Hello. Welcome back to another great episode. My name is Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are.

Thanks For Visiting. Let's start this episode like we do each and every week, and that is celebrating one of you, our incredible listeners who are heading on over to strshare.com, sharing everything you can about your short-term rentals so we can celebrate you here on the podcast. Annette, who are we sharing this week?

This week we are sharing @pond_and_perch. Again, @pond_and_perch, which I love that name by the way. Everyone, I want you to please check them out. Alright? They're photos. They've done a really great job on their account of weaving in still photos, video, uh, they're dog friendly, so weaving that all the way throughout the theme. They've just done a really good job of great pictures, video and then what their amenities are. One thing that I wanna share is I got really excited. They kept, um, repeating a theme of a place for everything and everything in its place. And they would show outside, they have a place for like your boots and you can rinse 'em off. Inside they had a lot of hooks. And again, I think we. All want to try to recreate content over and over again. Repurpose, repurpose, repurpose. Even here, they're repurposing a statement and showing those places around the house, a place for everything and everything in its place. They kept repeating, you know, the dog friendly photos or videos. You've got to keep reminding people and do yourself a favor, hosts. You don't have to reinvent the content. People forget they, you know, you, you are busy. So make sure that you're repurposing your content, something that you used and it was a big hit. Use it again. And then last but not least, they have this really cool merch. They call it perch merch, and it has a dog on it. So if you're listening pond and perch, I really want this, um, perch merch, this beanie. So cute. But again, just really well done. And their, their big call to action is they are dog friendly and they are, they are on the water and they just keep repeating that over and over again. So thanks for using STR share.

They just really drive home their brand. And their mission, which I really love it 'cause I'll remember that as, Okay that is what Pond and Purge is all about. Mm-hmm. And that's just more memorable. Alright. Today we're gonna get a little deeper into marketing and taking marketing. Into our own hands as hosts, because you guys spend so much time and money on optimizing your listings, on the OTAs, on Airbnb, on vrbo, but it's high time. We spend that time and some of those funds on collecting emails from our guests and communicating with them between stays.

And we have just heard, we continue to hear almost on a daily basis. How you have all been collecting emails potentially for years and have never sent out that first email. So we wanna jumpstart you. We are gonna give you these ideas that can be repeated over and over and over again month after month. We're gonna spoonfeed you how you can start doing this literally this week.

So we're gonna share five guest email ideas that you can copy, tweak, and hit send on. There is no excuse.

Before we dig into all the ideas, we want to start with the why. Why are we sending emails in the first place? Because when your why is strong, you're gonna take action, right? So let's dig in. Your email list is your best, your very best chance at creating repeat loyal guests who book direct and skip the platforms. I hope you're getting excited because you own the relationship, not Airbnb, not vrbo. Email gives you control over your brand, your pricing, your policies, and all of your guest communication. And if you are building a direct booking site, which you should be, and collecting emails, use them people gave them to you for a reason. Don't let your lists sit there and get cold. Alright. Email helps you stay top of mind. You can nurture, trust, drive bookings on your terms. And that though all of those direct bookings, they start with direct communication.

Let's talk about basic email etiquette for hosts. One thing people forget to do is to introduce themself and to reintroduce themself point. Point here with all of our, our YouTube videos that we put on, or our podcast episodes that we share. Annette and I introduce ourselves at the beginning of each one because we are not sure if someone's new to us, or maybe you haven't yet committed to watching our channel or listening to our podcast consistently.

Someone just straight up forgot about you.

Just forgets.

Forgot who you are. We're busy, busy people, right?

Right. Like there are so many things pulling your attention in different directions. So. You're never. I feel like host feel might feel like, well, they should know who I am, or I've already said who I am. No one remembers.

Hey, they slept in my bed and sat on my toilet. They should know who I am.

And they don't. They just don't. So make sure with every email that you send out, reintroduce yourself and your property every single time. Okay? So you're just one email and a sea of inbox noise.

And this doesn't have to be a long, you know, four paragraphs of who you are, but just this is something you can repeat over and over again, you know? Who you are and where your property is located. Most importantly, again, reacquainting them with who you are is having a clear call to action. What do you want them to do in this email? And you don't wanna have several of them.

No one, one CTA is best.

