The Off-Season Newsletter for a Tourism Business

The newsletter that stops in October

A kayak outfitter sends a newsletter every two weeks all summer: tide tables, new routes, photographs from the week's trips. The last one goes out in October, announcing the end of the season.

The next arrives in May, saying the season has started. By then many past guests have booked their summer, some with the outfitter down the coast, and a few no longer remember subscribing.

For seven months, the one channel that reaches people who already know the business said nothing at all.

Next summer is planned in winter

Families fix holidays early in the year, once work schedules are set. Groups and clubs plan further ahead, and anglers often book a lodge for the same week year after year.

Those decisions happen at kitchen tables in January and February, while the business is closed. The operator who arrives in the inbox then is part of the conversation.

Past guests are the easiest bookings of all. They know the place and the people, and they need only a reason and a date.

What to send while closed

An off-season newsletter has plenty to say, as long as it is written for people planning rather than people on the dock:

• Next season's dates, opening day and any fixed trips or events.
• Early booking, with what it gets a guest: first choice of dates or rooms.
• Gift certificates, for birthdays and occasions through the winter.
• A story from the season, told with photographs and names, by permission.
• What is changing, such as a new route, boat or cabin.
• The off-season itself: repairs, scouting, the place under snow.

The first is the one guests act on. A date gives them something to put in a calendar, and the rest gives them a reason to choose it.

How often to send

Once a month suits most seasonal businesses through the winter. It is often enough to stay familiar and rare enough that each issue has something new.

A gap of three or four months lets the list go cold. Readers forget why they subscribed, and some report the next email as spam rather than unsubscribe.

Weekly emails in winter wear the list out, because there is rarely enough news to fill them.

A story, not a sales letter

Not every issue should sell. A short story from the season, a guest's first sighting of orcas or the crew rebuilding a dock, reminds readers why they came without asking them for anything.

Ask permission before naming guests or using their photographs, and keep the story short: a few paragraphs and one good picture.

The selling can sit underneath it in a line or two, with the dates and a link to book, so readers who are ready can act.

A worked example

A family vineyard in the Okanagan has a tasting room, a picnic lawn and long-table dinners among the vines, all open from May to October. Wine sells online all year.

Its newsletter went out weekly in summer to visitors who had signed up in the tasting room. In November it stopped, and the next issue was planned for the spring.

In earlier years the spring issue had drawn a wave of unsubscribes and a few spam complaints. People had forgotten the vineyard, or forgotten signing up.

The winter plan is now one letter a month. January carries next season's dinner dates and opening day; February a story from harvest; March what is new on the property; April the details for opening weekend.

Gift certificates for the dinners went out in late November, in time for Christmas, and appear again in February.

Readers hear the dates while they are planning their summer, and the vineyard arrives in May as a familiar name rather than a stranger.

Keeping the list current while closed

Winter is a good time to tidy the list. Remove addresses that bounce, and make sure every unsubscribe from the summer was honoured.

Add guests who gave their address on a paper sign-up sheet but were never entered, if the sheet said what they were signing up for.

And check the sign-up form on the website still works and still sends its welcome email. Forms often break unnoticed when nobody expects messages for months.

Consent through the winter

Under Canada's anti-spam law, a guest who bought from you can be emailed on an implied basis, which generally lasts two years from the purchase. A transition period applies to relationships that existed before July.

Guests who subscribed on your website or in person have given express consent, which does not expire. Record when and how each address joined, so the list can be sorted by basis.

Treat this as a general outline of the consent rules rather than legal advice on your own mailing list.

Planning the winter now

Write the winter's topics down now: one line per month, with the date each issue goes out. Keeping to a plan is far easier than starting from nothing each month.

Draft two issues ahead while the season is fresh. Photographs and stories from August are easier to find now than in March.

Keep each issue brief, something a reader can finish on a phone while the kettle boils: one story, one date, one link.

The counter-case

A lodge booked solid every year by returning guests, with a waiting list, has less to gain from a winter newsletter. Its guests rebook before they leave.

Some businesses draw mostly one-time visitors from far away, who are unlikely to return whatever arrives in their inbox, though some will still send friends.

For both, a short note with next season's dates keeps the relationship warm and the list clean, at the cost of an hour a month.

A winter of letters

1. Write down one topic for each month until opening.
2. Announce next season's dates in the first issue.
3. Explain early booking and what it gets a guest.
4. Offer gift certificates before the winter occasions.
5. Tell one story from the season, with permission.
6. Clean the list of bounces and unsubscribes.
7. Check the sign-up form still delivers.

Step two is the issue that earns the rest. Guests planning their summer need a date first, and every later letter builds on it.

The reviews that winter planners read before booking deserve answers too, and last summer's reviews read in the middle of winter shows how to write them.

Frequently asked questions

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