Email marketing for restaurants: retain your customers with the best tips.
If you own a restaurant, you must have an apparent objective: to stand out from the competition.
How to do it? Today, digital marketing is the key to making our business values, giving us a tool we cannot miss out on.
I’m talking about email marketing, which can bring in new customers.
Also Read: Email For Marketing Example
Table of Contents
Email Marketing For Restaurants
You may maintain repeat business from your devoted clients by using email marketing.
You must now consider integrating this technology into your marketing strategy.
I will outline how to use email to promote your restaurant in this piece effectively.
What should restaurants do to benefit from the efficiency, profitability, and efficacy of email marketing campaigns?
The following are the initial actions that any restaurant should do to set up a fruitful email marketing program:
1. Contact List Creation And Growth
Every email marketing program begins by building a contact list organically and naturally.
We must have patience and realize that the important thing is the quality of the contacts, not the quantity.
Buying an email list is a big mistake and a lousy start.
It is also essential that you obtain the permission of these contacts to send them the emails.
Without that permission, you will become spammers.
You can start collecting addresses organically and with authorization in the following ways:
The first step is to have a subscription form on the restaurant’s website to receive offers, promotions, and news.
Ideally, this form would be visible on all screens online.
2. Building a Relationship
You can keep a closer relationship with your consumers by delivering an email campaign to them about your business.
You can also use this medium to update your customers about your business.
Your new menus can be seen.
You may also provide promos or discounts to entice potential clients to visit your business for the first time.
However, a thank-you note is also necessary. Thank the patrons who have come to your restaurant, and you’ll see how this can enhance the value of your brand.
3. Create Promotion
A promotional newsletter for restaurants is an excellent option.
Its operation is comprehensive because you can share information about your company and great offers for your readers.
Here are some suggestions that will help you make your newsletter stand out:
- Share tips for preparing quick meals.
- Add exclusive recipes.
- Send menu updates.
- Show off the chef’s specials.
- Take advantage and tell the story of your restaurant.
- Introduce team members.
4. Make an Event And Invite Your Subscribers
It is typical to have parties or gatherings frequently in restaurants.
Some examples of these events include the restaurant anniversary or the happy new year party.
The activities you host at your restaurant should be known to your subscribers so they may come.
Consequently, your event invitation newsletter will play a significant role in the success of the event you worked so hard to plan.
Email marketing will be a fantastic tool for informing and promoting your special occasions to customers.
5. Segment Your List Of Subscribers
Not all emails will have been obtained in the same way.
If, for example, you have an online ordering service, those emails must go to the “Online Order Subscribers” list.
In this way, when you send emails, you can only send them to a certain number of subscribers who may be interested in the offer or the information you add to the email.
I can think of 3 segmentations in a restaurant:
- Customers who have ordered online.
- Customers who left you their email in the form after having eaten at your restaurant.
- Customers who have shown interest in a vegan menu (vegetarian, gluten-free) that you have promoted on your website and Facebook Ads.
6. Offers Tips On Quick Meal Preparation
Informative emails should always provide valuable and useful information.
Nowadays, people don’t even have time to cook.
Proposing a solution to this problem in an email is an example of making your Newsletter subscription more valuable (“Save time with our Express menu” ).
7. Reward Actions
The notion is that if you use email, it will be beneficial.
You might ask your email subscribers to share information about themselves and their favorite things.
Of course, you must consider that many people do not wish to reveal their interests or personal information.
As a result, you can provide a particular promotion in exchange for some data.
As a result, your email marketing campaigns will be more tailored.
8. Provide Recommendations
Customers typically know what they will order from a restaurant’s menu.
So it makes sense that they don’t require help, even though a suggestion wouldn’t hurt.
Start by offering suggestions for your food.
Let’s say, for instance, that a particular vegetable is in season. You can inform your clients about the value of consuming vegetables.
To make your meals stand out more, you may now list them with unique names
Why Use Email Marketing For Restaurants?
