Why email marketing is important for your leisure business

Email marketing makes it possible for your leisure business to stay in touch with your guests and get a better understanding of what they’re interested in.

‍It’s an affordable marketing channel and if you use it well, you’ll drive more bookings and increase your average order value.‍

Discover which emails your leisure center should be sending to your guests.

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Why should you start with email marketing for your leisure business?

1. Email is the preferred communication channel

People are constantly online with their mobile devices, which means they regularly and easily check their email.

‍Your guests have actively subscribed to your emails, so they expect to receive information about your venue, new activities and special events. 

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2. Low costs, high return

Email marketing is a very effective channel to reach your guests and make them book with you (again), and it usually costs you just a few cents per email. 

Great emails with a high open rate lead to more bookings and a higher customer retention. If you find out your guests’ needs and send them relevant information, the return will be a lot higher than your investment. 

Most marketing automation platforms offer different plans. The costs depend on how large your mailing list is and how often you’re going to send an email. 

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3. Addition to other marketing channels 

Email marketing can be the perfect channel for completing a conversion in your leisure center’s webshop. 

Let’s say a potential guest found you on Google, because he searched for ‘Bowling in Miami’ and you used this SEO keyword on your website. He visits your website, signs up for your email, but then leaves and checks where else he can go bowling in the area. 

You’ve got his email address, so you can send that person an email reminding him of you. He goes back to your website and books an awesome activity. 

Via email you make sure people think about you and plan their (next) visit, which increases your brand awareness and drives more bookings.

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4. Email marketing is measurable and gives your leisure business insights to improve

How do you know the emails you send are successful? Most email marketing automation tools, like MailChimp, offer the tools to track what works and what doesn’t. 

Have a look at the open rate, click through rate, bounce rate and unsubscribe rate to get a better understanding of how your emails are performing. You then decide if you need to send other email types or start with email testing. This way you find out what kind of email works best for your guests. 

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5. You stay in touch with your guests and get to know them better 

Everyone who receives your email is interested in you, so share relevant information to activate your readers to visit your venue. To know what information is relevant, find out the interests and needs of your guests through data. Also, measure the success of your emails.

Keep your guests engaged by sending different emails, such as a…

• welcome email when they’ve subscribed
• promotion email when you’ve added a new customized package in your webshop
• ‘Hey, when will we see you again?’ email, a couple of months after the last visit
• cross-sell email after the booking, to complete the guest experience

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Get started with Briq’s online booking system

When offering your activities online, you’ll get many insights into who visits your venue and which activities are booked most often. This helps you in deciding what kind of emails you should send and to whom. 

With Briq’s online booking system you automate your booking process and have everything you need for running a business in one place. You could, for example, integrate a marketing automation tool such as MailChimp, to make it easy for you to send emails and get insights in email performances. 

In our content calendar you’ll find special dates that help you create activity packages and content for your website, webshop, emails and social media in time.

Also, learn more about data-driven decision making in our free ebook and get more bookings.