La Quinta Increases ROI by Over 100 Percent
with Welcome Email Strategy
LQ Management, LLC is one of the largest operators of limited-service hotels in the United States, with over 65,000 rooms. Based in Dallas, Texas, with 9,000 employees nationwide, La Quinta operates and provides franchise services to more than 650 hotels in the U.S., Canada and Mexico under La Quinta Inns and La Quinta Inns & Suites brands. Email is a key component of their communication strategy to reach past guests and acquire new guests.
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Results: More Engagement, Less Maintenance, Higher ROI |
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• The welcome letters increased ROI by over 100% compared to regular marketing emails, and the streams have not been touched since their implementation.
• Open rates and conversions are very high for subscribers who opted in on LQ.com.
• Open rates and conversions are lower for the past guest subscribers. This is due to the fact that people opting in at LQ.com are in a more "shop ready" state of mind than past guest recipients, as the past guest subscribers are being emailed because they recently stayed at La Quinta.
• Both emails have gleaned the same amount of revenue, in spite of the fact that the sending quantities are very different and subscribers are in different stages of the consumer lifecycle. |
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Messaging Lag Time Causes Revenue Gaps
About a week passed between the time when a subscriber initially signed up to receive emails from La Quinta and when their first message actually arrived. That meant that there was no communication from the brand during a critical period when staying at a La Quinta hotel was top of mind. It also meant that there was a gap where LQ Management could potentially be capturing more revenue.
A New, More Immediate Revenue Channel
La Quinta needed a more immediate way to communicate to two separate types of incoming signups: A welcome email to those who signed up on LQ.com and another welcome email directed towards recent past guests.
As the first email new subscribers would receive, the goal of both welcome emails was to deliver a softer sell rather than a hard-hitting marketing message. The email gave La Quinta the opportunity to tell the subscriber more about La Quinta's overall email program and reinforce brand awareness while still encouraging them to stay at a La Quinta property.
BlueHornet Smart Lists™ and Recurring Messages
La Quinta used the recurring message feature to send separate and more targeted emails to the two different audiences - LQ.com signups and "past guest" signups. The team at BlueHornet created Smart Lists tied to two recurring messages so that the welcome letters would send based on the most current data streaming into BlueHornet from La Quinta's custom signup page and API calls from a third-party data partner. |
