Hotel and venue sales is a highly competitive space — it’s essential to keep your brand in front of meeting planners. But you know a day in the life of an event planner is non-stop. How do you grab their attention? A good newsletter can drive business, generating a return on investment of $38 for every dollar spent. Read on for hotel email newsletter ideas to inspire content sure to impress event planners.
Explore 10 hotel email newsletter ideas planners will love:
The best email newsletters become anticipated email inbox arrivals. They offer unique ideas, helpful tips, and insights the recipients hadn’t thought about before — even though they're immersed in the event industry morning to night.
1. An insider’s roundup of recent events.
Highlight your most impressive recent events. Inspire them to book your venues for future events with photos of busy exhibit booths and smiling attendees. Include testimonial quotes and event summaries, including detailed stats such as attendance figures, geographic draw, and room bookings.
Share what’s most important for each type of event and planners with different niches, and focus on those details with your images and content. For example, when sending a newsletter to a list segmented for large conferences, don’t bother talking-up successful weddings (and vice versa).
For a tradeshow planning audience, discuss how you were able to leverage your property’s impressive IT infrastructure to meet the high-speed WiFi required to conduct sales transactions at booths without any issues.
You could also feature a 3D floor plan from a successful event. A picture of the 3D plan can link to a virtual walk-through of different venues offered at your hotel, which helps planners visualize their events in your meeting spaces. By showing planners you have the technology and the know-how to make their lives easier, you break down another booking barrier.
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2. Behind-the-scenes stories and views of your venues.
Update planners on your hotel technology, facilities, and event spaces with a “VIP access” guided tour. Take a walk with your master chef through kitchen and dining operations for a Q&A on how he handles conference closing dinners with 500 guests and more.
You can also show-off your RFID room access, electronic check-in, and WiFi hotspots; or bring the reader along into various rooms to showcase amenities and introduce top-notch staff members who offer unmatched service.
Include videos and photos. Videos are a proven way of increasing engagement with emails — even when simply shot with a smartphone or digital camera. Photos are especially effective when featuring subject matter with vibrant colors or complex textures, such as a table full of food or a crowded bar.
Use amiable language. Just as you would be friendly to a planner in person, orient your reader to what they’ll learn in this behind-the-scenes newsletter. Use words like “Enjoy your VIP pass to The Northwestern Publishers Conference” or “Join us as we share our strategies for streamlined event check-in.”
3. Introduce your hotel’s exceptional venue team.
Your people are your strongest asset — tout the professionalism of your hotel staff and your event team’s ability to anticipate the needs of planners and manage the unexpected. Feature a star-member of your event team or focus on a particular department — food and beverage, housekeeping, event support — with the participation of multiple team members.
Let unique personalities shine. Your employee profiles should, of course, include details like the subject’s name, position, speciality, years with your hotel, and industry experience. But what about the IT technician who brews craft beer? The group sales manager who runs triathlons? The housekeeping supervisor who overcame a physical disability or illness and now works to inspire others? Everyone loves a good story, especially when matched with a lively photo.
Share your team’s large-scale event preparation. Share a rundown of the unique support services your hotel offers, from before the planner books your venue through the event. From helping to source F&B vendors to delivering lunch to the planner’s team on the day of the event, write about what makes you an excellent event partner.
4. Specialty travel tips for event attendees.
Provide information for guests and attendees so their journey is easier, and their stay in your hotel is fun and productive. This inspires confidence in planners that their event attendees will have a positive experience.
Make it unique to your property. Is there an easy bike-sharing service with stands immediately outside your hotel doors? Share that with your readers. Other information you might showcase includes:
The nearest public transportation stations
Top-flight restaurants at the airport
Your white-glove airport shuttle
Your property’s event VIP lounge
Send event planners to your website. Include contact information for your dedicated event concierge. Let readers know they can call to discuss their concerns about large-scale transportation issues and how the property prevents log-jams during time-sensitive guest arrivals.
5. Share stellar recognition and reviews.
Catalog positive attendee comments on social media, industry awards, positive reviews, and post-event survey results to showcase your high level of customer satisfaction. Choose appropriate examples to craft mini-case study newsletters to serve as validation of your event services.
Quantify positive results. If you’re a repeat winner of an award, let people know how many years in a row you received the distinction. Share your position near the top of “Best of…” lists, and how many venues were in the field.
Profile a noted event planner who loved your venue. Seek reviews and quotes from well-known event planners. Profile them and include a Q&A about what made your venue the perfect fit. Share how many times they’ve contracted with your venue.
Highlight the "why." Just talking about an event being successful isn’t enough — showcase why it was a success. Whether it was the attendee support, digital entry, or raved-about food and beverage service, call out the key offerings that contributed to event satisfaction.
6. Focus on your value-adds for business.
What are the stand-out features of your hotel business center? How does your staff go above and beyond for business meetings? Is your event technology state-of-the art? Share this in a business offering email roundup — conference planners and corporate meeting planners will be interested in the details.
