As the owner / manager of self-catering accommodation aiming for maximum occupancy of your properties, you have probably asked yourself this question on occasion.
Having spent valuable time deciding what message you want to communicate, who you want to tell and how you’re going to say it, it’s important to get the timing right. You want people to open the email and be prompted to complete the desired outcome (i.e. book their holiday with you).
So what’s the answer? Is there a best time of day, day of the week and week in the month to get your message seen?
What the research shows
- Between 7-9pm is the best time to engage your audience. This is when we take the time to read things that we need to concentrate on, and it’s when we forward emails or share things on social media. It makes sense really when you think about your own habits. Maybe you’ll have a quick scroll through the emails in your private inbox during the day, perhaps having a quick blitz to delete those that you’re not interested in; but the chances are you won’t have time to actually read anything properly until later on. Interestingly 9pm is also consistently the most popular time of day that online bookings are placed through SuperControl. It is when people are thinking about their next holiday, so it’s a good time to send previous guests and those who have shown interest a marketing email reinforcing who you are, and what you have to offer.
- Thursdays and Saturdays see the best click-through rates from marketing emails to end consumers. We all know what Mondays are like – often a bit hectic as the working week begins (Mondays are the worst days for open rates of marketing emails); but by Thursday we have relaxed a bit, it’s nearly the weekend. Avoid Fridays, they are the going out or winding down nights. But come Saturday it seems we’re a little more receptive once again.
- The end of the month is the time your email is likely to trigger a response. This is when most people get paid, so it’s also when your guests are more susceptible to spending. If you are prompting your previous guests to book a repeat stay, or have a late availability offer, send this email at the end of the month.
Test and trial
Whilst research identifies these key timings – best hour of day, day of week and week of month to get your messages noticed and acted on, I’d recommend trying a little testing yourself. A city apartment in the centre of Edinburgh is unlikely to attract the same demographic as a coastal chalet on the Isles of Scilly; it’s worth doing a bit of research to see what works for you.
SuperControl integrates with a number of marketing tools including MailChimp (Plus & Agency products only). As well as filtering your database to target specific groups of guests and gathering feedback, you can access reports to see just how successful your email campaigns are.
If you have planned to send a series of emails over the next six months (each with a similar message to the same recipients) try this:
- For the first three months schedule the email to be sent to 50% of recipients at 7.30pm and to the other 50% of recipients at 8.30pm, both on the last Thursday of the month. Then monitor how successful it is. How many people opened each one? How many people clicked a link in each one, or carried out the action you wanted them to?
- For the final three months send the email to 50% of recipients at 7.30pm and to the other 50% of recipients at 8.30pm, both on the last Saturday of the month. Again monitor the success of this campaign, did one have a significantly better open and click-through rate than the other?
Does one time and day stand out as being more successful (i.e result in more enquiries or bookings) than the other?
Information sources: SuperControl Pure360 The Web Marketing Group Smartinsights.com