Do you want them to come check out your website? Do you want them to use a discount code that you have? Do you want them to book an open weekend? Do you want them to bookmark your property? Do you, um, you know, do you want them to know about something going on in your area? So if your email has no purpose or action, it really is just noise. So again, don't get overwhelmed here. You only want one clear call to action in each email. Email idea number one. This is the newsletter and what we love about this one, you can repeat this one over and over and over again. We actually encourage you to, consistency is what matters here. And you get to choose the frequency. Do you wanna do it weekly? Do you wanna do it monthly? Do you wanna do it quarterly? Okay. Probably not a a weekly newsletter. We'll wanna put other things in there, but seriously, do not overthink this. Okay. And what you should be really excited about is this can do, you can have the same layout every single time, right? So this is one of those emails. You create it once, you have to refresh some of the content, but it's really. One time of the creation. So again, you wanna have that friendly intro, who you are, what the email's gonna be about. We like to do a local spotlight, so that can be an event, that can be a restaurant, that could be something seasonally that's going on. Maybe there's a festival, maybe there's a sporting event, a concert. But again, spotlight something local and that helps just overall, you know, other folks in your community. And then you wanna have a call to action. So is it, uh, you know, book with a certain code? Do you want them to browse your website? Do you want them to refer a friend? This email is gonna keep you top of mind without being pushy and just keeping them in the loop on what's going on.

I really like this idea. I was just like going over it again with Annette before we are sharing this with you, and I was like, this is such a cute idea. It's the guide style Tips email. Okay. So for example, Annette and I operate in Columbus, Ohio, and of course it's the home of the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Go bucks. Let's go.

So the example could be the perfect game day in Columbus. Where you should get coffee in the morning, where you should tailgate before the game, where you should watch the game, maybe what to eat after the game and celebrate the big win, right? Super helpful, fun and shows your local expertise. But of course, you want to end with a call to action. That makes sense, right? Book your game weekend now and here's our site, or here's how to do it, or here's a special code, football, you know, whatever it is to make that email fun, but you're providing value.

Mm-hmm.

And it's kind of like, and that you said this earlier, like a listicle.

Mm-hmm.

Meaning like you're listing off of all the fun stuff that you can do. You're promoting your local community and local small business owners. And it gets them, like, it puts them in that day of, oh, I can picture myself. It's a crisp fall day. I'm getting that coffee, I'm going to that tailgate. It's so fun. Yes. I should book this.

And what we love about everything that we're gonna go through today is that. We always love to multipurpose our content. Okay? So like this guide style tips, these could be things that you could add to, to your guidebook in your, in your property. Okay? So this isn't a one and done. Send this email and guess what? You can resend something like this. Once a year. So if you did a guide style once a month, I think we could all find 12 things.

Yes.

That um, would be maybe it's best brunch places, maybe it's best coffee shops, books, or you could do all these listicles slash guides. You could do one a month also, again, consistency. And the next part I wanna do not just your guidebook. So again, if we wanna squeeze more juice outta this content, this is where on your direct booking site, you could do your own blogs. All right. And then let's take it one more, one more level is this is how you could create content around this. You could do a, um, you could do a reel. You could do a carousel post with all of this. You could do a TikTok, you could do LinkedIn, Facebook, it goes Pinterest, it goes on and on. So I really want you to open up your marketing brain and think, if I'm gonna spend time creating this. How can I continue to use it over and over again to reach more potential guests?

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All right. Email idea number three, last minute availability blast. So like the subject line, could be last minute deal. This weekend, 40% off. It creates urgency and helps you clear up your calendar right, get it booked. Let them know it's rare. And it's first come, first serve. So the call to action could be book now before it's gone.

And I want you to, you know, we are very much teach, we do not want you to panic price, and drop your pricing. But this is why these last minute quote unquote deals, a couple of things. Number one, these are repeat guests and hopefully everybody on your email list are people that have, you've had an amazing experience with at your home. Okay? So you have peace of mind here, which is priceless. All right. Number two is that if you are booking them off of the OTA, you aren't paying that increased fee. You know, might be up to 15.5 or higher percentage. Okay? So you're saving that. And then also, these are people that you are creating loyalty with, so you want to incentivize them. So this is one of those things we would much rather give a deal to a repeat guest versus some stranger, um, you know, that might not ever come back. We like to reward. our repeat guest. Okay, so that's why, you know, it's not that we're just, you know, panic dropping the pricing. We're actually rewarding past stays, okay? And we actually want you to try this before just going on and lowering your prices elsewhere, because again, you're creating loyal repeat guests.

Well, on top of that, the online travel agencies. Like Airbnb, vrbo, booking.com, they charge you for those guests. So you're paying that host fee on those platforms. So 40% or 30% or whatever that discount you give on your direct booking offer is still going to be much more money in your pocket or to your business, to your direct guests than it would be on the OT platforms too.

Email idea number four is a new amenity alert or maybe even a new listing alert.

Woo-hoo.

