include advice features, hints and tips, humorous content and online tools. Blending sales messages and added-value content in an integrated way is very effective in sustaining attention. Moreover, it can increase long-term engagement and reduce unsubscribes.



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E N C O U R A G I N G C L I C K - T H R O U G H S

What property subcategories are being used to encourage clicks? What other calls to action are being used?

Cottages with woodburners or open firesCottages for New Year

Cottages with hot tubsSleeping 8 or more

Sleeping 10 or more

Our Christmas cottagesAll UK cottagesTop Christmas properties

Group cottages

Christmas holiday

Sleeping 12 or more

Pub within a mile

Last-minute holidays

Our Quirky cottages

Christmas cottages

Romantic cottages

Festive cottages

Dog-friendly properties

Cottages for winter breaks

New property

Cottages with swimming poolsShort breaks Cottages with enclosed garden

Large properties Cottages near a pub

Baby and Toddler

Pet-friendly cottages

Rural cottages

Log Burner

Coastal propertiesFestive breaks

Find your perfect cottage here

Explore dog-friendly cottagesFind your place...

Send to a friend

Take a closer look

Explore and be inspired today

Find your Christmas holiday

Enter now

Book today

Take your pick of our Halloween masks

Read about

Find out more

Read our blog for our top Christmas properties

Read more

Book now

Buy now

Discover the spookiest places in the UK

Find out how to enter

Shop now

View our top autumn recipes

Browse Christmas

Search group cottagesActivities and events near you

See the collection

Take a closer look

Search now

Find out more about Gift Memberships

Browse our cottages for New Year

Visit the website

Vote now

Get ticketsBuy your vouchers here

Click here to view properties

Find your nearest Christmas Market

FACTS: Alastair Sawday’s design their ‘Find your place…’ CTA as a search bar.

Successful emails frequently contain 30+ clickable links – hypertext links, multiple calls to action, secondary navigation and footer links all drive incremental clicks. Make clickable elements look clearly clickable. Colour, font, language, size and positioning of CTA buttons all impact on recognition and click propensity.

Decisions to click, or not to click, are made in milliseconds. So, in order to build an effective email, consider using multiple calls to action, well-positioned to be in close proximity to the featured product or service. According to our case studies, CTAs like ‘View the range’ or ‘Find out more’ may prove more clickable than ‘Buy now’, as the readers may not be ready to buy what is on offer.



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E X A M P L E O F A N I N F O R M A T I V E W E L C O M E E M A I L

E X A M P L E O F A N E V E N T - D R I V E N N E W S L E T T E R

E X A M P L E O F A N I N S P I R A T I O N A L E M A I L

E X A M P L E O F A N O F F E R - L E D E M A I L

Date: 15th October 2015Subject line: Welcome to Forest Holidays

Date: 16th October 2015Subject line: Stock up on festive cheer

Date: 24th October 2015Subject line: The quirkiest places to stay this Autumn

Date: 5th November and 9th November 2015Subject line: 1. THIS WEEKEND ONLY - £50 off 2016 breaks! 2. £50 off 2016 breaks - ENDS TONIGHT 10PM!

This email condenses all the essential information a new subscriber would like to know using a simple, eye-catching design. The use of the map to present the range of locations provided by Forest Holidays is impactful and the rest of the well-selected images also give a flavour of what the company can offer - a great tactic to implement within welcome emails.

The copy introduces the services offered for different audiences and their varying needs and tastes. To further demonstrate the ability to offer more tailored services, the brand invites readers to create a profile on their website, through a straightforward CTA to see the latest offers.

This email stood out as it landed just over 2 months from Christmas, at a time when you’re busy planning your Christmas shopping but need a bit of inspiration. This email does just that, helping you to decide where to go with some location advice and recommending a cottage you can stay in. The brand is also encouraging interaction with their #discovercornwall photo competition and generating some valuable content for their website. The subject line created intrigue, encouraging opens and standing out amongst competitors.

Along with the intriguing subject line, the introduction of the email grabs attention and encourages the reader to scroll down, with an image of an attractive property and enticing copy.

The email’s theme has been cleverly continued into the property selections showing ‘quirky’ and ‘frighteningly unique’ cottages. In addition, location inspiration and activity ideas are included to improve long-term engagement with the email programme and demonstrate how the brand can enhance your holiday experience. The use of multiple, hyperlink-style CTA’s also gives the recipient lots of opportunities to click through.

This series of offer-led emails made an impact for three reasons – their urgency, timing and single-minded approach. In the subject line, the use of uppercase wording catches your attention and the deadline increases the urgency to open now, rather than at a later date.

The first email landed on a Thursday evening, giving customers enough time to book before the offer ends. The reminder email landed on a Monday morning, the day the offer finished, reminding customers there was one last chance to take advantage of the offer.

The design of the emails was single minded and the deadline was clear, both creating more urgency to click through.

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O U R A G E N C Y

At Red C, we believe producing effective advertising and marketing campaigns can only come from developing a deep and genuine understanding of a client’s business, products and customers. We encourage staff to get ‘under the skin’ of every client’s business. We sit in on call centres, accompany field sales staff, work in branches and stores, and analyse and interpret client data online and offline to create real insight. It leads to robust, long-standing relationships with our clients.

Strongly analytical in approach, the agency comes from a direct marketing background, yet today 70% of revenue is from online channels, including email marketing, paid search, search engine optimisation, social media marketing and web development. So the agency can offer expertise across a full range of channels, online, offline and broadcast, which helps us to tackle client challenges and develop integrated campaigns for a wide range of target audiences, products and services, in a media neutral way.

Our client base includes a spectrum of blue chip and industry leading companies… JD Williams, Swinton Insurance, Manchester City Football Club, Bupa, Spirit Pub Company, Fish Insurance and TeleWare. This means every day we work closely with leading edge marketing teams.

O U R S E R V I C E S

Red C is a fully integrated agency which offers a wide range of services, including Strategic Consultancy, Email Marketing, Social Media Management, Search Engine Optimisation, Content Marketing, Paid Search, Television Production, Advertising, Direct Mail, Print Production and Analysis.

E M A I L M A R K E T I N G R E P O R T : F A S H I O N R E T A I L : N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4E M A I L M A R K E T I N G R E P O R T : H O L I D A Y C O T T A G E S : F E B R U A R Y 2 0 16

C O N T A C T U S0161 872 1361 | [email protected]

Anchorage 1, Anchorage Quay, Salford Quays, Manchester M50 3YL

www.redcmarketing.com

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