We’re going to go through a guide on email marketing for your travel business. If you’re a restaurant, inn, attraction or something similar, these posts over the next few weeks should help you get an email program setup and get it working to bring in interest and new customers.
The first step is signing up for an email provider, which we’ve mentioned a few times before. Two good ones to use are:
Once you’re signed up you’ll be able to setup an email signup form on your website, which is the topic of this, the first post in the series.
The signup form on your site is the first step in getting people into your sales cycle. When someone submits their email information they’re giving you permission to send them future information. That’s a big step in the sales process even if it’s not an actual sale. It’s still a conversion and with your email content you can earn trust and get people to eventually purchase your products, whatever those might be.
To start, let’s look at the locations for your website signup forms.
1. Place A Signup Form In The Header
The most common place, it seems, for the email signup is the footer. And we’re going to talk about that next, but the header is a good place for the email sign.
The header is one of the first things visitors will see and while the email signup usually isn’t the most important call to action on your website, you do want it to be a secondary call on multiple pages. And since the header is usually the same one every page you’ll make it easy for visitors to find if they want to subscribe to your email program.
Rules for email form signups in the header would be to not make it bright and bold. You’re not looking for it to be distracting, but rather something that’s easy to find if you’re looking for it or something you might notice if you glance at the header.
2. Place A Signup Form In The Footer
The footer has become a common location for an email signup for and for that reason it’s good to have a form there for people that are looking to signup.
Like the header, you’re not looking for a footer form that is bright and bold. You’re looking for something that kind of blends in with the rest of the page, but is easy to find if a visitor is looking for it.
3. Place Signup Forms Near Fresh Content Like Blog Posts, Event Calendars, Etc.
Now it’s time to think about the email signup forms that you want to stand out as more primary actions on your pages.
The first instance is on your blog posts. You want to have a signup form either at the end of your posts or in the sidebar. Blog posts are regularly updated, which is what fresh content is. People that are interested in travel content or the type of content you’d be sharing on your blog want to subscribe so they don’t miss updates. This is why it’s important to give them the option because you catch them right when they want to subscribe.
A common feature on travel websites is an event calendar. These are great opportunities to tie-in an email form because your visitors are thinking about future content. They can see the calendar, but if they want to get the latest updates they’ll be looking for a way to subscribe, which is often via email or social media.
These are two places – blog and calendar – where email signup forms can be a primary call to action. Visitors are looking for future content and it’s an opportunity to get them on your list where you can give them what they want and also market to them with sales emails.
Offer Different Options For Email Subscribers
Finally, it’s not really a new item in email marketing, but it’s getting a little more attention the last few years – different subscriber options.
For your travel business it might be taking new subscribers to a page where they can select which of your emails they want to receive whether it’s only newsletters or only newsletters on specific topics.
Conclusion
The signup form is the first step in setting up and build your travel email program. Use the tips in this post to help setup your email signup forms on your website. Putting them in these places will allow you turn visitors into subscribers. From there you can earn trust with email content and turn those subscribers into customers.
Have any stories about your success with travel email marketing?
We’d love to hear your tips in the comments.
