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Are you looking for new ways to boost your town or village hall bookings? One of the best tools at your fingertips is email!
We know from experience that email marketing can be a cheap and effective tool for boosting sales. So why not make the most of it?
1. Email your existing email database
If you’ve already built up an email database - great! Make sure you keep them up-to-date with monthly emails. Make sure the emails are interesting and useful, otherwise people will unsubscribe.
Here’s a few ideas to get you started:
- Happy customer testimonials
- Reopening date after lockdown / covid updates
- New features eg: kitchen refurbishment
- Booking incentives eg: first month free rental
- Things of interest such as upcoming events (with a reminder that they can create their own event!)
- Top tips/How to content eg: How to make the most out of our village hall
Top tip - segment your email database into different categories. This way you can send targeted emails. For instance, you could send a mass email to all your past bookers with a special offer to encourage them to book again.
2. Grow your email database
The benefits of having an email database is that you can control how and when to reach out. Social media may be great for quick, one-time interactions with your community but if your goal is the long game then start building up your email list!
Start by outreaching to potential customers. Think about who would be interested in using your hall? Most of the time these people won’t actually know that your hall is available to use!
- Fitness coaches
- Yoga instructors
- Clubs or societies
- Local schools / universities
- Voluntary sector organisations
- Local businesses
Send an email to these potential customers, showcasing your hall and its facilities. Make sure you include links to your website and information on how to book. Maybe include an incentive to book such as free refreshments.
Top tip - Email individuals by their first name. This will make it more personal and will boost interaction from potential customers. If you’re sending a mass email, there's an easy way to do this using Mail Merge or with an email marketing software.
A simple and easy option is to ask Councillors to email their friends who might be interested in using your town or village hall.
Another way to increase your email database is by including a sign up button on your website: ‘sign up to receive latest news and offers’. There’s ways to integrate this with an email marketing software (see the next point!).
3. Consider email marketing software such as MailChimp
Email marketing software can help you speak directly to your customers and prospects with personalised messages. It also lets you track the effectiveness of your campaigns by seeing which emails were opened, clicked on or ignored as well as manage contact lists so that the right people see your messages.
With email marketing software you can not only send a standard email, but you also have an array of templates to choose from that will make your emails stand out. You are able to customise these templates and match them with the branding for both high-quality content as well as engaging visuals!
Most of the email marketing software out there is GDPR compliant and automatically includes an unsubscribe button at the bottom of every email.
4. Ensure your emails are GDPR compliant
It is important to establish your rights before sending marketing emails. Have you sought opt-in consent? Did they have the right to opt out? Were there unsubscribe links in every email that was sent and if not, make sure this feature has been implemented for future campaigns.
Top tips to ensure your marketing emails are GDPR compliant:
- Include an option to opt out of your emails - include an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email
- Include your council name, address and contact details in the footer of the email. This allows users to easily contact you.
- Make sure to have a link to your privacy policy in your email. Your privacy policy should include information on GDPR.
- Review your consent practises and existing opt-ins - ask the user to confirm that they would still like to receive marketing emails by clicking a confirmation link in the email.
Key Takeaways
Promise: boost your town or village hall bookings by using email
Highlights
- Emailing your current data with engaging content
- Growing your database
- Consider email marketing software to manage marketing campaigns more effectively
- Ensure your emails are GDPR compliant
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