Email marketing is an important part of any business. It doesn’t have to be spam—and it never should be! It’s a great avenue of communication between you and your customers and is a very useful tool to build loyalty and trust within your brand. You should be looking to reach potential sales, future and past customers, and the current band of loyal followers who regularly take part in your tours and simply like hearing about what you and your business have been up to.
Writing a tourism newsletter shouldn’t be a daunting task, on the contrary, it should be seen as an opportunity for you to effectively connect with current and potential customers in a way that reflects your company. It doesn’t have to be 4 pages of dense, frankly boring, text; personalise it: show off a wonderful tour photo or video, reflect your company’s personality within it(opens in a new tab), promote a tour discount—the list is endless.
Need more help? See our 5 tips on how to write the perfect tourism email newsletter below.
1. Writing Appealing Content
Let’s keep it simple: always keep in mind what you personally do and don’t like to see in your email inbox. Ask yourself, what do I click and read and what do I delete straight away?
Don’t overthink it when you begin to write it, your newsletter should be short and it should be simple. Aim for quality over quantity and remember that most readers will be using a smartphone, so there’s no need for pages upon pages of dense content. You can try ChatGPT to help get the ideas flowing, but make sure to maintain your voice.
And please, don’t write like a robot. Convey you and your tour business’ voice within the text, give people a taster of who you are and what they can expect coming on a tour or activity with you. A fun walking tour company? Add a joke or two. Food tours? Convey your passion for the places you visit and the foods you love. Skydiving company? Show people they’re in for an adrenaline rush!
Lastly, you need a catchy subject line. After you’ve finished your newsletter’s content, summarise it and create a short, snappy, and engaging title that relates to what you’ve just written. It’s imperative to have it connect with the text because it’s annoying to potential readers if the headline is misleading and has nothing to do with the content that follows. Test it out with a subject line tester(opens in a new tab) before hitting send.
And most importantly, enjoy writing it!
2. Mobile-friendly
As mentioned above, more and more readers will use a smartphone device rather than a desktop to open and read their emails and newsletters. According to Easysendy(opens in a new tab), an internet marketing platform, nearly 1.7 billion people check emails from their mobile phones every day compared to 0.9 billion who use a desktop computer. That figure in itself should convince you to ensure any email you send is mobile friendly. Confirm with your marketing channel or newsletter provider that any email sent out via their platform is optimised for mobile, as it’s incredibly important.
3. What to include
Ok, we’ve covered 2 important points but you may now be wondering, what on earth am I going to include in my newsletter? Here are some ideas to get you started:
- Videos/photos: Why? Visually show off where you are and what you do! It will help people connect with your brand if you have a great selection of videos and pictures. Tip: try not to overdo the stock images, the ‘real’ images (people enjoying themselves on your tours, pictures of the guides showing a group around, etc) can help build trust.
- Local news/announcements: As we mentioned above, a newsletter isn’t just for potential customers. Maintain and grow your loyal following by providing any news updates from your area while also showing readers that you’re up to date and current.
- Business/partner updates: Perhaps you’ve added a completely new tour, you’ve hired someone new to your team, maybe even purchased a lovely new piece of equipment? Tell the readers! And a great way of showing loyalty towards your partners is mentioning them and what they’re up to.
- Discounts: Have a tour discount or a deal? Make your email about it, get it out there—shout it from the rooftops!
- Blog & social media links: Do you have an active blog? Great, add a little teaser into the newsletter and link it to your site. And don’t forget to add your social media there – it’s all about growth!
4. User-generated content
Your real customers have had real experiences on your tours—promote it! Don’t rely solely on stock or doctored images, showcase the real experiences your previous guest have had! Encourage guests on social media to use a hashtag or send them directly to you while you build more customer engagement and slowly begin to build a free photo and video library of invaluable visual content.
And testimonials! Bad news travels fast too often these days, so get ahead of it and showcase the nice things your customers have said about you. Thank them, and show future customers how happy previous guests have been!
5. Track it
Although not technically under the ‘How to write a compelling newsletter’, it’s still important to track the effectiveness of it. What you have written and the content the newsletter contains, or even the layout, can affect how and if people read it. Tracking your newsletter with Google Analytics(opens in a new tab), for example, will give you an in-depth insight into what’s working and if it needs to be adapted or not.
We hope you found this article helpful and good luck with your future newsletter writing endeavours! And if you like, subscribe to our newsletter to keep an eye on what we’re up to!
[Updated January 2024]
