Email marketing that fills the diary before the snow falls
Email drove a 671% increase in pre-season sales, year on year, for one rental store we work with. Your past customers already know you, already trust you, and are already planning this winter's trip. Email them before the snow falls and the season starts in profit, not hope.
This is the strongest story we have in ski and snowboard rental marketing. A simple eight-word subject line, "Are you coming back to [location] this winter?", got a 49.79% open rate to a list of 51,257 past customers. No gimmicks, no discounting panic. Just the right question at the right time to people who already rent from you.
The revenue follows fast. One email brought in $26,850 in a few days. In a deal-closing week we sent two emails that each brought in over $26,000. The stores that win fill the diary pre-season while everyone else waits for walk-ins, and email is the engine that does it.
The booking engine that fills the diary before the lifts open
A five-email pre-season sequence brought in NZ$68,249 for a New Zealand store, most of that season's pre-season revenue, with a sprinkling of Google Ads on top. That is the shape of a good rental season: the diary fills before the snow falls, and opening day starts in profit rather than hope.
The engine has three parts, and none of them is complicated:
- A pre-season sequence timed before the snow falls, when past customers are booking flights and accommodation.
- Deal-closing sends when an offer is about to end. One email brought in $26,850 in a few days. In a single deal-closing week, two emails each brought in over $26,000.
- Advance sales for next season. The best time to sell next winter is while this one is still fresh in your customer's mind.
Reactivation is cheaper than acquisition, so talk to the people who know you
Reactivating a past customer is usually cheaper than winning a new one, and rental customers come back to the mountain year after year. That is why an eight-word subject line, "Are you coming back to [location] this winter?", opened at 49.79% across 51,257 past customers. It is a question they were already asking themselves.
Send information as well as offers. What new bars, restaurants or activities have opened in resort since last season? Your customers plan whole trips around that, and the store that tells them becomes part of the trip. And remember that email works beyond the click: someone who walks in your door this winter may have seen your email without you ever knowing.
List hygiene and domain reputation, the unglamorous bit that protects everything
None of the results above happen if your emails do not reach the inbox. Old addresses cause bounces and spam warnings, so clean your list with a third-party verification service before any big send. For one store we cleaned around 27,000 dead addresses off a list of 80,000. That is a third of the list that would otherwise have been quietly wrecking deliverability.
Domain and DNS setup, DMARC and the rest, is now required by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and getting it wrong damages your business domain, not just your marketing. Then track every email with UTM parameters so you know exactly which email drove which revenue. It all shows up in GA4 alongside your conversion tracking, so you can see the sequence paying for the season.
Email marketing for ski rental, answered
Won't emailing annoy our past customers?
One store owner we work with was wary of "blasting someone's inbox". Then a single email brought in $27,500 and changed their mind. The difference is what you send: a question like "are you coming back this winter?", or news about what has opened in resort, is useful to someone planning a ski trip. That is not spam, it is service. Annoyance comes from irrelevant sends to people who never asked, which is exactly what list hygiene prevents.
How big does my list need to be?
The biggest list we send to is 51,257 past customers, but yours does not need to be anywhere near that. Every name on your list is someone who has already rented from you, and reactivating a past customer is usually cheaper than winning a new one. The mechanics are identical at any size: revenue scales with the list, so the real answer is to start capturing every customer email now and let the list compound season after season.
What do we send between deals?
Information, not just offers. What new bars, restaurants or activities have opened in resort since last season? What has changed on the mountain? Your customers are planning a whole holiday, not just a rental, and the store that helps them plan it stays front of mind when it is time to book. Then when the pre-season deal does arrive, it is one message in a relationship rather than a cold pitch.
Is email still worth it compared to ads?
Email drove a 671% year-on-year increase in pre-season sales for one store, and a five-email sequence brought in NZ$68,249 with only a sprinkling of Google Ads on top. Ads win new customers, email brings back the ones you already paid to win, and the two work best together as part of a full ski and snowboard rental marketing plan. If you want to see what that looks like for your store, book a growth plan session.
How do you protect our domain reputation?
Two ways. First, list hygiene: we clean your list with a third-party verification service before big sends, so dead addresses do not trigger bounces and spam warnings. In one case that meant removing around 27,000 addresses from a list of 80,000. Second, domain and DNS setup: DMARC and the related records are now required by Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and getting them wrong damages your business domain itself, not just your newsletters. We set both up before a single email goes out.
Book a Growth Plan Session and we will look at your list, your season and your offers, then show you where email can fill the diary before the snow falls. Straight advice, whether or not we work together afterwards.
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