By itself, email marketing has relatively high efficiency due to users’ relative ease of accessing their email inbox throughout their daily activities.
In this sense, the advantages that we can rescue from email marketing can be the following:
Increases The Sales Opportunities Of The Business
Customers can receive immediate offers tailored to their tastes, interests, and preferences through email marketing.
In this way, it can be emphasized that email marketing is a tool that works based on personalization.
Improves Client Accessibility
As previously mentioned, email marketing has the advantage of its easy accessibility.
The client enjoys accessing his inbox at any time of the day.
Likewise, he can receive notifications immediately.
Help Build An Image Of Your Restaurant
Email marketing makes it much easier to create and present the image you want customers to have about your restaurant.
Email marketing allows you to promote the image and personality of your restaurant, which tends to improve the relationship building between customers and the restaurant.
Improves Customer Acquisition
According to data from Statista company, email marketing has a considerable impact on small and medium-sized companies that use email marketing.
According to this company, about 81% of these companies use email as their primary channel and means of communication to acquire new customers.
Similarly, 80% of companies use email marketing to retain customers for their business.
Other Benefits Of Email Marketing For Restaurants
- It helps small businesses to plan their marketing strategy in a very effective and easy way.
- They allow creating brand awareness among loyal customers and new customers.
- Emails help build a customer base as people actively sign up for your newsletter updates.
- It makes it easy for small local businesses to compete with larger ones, especially if they get their strategy right.
- They increase customer retention. According to a report, 70% of customers want restaurants to send them coupons and are prepared to use them.
Email Marketing For Restaurants – What Email You Can Send
I will tell you now what you can do about “mailing.” There are many types, but we will review the ones used most often.
Weekly Newsletter
Email is sent weekly with the main purpose: update, specific sections, and others.
I recommend opting for it if continuity can be maintained.
Promotional Email
The star of email marketing.
These are the emails that work best for subscribers. You must consider what you like to see and what emails you open.
For this, it is essential to work with good subjects which are eye-catching and with direct CTAs.
Information About Your Restaurant
Here we include those that deal with any information about the restaurant.
It may already be a new dish, changes in the restaurant, news… But he thinks it must be something of interest.
If it is not useful for users, do not make a newsletter.
After-Sales. Follow Up By Email Marketing For Restaurants?
Yes, it is an excellent option. It can be automated so that after placing an order or a reservation at your restaurant, the next day, the diner receives an email asking them to answer a short satisfaction survey or to add a review to their Google profile.
Customer Maintenance Via Email
I know you have read this headline: “Long time no see!
Here’s a $3.99 gift.” Indeed, it is one of the campaigns that can be worked on to recover those subscribers we have detected that have not purchased through our website for some time.
How To Get More Customers With Email Marketing For Restaurants
The best and quickest way to contact your consumers is via email.
You build trust and brand identity by creating a campaign that allows you to stay in touch with your customers daily, weekly, or monthly.
To ensure transparency, ensure you can keep your end of the bargain by offering special offers or giveaways to your customers.
Otherwise, you will never be able to expand your database. Here are some keys to creating the best strategy:
1. Mobile friendly
To get more customers to my restaurant, I need my design to be responsive.
A mobile-optimized email is an email that displays optimally between phones and desktops.
The best place to start mobile optimization is to have a responsive website design.
According to a Smart Insights study, emails sent by restaurants have a 63% open rate from mobile phones.
Making your emails mobile-friendly is a must. If your emails aren’t mobile-friendly, you miss engaging your audience and getting results.
2. Start Capturing Leads
If I want to get more customers in my restaurant, I must reach them first.
It is essential to get the email addresses of the users. It is crucial to generate a constant flow of new and potential customers, so your establishment always has customers.
You need emails to target your campaign.
An excellent place to capture leads is in your restaurant. Your customers are in the place.
They have experienced your product, they have lived the experience, etc. Ask them for their email in some way.