Let local leaders do the talking. Build relationships with local business leaders and your Chamber of Commerce. During quiet periods, offer unused venue space at a discount to businesses in the area. Profile executives and corporate planners from these companies and ask them to share what they appreciate about your venues. This positive interaction may earn you ambassadors for your brand.
Take a deep dive into your meeting technology. Write a newsletter titled “Meeting Technology in Close-Up” that shares the details of your WiFi, large-scale screens, and A/V system. Don’t skimp on the specifics: talk speed, capacity, cybersecurity, and tech models.
7. Sneak peeks into new amenities and property upgrades.
Build excitement among event planners by giving them a first look at interesting updates and activities at your venue. Conferences for event planners, new or upgraded services, room remodels, menu changes, additional event amenities, technology, and even promotional videos.
Include negatives. If your hotel is revamping rooms or facilities, let your audience know it’s because you’re not satisfied with the status quo. Any effort to make improvements in response to negative guest feedback shows that you take customer satisfaction seriously.
Speak to potential. Event planning takes a great deal of time and effort; it can take more than a year or two to organize a large conference. Help event planners conceptualize how they might be able to get in on the ground floor of your new and improved venue coming down the pike.
8. Shout out the best of your local offerings and "hidden gems."
Show planners that you understand event attendees love local flavor and don’t want cookie cutter locations. Have attendees’ backs by sharing promotional material on popular dining, entertainment, and amusement activities in your area. Include upcoming local festivals, sporting events, and concerts.
Reach out for material. Your local Visitors’ Bureau and Chamber of Commerce should have free written content, photos, and video to share. Be sure to include a simple credit like, “Photo provided courtesy…” as appropriate. You can also profile outstanding restaurants in your area. Visit with a digital camera in hand and interview the chef. The establishment will appreciate the attention, and you may even get first refusal privileges during the busy season.
Deliver a visual tour. Grab a digital camera or smartphone and head out with a member of your group sales or events team, or your concierge to visit a handful of popular local attractions. Put together a brief "Top 5 Must-Visit" video featuring these locations with on-screen text. Include a call-to-action at the end to contact your Event Concierge for more information.
9. Zoom in on venue food and beverage.
The food you have available for events and guests, including healthy options, recipes, menu additions, and the ability to cater to special attendee dietary requests is a key differentiator for event planners.
Wow with visual recipes. Walk readers through the creation of a signature meal. Use plenty of full-color photos of the preparation and final product. Include at least one easy dish so readers have something to prepare.
Give F&B some personality. Diners want to know who's behind the food they eat: share a profile on your chef or select members of the food and beverage team. Take readers through the process your star bartender uses to come up with signature cocktails and mocktails for an event.
10. Give event planners an assist.
Don’t try to tell event planners how to do their jobs; instead, look for a handful of industry trends your property is acing. Locally sourced food and beverage, streamlined event access, instant and accurate digital RFP responses — and explain how your venue eases their pain points.
Focus on venue sourcing. For event planners, finding the perfect venue can be a lot like searching for a unicorn. Let planners know you provide all of the details they need on your venue listings. Your newsletter can include screengrabs of your listing site, sample 3D sample layouts, and a link to the listing itself.
Build a series. Create anticipation by designing an email series around your venue offerings. Consider a series on your unexpected in-house offerings, such as tossable microphones, an event-specific chef, or award-winning vegan menus. Always end by clarifying the topic and timing of the next newsletter.
Even the best hotel email newsletters need subscribers!
No matter how engaging your content, one of the most important hotel email newsletter ideas is to build a subscription list of individuals who welcome its arrival in their inbox, and are likely to answer your calls-to-action. Here’s how to expand your list:
Build an opt-in list. Your ideal email contacts are those who’ve signed up for a newsletter via an electronic form, or who checked a box requesting the newsletter.
Attract subscribers organically. Ideas to build organic interest in your newsletter:
Include invitations to subscribe to your newsletter within existing guest communication emails (booking confirmations, welcome emails, post-visit surveys).
Feature sign-up forms on every page of your website.
Add a sign-up link to all employee email signatures (including yours).
Add social sharing and forwarding functions to your newsletter template.
Target existing and new customers. It’s appropriate to send a one-time newsletter subscription invitation to event planners you’ve done business with, or guests who provided email as part of their contact info within the past year; just don’t spam these lists with newsletters.
Focus your hotel email marketing campaigns.
Marketers have credited list segmentation as an efficient way to increase engagement, realizing an impressive 760% increase in revenue. Segment your guest- and events-oriented lists in a way that makes the most sense for your venue. Possibilities include:
Social (wedding, Bar/Bat Mitzvah, anniversary, reunion)
Small corporate (training, retreat, board meeting)
Large conference (seminar, tradeshow, workshop, annual meeting, convention)
Channel (direct bookers, corporate clients)
Geographic location
Solo business travelers
Families
Length of stay
Ready to start fostering event planner relationships?
Newsletters connect you with your target audience by sharing useful, relevant content to build trust and initiate desired actions. Paired with Cvent’s marketing solutions they can help build a successful digital marketing program to reach more prospects and boost sales.
