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Winning the holiday rush: Breaking through the BFCM inbox | A Revinate webinar
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In this strategic Hotel Moment webinar, three Revinate experts come together to tackle the biggest challenge facing hotels during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Travel Tuesday: how to stand out in the crowded holiday inbox and ensure your campaigns actually reach guests. With deep experience in both hospitality technology and customer-driven marketing, Anisha, Melissa and Freya break down the essentials of email deliverability, strategic campaign planning, and innovative new tools for hotels looking to maximize their holiday performance.
What you'll learn:
- Email deliverability fundamentals: How authentication protocols—SPF, DKIM, and DMARC—are now mandatory for inbox placement across Gmail, Yahoo, Apple, and Microsoft, and the consequences hotels face for non-compliance.
- Sender reputation management: Why consistent sender identity and monitoring with Google Postmaster are vital to keeping your communications out of spam folders, especially during high-volume holiday sending.
- Segmentation tactics for higher revenue: The direct link between using four to seven targeted guest filters and generating up to 4x more direct revenue and 2x higher engagement, illustrated with examples from Revinate’s own customer data.
- List hygiene best practices: Golden rules such as never purchasing contact lists, maintaining proof of opt-in for GDPR compliance, and using double opt-in to reduce spam complaints and improve deliverability.
- Peak and post-peak strategy: When and how to start teasing holiday campaigns (hint: October is ideal), plus actionable re-engagement and nurture strategies to convert warm leads and past guests well after Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
- Personalization at scale: Leveraging booking history, spend thresholds, survey NPS, and point-of-sale data to personalize offers—from high-value packages to spa or restaurant deals—mapped out in Revinate's segmentation tool.
- Leveraging cutting-edge tools: How hoteliers can now use AI-powered headline, text, and image generation, embedded countdown timers (which boost click-through rates by 65%), and enhanced inbox previews to streamline campaign creation and optimize email engagement.
- Creating urgency and exclusivity: Proven tactics like early-access offers, time-limited deals, and subject line strategies that consistently increase direct bookings during the holidays.
- Surprising social proof and experiences: Examples of hotels using awards and guest reviews in subject lines, and why selling experiences—not just rooms—drives greater conversion, including restaurant, golf, and wellness offerings.
Beyond deliverability and email strategy, Melissa, Freya, Anisha, and Brenna also touch on measuring engagement trends, optimizing suppression windows, and capturing lessons learned for future campaigns. You’ll walk away with a robust, actionable toolkit for navigating holiday marketing—with plenty of insight into what actually works for hospitality properties worldwide.
Links mentioned in show:
- Revinate inspirations page
- Direct booking mastery certification program
- Black Friday/Cyber Monday Landing Page
- BFCM webinar series
- Why hoteliers need to master email deliverability
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review it on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Instructions on how to do this are here.
Connect with Anisha Yadav here:
Connect with Melissa Hsu here:
Connect with Freya Craig here:
Follow the podcast here:
Episode Highlights:
[00:04] Deliverability is no longer optional – Melissa outlines the new industry landscape for hotel email marketing: "Microsoft has now joined Gmail, Yahoo and Apple in requiring them. So I want to reiterate here, authentication is no longer optional. It's an industry requirement for inbox placement." This sets the stage for why every hotel marketer must address technical compliance to reach guests.
[00:07] Clean lists drive revenue and engagement – Melissa breaks down the critical rules of list hygiene: "Never purchase contact lists. Not only is it a poor practice, but it also violates GDPR regulations. Using purchase lists exposes you to legal risks, potential fines, and can severely harm your email strategy in the long term." Maintaining a healthy database is foundational for both compliance and campaign success.
[00:13] Personalization multiplies performance – Anisha reveals data-backed outcomes of granular segmentation: "So what we've seen with our study is the more segmentation filters that you add, so say in the range of between four to seven, we are seeing higher conversion in terms of direct revenue. So about 4x more revenue and about 2x more engagement with these segmented campaigns." This highlights how targeted messaging can dramatically boost ROI.
[00:18] Post-holiday nurturing turns interest into bookings – Freya shares proven strategies for maintaining momentum after the holiday rush: "So these follow ups are really important to help convert those almost bookers and re-engage past guests to drive more revenue." Nurture emails and personalized reminders ensure hotels keep their brand top-of-mind and maximize campaign value.
[00:21] Small content improvements, big operational wins – Freya introduces new Revinate Marketing tools designed for efficiency and quality: "We've added a content audit to the email composer so this will flag any missing links, any empty CTA's images without alt text before their campaign goes out. So it really helps you catch those mistakes early and protect your brand and keep it looking polished." These upgrades empower hoteliers to run professional, high-impact campaigns at scale.
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
00:58 - The impact of deliverability on holiday campaigns
02:20 - Webinar overview and guest introductions
04:13 - Foundations for email deliverability success
07:24 - Sender reputation and authentication protocols explained
09:23 - Best practices for maintaining list hygiene
10:56 - Practical segmentation strategies for hotel email marketing
13:01 - Using guest behavior and spend data for campaigns
14:47 - Planning timelines for Black Friday and Cyber Monday
16:38 - Post-holiday campaign nurturing strategies
18:19 - New AI and design tools in Revinate Marketing
21:39 - Top performing tactics for seasonal hotel emails
24:56 - Key takeaways and closing thoughts
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here.
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so
Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.
Are you a hospitality industry leader with insights to share? We're always looking for innovative voices to join our conversation about the future of hospitality technology.
If you'd like to be a guest on an upcoming episode of Hotel Moment, we'd love to hear from you! Our podcast reaches thousands of hospitality professionals worldwide, and we're particularly interested in perspectives on:
- Innovation in hospitality technology
- Guest experience transformation
- Revenue optimization strategies
- Emerging industry trends
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