Lewtrenchard Manor is a family run 14 bed hotel, located on the edge of Dartmoor, Devon.
When Lewtrenchard approached Daneswood, their occupancy rate was at 55%, rising to 70% during the summer months. They wanted to increase this to above 60% all year round.
The Manor already had a good market share and sustainable conversions, however they wanted to build on this.
They came to us in the January of 2019 with the goal of increasing conversions whilst retaining and improving their market share.
By driving more targeted visits to the website through monthly newsletters, they would be able to increase their bookings from returning visitors and grow their market share further.
Our Recommendation
Lewtrenchard were already sending email newsletters to a database of subscribers they collected through their website when they started working with us. These were being sent on an irregular bases, on average one email every four to eight weeks.
We recommended that they increased this frequency to a regular once a month email which would enable them to build customer trust, as well as serving seasonal offers and upgrades which would lead to direct bookings.
As part of this ongoing work we would also evaluate their Google Analytics and conversion tracking across their website to ensure every action was being tracked in Analytics and their booking system was linked correctly so we could monitor and track ROI.
Action / Next Steps
Our first step was to link Lewntrenchard’s Mailchimp account with our management account so that we could ensure this was set up correctly and they were utilising all the features Mailchimp offers.
This also included optimising the existing email template so this was working harder to increase sales and conversions from emails moving forward. We also checked all of the integrations, like Google Analytics, were in place and set up correctly.
In addition to the Google Analytics tracking integration we also used Campaign URLs to track each individual email in Google Analytics so we could track and understand user behaviour, conversions and ROI for individual emails.
Lewtrenchard’s monthly emails follow a similar pattern each month, we include a selection of their special events, offers and information about their breaks. All of this is discussed with the client to ensure we’re filling the right gaps in their bookings and their email marketing is working cohesively with the rest of their marketing.
As a best practise, our team resend emails to anyone who doesn’t open the first email. After analysing historical data and industry trends our team can understand and implement the best time of the day and day of the week to send emails and resends for the highest open and click-through rates.
Ongoing, we managed Lewtrenchard’s email marketing to ensure their clients are receiving regular updates from our client and the Manor is at the forefront of their mind whenever they’re looking to book a meal or a break away.
We continued to work on Lewtrenchard Manor throughout Covid-19 and in the months after the UK restrictions, we saw record breaking numbers of bookings and interest for the Manor. This goes to show that marketing throughout tough situations pays off.
Results / Stats
Our client’s goals were to increase bookings, build customer trust and increase awareness of the events happening at the hotel. We track email opens, clicks and then conversions on the website including bookings, form submissions and phone calls.
Lewtrenchard Manor have dynamic call tracking which ensures we can accurately track their full ROI and attribute any phone bookings to the correct source.
Since we started working on their email marketing campaign, on average we have increased their opens by 20.65%.
The click-through rate has increased by an average of 9.99% since we started work on the campaign.
In this time the email database has grown so the number of people who are seeing the emails has also expanded. Throughout this time the unsubscribes have been kept to a minimum and stayed below the industry average for every email.
Comparing 2021 to 2020, bookings and conversions through email marketing increased by 268.52% and the average order value increased by 6.93%. We have continued building Lewtrenchard’s success in more recent years with a new website and SEO work to build their rankings and Organic traffic and leads through the site too.