This week, I’m hoping to give you a reason to refocus your efforts on email with a few, awesome examples of email campaigns. Between subscribing to every new clients list at Ryan Solutions and having a tough time ignoring email boxes on resort websites, here are some of the campaigns that I’ve grown to love since I started my journey in the ski industry.

When I went to NSAA West at Snowbird last year, the woman at the front desk was, without a doubt, the best I’ve ever encountered. Helpful but not overbearing, polite but confident and knowledgeable. She had my key, parking pass, and directions to the nearest viddles in my hand in record time and with an honestly sincere tone and smile.

On the flip side, most check-in processes are usually too brief – “wait, where exactly is my room” – or too long – “were you the Director of Upselling at GoDaddy before this job?” Here’s one solution I’ve seen a few times now thanks to our good friend email.

I’m Here, Now What
One of the things I’d love to do in a future week on SlopeFillers is analyze how resorts use in-resort signage to direct skiers around to possible revenue opportunities. In the meantime, a perfect digital companion to that is an email that arrives about the same time the guest does.

The best campaigns I’ve seen cover things like:

• Recommended restaurants and tips on reservations / apres
• Events and activities that most guests don’t normally discover during their stay
• Advice on runs or lifts to try first thing in the morning / later in the day

And then there’s some stuff I haven’t seen covered that I think would be awesome.

• Where you can find free wi-fi or dead zones where there’s no cell coverage
• Tips on where/when to take a great family photo

The guest is already there, you’ve got a unique channel where you can personalize a message, their wallet is open, tell them how to have an awesome time.

For Example
How often do you see tweets like this?

Who loves s'mores? Come by the Stables tonight at 5pm for our free Campfire Social! We'll be serving up yummy #naturevalley s'mores

— Keystone Resort (@KeystoneMtn) August 14, 2013

The answer, from a guy that watches pretty much all of your tweets, is fairly often. I hope that these tweets are a companion to email being sent directly to everyone that is at the resort right now.

Very, very few of your guests will see your tweets today. On the flip side, almost all have an email address in your database.

The Gist
Again, the keyword here would be DURING.

Now, I don’t have access to email stats for other resorts that send these, but in terms of Ryan Solutions clients, their results showed pretty clearly that people do in fact open emails from a resort while on vacation or skiing.

They’re listening, they’re here, and they’re looking for a great trip. Use email to help make that happen.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.