Alright? So this is that announcement. Um, we just launched a brand new stay, or we just brought in a brand new sauna, you know, a brand new game, room, whatever that might be. Get excited about it, share it. You know, I, all of us, I'm sure are on some sort of, uh, commerce email list, and when they have new products dropping, they're announcing it, right? So why can't we? So that is something that's very, very simple to do. So if you ever have a new amenity that you've invested a lot of time and energy in, let the folks know and that new property. Let them also know about that if, whichever one that you might have up your sleeve.

And I was even a think Annette. Like even if it, you didn't spend a lot of money on it, I could. There's a fun way.

Yes.

To write an email. Maybe you upgraded your coffee maker or you got an additional, additional coffee maker. Maybe you got an espresso machine.

Mm-hmm.

And you're like, hey, you stayed with us before and you, you loved our coffee machine, or you loved our coffee setup and now it's gotten even better. And then you give them a little recipe or a little how to make that, uh, cappuccino in the morning so it doesn't even, or you got new sheets and this time you leveled up to, I mean, the possibilities really are endless. It doesn't have to be. A whole new property or a giant amenity addition. It can be, but I just like that idea of having fun with the small things too, that you add to the property that would enhance their trip. So let's talk about like different call to actions in it. That can put in the email.

Like maybe the, you wanna incentivize the first 10 people that take you up on trying out the new amenity or the new property. So you could say the first 10 get 20% off. That way there's a real, it's a call to action plus a sense of urgency. Ooh. Um, maybe you ask them to, you know, bookmark your property for their next trip. There's just so many things that you can do here. You can even. Uh, one CTA that I think gets is underutilized, is reply to this email. If there's amenity, you want us to buy, like you can ask for replies, and then if you have someone replying to you, that's a super hot, juicy lead there.

Not only that Annette, but, i'll get a little technical here, if they reply to your email, that also shows the email service provider and the interwebs that that person you're emailing trusts you.

Right.

And they like you and they're replying to you. Right. The last thing we want is for someone to mark us a spam or something, so if they're replying and having a conversation with you, it's really good email, juju.

And the other part, as we're going through all of these email ideas. Please remember they can unsubscribe.

Yeah.

We hear so many times that hosts are like, I don't wanna bother people. I don't want to email too much. It is so easy to just click unsubscribe. You need, you do need to make it very, very easy for someone to unsubscribe.

You want to make it easy.

You want to make it easy. So like, make sure that that is a one click. Super easy for them to do. But do, if they have asked to be added to your email list, they wanna hear from you.

All right. Email idea number five, memorable guest experience. Share a glowing guest review or a sweet surprise moment. Remind people of what it feels like to stay with you. And I've seen hosts do we, so, um, obviously on our, on our podcast, we do STR share. Um, where we share other short-term rentals. So if you wanna go to strshare.com, share your short-term rental, we could shout you out on the podcast, but one of the STR shares we did, they are pet friendly and they love being pet friendly. And so they encourage their guest to send them a picture of them and their furry friend. And it's so cute 'cause then on their social media, they share these photos. They can email these photos out and say, you know. You and your furry friend, we miss you here. Come and play in the pond or take a walk on our trails, whatever that is, it's so people love to see themselves in, in the world of your property. They really do. So your call to action could be ready to book your own state. Let's make it happen. Or get specific about what they do at your property and what makes it so special.

Here's a bonus email idea for you. Survey your list. Ask them. What amenity do they wanna see? What type of trip are they planning next? This just builds that engagement, that trust. You might even ask them how often they wanna hear from you, but a survey email, you wanna make it quick though. You don't wanna ask like 15 questions. It'll be like one or two. Okay. And really get that feedback. Like Sarah said, you wanna build that trust with your, with your, with your list. And I, I hate, it's one of those things, like even calling it your list. It is truly your guest database. Okay? So I want you to think, instead of sending out an email blast, I want you to think about, this is a digital letter, writing your pre- past guests about what's going on in your world. So I think if you just kind of reframe that of like. What's that handwritten letter like? We don't do those as much anymore, but this is your digital chance to connect with your guest that has already stayed with you. So I think that kind of just like relaxes you. It makes you feel excited to think about these ideas. And last but not least, please use your friend chat GPT. If you're getting writer's block or you don't know what to say, this is a really great way to use AI to help. We've got, we've helped you with all of these ideas. Now if you wanna use a little bit of AI, but you have no excuse right now, that you should not be reconnecting with your past guests.

All right, so don't let your email list collect dust. These five emails can keep guests engaged and get more direct bookings without sand sounding. Spammy or salesy. Salesy?

Salesy.

Salesy. I like that.

I like salesy too.

With that, I am Sarah Karakaian.

I'm Annette Grant, and together we are. Thanks for Visiting.

Talk to you next time.