Collecting emails is your way to retain them.
Why collecting emails to drive a direct-booking strategy?
Just like any online marketing strategies, you need to have: a way to attract guests, a way to retain guests, a place to showcase and sell your products.
However, sometimes, the timeframe between attracting and selling requires more time! And in that time frame, you don't want to loose your potential guests.
You have several intents from your guests:
- They come from an OTA: they are READY to book now, ideally if you offer them a discount via your popup email, they can book with you.
- They search "stay at your location ", or any keywords related to finding a place to sleep at: they also are READY to book now, when they arrive on your website, they can click on book now straight up and book. (this requires a trustworthy guest experience - if it looks clunky or weird, guests will move to the safe choice: booking, airbnb you name it).
- Third option is that visitors come from "discovery" channels: social media, or google searches such as "what to do in location this summer?". In this case, your visitors are less "ready" to book. They are browsing, considering options but not converting straight away. But you never know, they might LOVE to stay at your location this summer. This becomes your job to stay in touch with them until they are ready to book with you. Your email strategy comes in!
As a guest, I love to spot little underrated places I can go to. I curate, handpick and bookmark. But if you don't send a me a reminder that you exist, I might simply forget about you.
So let's recap your direct-booking strategy:
✅ First step is building a well integrated website with your PMS, or booking engine.
✅ Second step is building a foundational SEO strategy to start attracting guests.
✅ Third step is collecting emails from visitors, and nurturing them into guests.
How to collect emails on your direct-booking website?
For a hospitality or vacation rental business, collecting emails effectively is crucial for driving direct bookings, building guest loyalty, and running promotions. The best tools combine lead capture, automation, and integration with your booking systems.
StayFi email marketing software is a great option. You can collect emails from all your tools: Website, WiFi, and your PMS.
Then you can enrich your data with info you gathered from your booking software.
Finally, you can create targeted email campaigns.
How to practically collect emails from your website?
You have a few options:
- Add a popup that will open every time a new guest arrive on your website. YES, I know, pop-ups are scary, it sounds so old (?), and also quite annoying for your guest experience. You know what's not annoying? Gifts. Discounts. So your pop-up is not just asking something, but rather offering a gift. Your pop up is the moment you can offer a first-stay discount code. And it works!
- Offer a discount count that's attractive
- Embed a sign up form of key visitors pages (avoid on rooms pages as your main CTA should be Book Now)
- Then, activate a sequence that shares updates about your property!
How to embed a StayFi pop-up on your website?
First, go to StayFi:
- Go to Subscribers
- Create a List just for your website/property
- Create a Sign up Form
- Select Popup
- Design your popup
- Make sure in the success form, you add a discount code
then go to Webflow:
- Add a Javascript into your code
- Make sure your popup appears on load
How to embed a StayFi sign up form on your webflow website?
- Create a new sign up form with StayFi (make sure it's from the right list! so that your emails end up in the right list, and activate the right emails :) )
- Copy paste the code
- Go into weblfow
- add a code embed block
- copy paste your code
- check that design is not impacted (if it is, go into a code viewer, make sure you remove paddings or elements that breaks your design).
Do you need help creating or improving your direct-booking website? Feel free to reach out.