3. Some Easy Ways To Do It
Use a single-column template: Email templates are the best option due to limited space on a mobile screen. It keeps the email clean and easy to read.
Optimizing subject lines by device type is another best practice in email marketing.
This helps make email more readable and cleaner on those devices.
Include an easy-to-identify call to action (CTA): designing a CTA for desktop or mobile is not the same.
If I want more customers in your restaurant, you would undoubtedly create a call to action (CTA) more designed for mobile devices.
Before sending your email, send it to multiple devices to ensure it works well and looks like you intended.
4. Choose The Best Email Software
Choosing the right software to automate or manage your communications while being flexible at the same time is essential for any restaurant.
This is the first step in building and attracting a customer base, so you must choose the best email marketing software
Some Of The Best Email Marketing Software
Mailchimp
Mailchimp, one of the most popular email marketing platforms for restaurateurs, is a pioneer in automation.
Optimizing your email content for mobile devices is an automatic feature for all customers. You can customize the email using Mailchimp’s creation wizard.
The drag and drop interface, combined with pre-built email templates, makes the whole process much more manageable.
This service provider offers more than 15 pre-built automation workflows, detailed data, and metrics for new refurbished.
Creating segments based on distinct email triggers will work wonders if you already have one or two restaurants.
ConvertKit
ConvertKit’s intuitive design makes it easy to use for small restaurants.
This email marketing service is also excellent for improving location-based conversions, thanks to accurate targeting and subscriber identification.
While ConvertKit only has three email templates, the editor includes some rudimentary responsive features.
However, most of the features of this marketing service are designed for simple procedures rather than expert use.
We enjoy how this provider’s flexible subscription strategy allows you to add or remove certain individuals from workflows.
Another feature that makes this software crucial for newbies is subscription management with an overview of automation.
While there is no free plan, you can use the free trial to try out the service.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is designed for beginners and small organizations.
This software tool allows users to create more than 400 email templates.
The best part about joining Constant Contact is that it provides custom content ideas for companies and businesses based on the industry of your choice.
You can also use the automation tools to create and send emails based on user behavior on this site, such as those interested in events, meals, or menu items.
To enhance their marketing efforts, restaurateurs should take advantage of Constant Contact’s “event” and “survey” features.
Your emails will reach the identified consumer on time, thanks to a high delivery rate of 89 percent.
Also, this service provider offers a 60-day free trial to test your needs.
MailGet
MailGet is another email marketing tool that ensures your emails are delivered on time and through a secure server.
It includes several attractive features a company would want to market and promote its restaurants.
In addition, MailGet provides a series of complementary services. You’ll be able to effortlessly modify these pre-built responsive templates to fit the needs of your marketing campaign.
How To Collect Email Addresses
Here are some ways to collect email.
- Use a subscription form on your restaurant website to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
- Offering a discount coupon so that customers can use it the first time they eat at your restaurant.
- Offering a raffle in which to participate, users must give you their email and leave it inside a cup at the restaurant exit.
- You can collect addresses through signup forms on your website.
- Offer a discount for signing up.
- Additionally, sharing your signup forms on social media platforms is a great way to reach a large audience and get more signups.
The most important point and something you should not miss is permission.
The purpose for which information about them is being disclosed must be made clear to customers.
Sending emails to people who don’t want to receive them or don’t remember registering will damage your restaurant’s image.
Analytics And Monitoring
Email marketing software provides you with robust tracking tools that include data such as:
- How many people opened your email (known as the open rate)?
- Which links were clicked, and by what percentage?
- What days or times of the week get the most opens/clicks
- Monitoring these analytics is key to the success of your email marketing strategy.
Conclusion
Email marketing is a low-cost marketing strategy, but it is among the most effective for small and medium-sized businesses.
Maybe your restaurant is not as big as Pizza Hut or that famous Michelin restaurant. Still, applying these email marketing examples will increase the number of diners and allow you to compete with restaurants in the area.