Despite being introduced with different types of digital marketing platforms, restaurant email marketing remains to be dominant. Unlike the belief that it’s getting rusty and not as effective as before, the numbers are claiming otherwise.
Did you know that marketing experts still consider email to be the platform that delivers the highest ROI? It’s forty times more productive when used in customer acquisition and lead generation for a business.
Also, aside from its intuitive interface, it continues to be cost-effective for business owners. It’s claimed that for every dollar spent on your email campaign, your business is earning forty times more.
Consumers are also seen to be more inclined with this type of marketing platform. With a 19.77% average open rate, launching a promotion or marketing ads on email seems like a great idea especially if you’re raising brand awareness and generating leads.
If you’re getting excited about launching your first email campaign yet not sure where and how to start, then this might be just the perfect article for you. Here, we’ll be talking a bit more about this marketing platform and how you can start your campaigns with it.
Email Marketing for Restaurants
Upon its introduction, email has easily become a part of the daily lives of professionals. But unlike before, it’s now a popular medium of communication even among students, young professionals, and those who are ahead of life.
Using it became second nature, and everyone seemed to be at ease with it. Although, compared to social media ads and promotional campaigns, it provides more legitimacy and professionalism to the campaigns launched through this channel.
Being aware of how the industry and every local regulation are changing, it’s reassuring for you to have a stable and proven communication tool to use for you to be in touch with your customers. It can help you develop a trusting relationship with your customers.
It’s a proven way for reengaging with your past customers, and it’s also an excellent resource for acquiring new customers. You can easily send them reminders and updates about your restaurant, and they’ll be lurking into your website or physical store in no time.
Additionally, with all the different types of digital marketing platforms, email marketing is the least prioritized. Most of the marketing experts, especially the young ones, are more focused on newly developed platforms that they often disregard the benefits that email brings to the table.
With that being said, there’s a lesser chance that this platform is saturated with various marketing initiatives. Making it easier for you and your campaigns to stand out above other campaigns.
However, it’s natural for you to seek out other types of restaurant marketing as well. And it’s totally fine. The thing with this platform is that it requires minimal monitoring and maintenance, and it sort of runs its own game once you’ve programmed it.
It’s also known to be budget-friendly, so incorporating it with other types of marketing platforms won’t do that much harm to your budget. Just keep in mind that a well-planned strategy is what always helps you win the game, the same goes for email as well.
Benefits of Email Marketing for Restaurants
With the help of email marketing, restaurants now have an established and reliable medium for communication. And whether they want to reconnect with a former client, generate a new subscriber list, or simply update users, email is still considered one of the best in this game.
It improves customer retention
Fifty-six percent, that’s how email marketing is more effective compared to other marketing strategies when customer retention is the goal. Consumers are more comfortable in using email as a medium for them to receive updates and promotions.
Social media may be part of their daily lives as well, but they use it more for fun and to pass time. When you use email, they’re most likely to read to the end, compared to social media campaigns where there’s a great possibility of them just scrolling through it.
It promotes personalization
Establishing a connection between your customers and your brand should always be your priority. For restaurants, it should be a great honor for you if your customers relate to your brand in a more personal way.
Through email marketing, you can easily launch customized campaigns that will help bridge the gap between your business and your customers. While you can target your audience on social media, email offers a level of personalization that few others can match.
It facilitates communication
We hate to be redundant, but communication is made easier by email platforms. Not everyone is comfortable talking through phones, and if you want to gather feedback from your customers, email should do the trick.
Consider including your business email address on your GMB profile, website, and the like. Giving your customers a better and much more open platform where they can easily express their opinions about your restaurant shows how much you value their patronage.
It gives you a greater degree of control
Compared to other types of restaurant marketing, marketing through email allows you to be more in control. You have control of your audience, of your content, of your subject line, almost everything. The only thing you can’t control is whether a customer opens your email.
While other platforms such as social media give you a bit of control, it’s still lacking compared to what email can offer you. Consider the targeting tools you use on Facebook, sure, they filter your audience, but still, there is no guarantee they will engage with your campaign.
However, for email, you’re in total control of your mailing list. And the best thing about this is that these customers are most likely expecting promotional email campaigns from you since they voluntarily signed up for it.
It can be integrated with other marketing strategies
You’re aware that you need to be deploying different marketing strategies on multiple marketing platforms to get a broader customer base. Email is a flexible, low-cost channel that can be incorporated with other types of marketing such as SMS and social media marketing.
Just make sure to set your marketing goals right to get more preferable results from your campaigns. Balance out the differences of each and see how the strength of each platform will play well with others,
How to Start Email Marketing for Restaurants
With four billion active users for the year 2020, active email users are projected to grow up to almost five billion by the time we reach 2025. With these numbers in mind, it’s just rational for you to work on your restaurant email marketing ideas.
Start your email marketing campaigns by using this simple guide we made for you.
Select an email marketing company that fits your requirements
It’s always best to ask an expert for help and guidance if you’re trying to navigate your way into unfamiliar territory. Yes, you may be familiar with how email works, but there are factors behind the scenes that require more technical knowledge and skills.
This is how email marketing service providers will be beneficial for your business. If you aim to facilitate automation with your email marketing, they have the features and platform that can make things easier for you.
They provide you automation tools that save you time while producing excellent results at the same time. They also offer technical support that can answer every question and concern you have for your campaigns and the platform itself.
However, it may be tough for you to choose from the abundant choices available in the market. So make sure to know what are your goals first, and check out the features and support they can offer for your business needs.
Just a tip, almost every email marketing service provider offers the same set of features, tools, templates, and even platforms. The only thing that may differ is how flexible they will be in meeting your demands and supporting your campaigns along the way.
Build your mailing list
You can’t start something if you don’t have an audience for it. In this case, you have to grow your email marketing list or subscriber list, or whatever you prefer to call it. Even though the majority of businesses already have a list, it’s good to update it from time to time.
But, if you’re a start-up restaurant that’s starting from scratch, or you just want to rebuild your list, there is no reason to panic. There are a lot of ways to get those email addresses in the palm of your hand.
You may opt to do a more traditional approach like setting up a registration table at your entrance where customers will be highly encouraged to leave their details. Or you can simply ask them to sign up with your newsletter to get exclusive discounts and updates.
Then again, today’s restaurant landscape has shifted. You have to deploy wiser tactics to grow your list. Consider integrating your sign-up form with your wifi connection. The moment your customers connect on your wifi, they’ll be required to leave at least their email address.
Be sure to be clear on how you’ll be using the information that you’ve gathered. Stay transparent with your customers to avoid conflicts, at the end of the day it’s still their personal information.
Organize your list by using customer segmentation
Although the customers on your list permitted you to send marketing and promotional emails on their accounts, you still have to aim for relevance. If you’re going to just mindlessly send campaigns to everyone on your list, your efforts will not yield the expected results.
Segmenting your list is a practical and effective way to make sure that you’re getting the maximum results from your email campaigns. It is one of the most useful email marketing ideas for restaurants because it allows you to send tailored and customized campaigns.
For segmentation, there’s no need to make it complicated. You can simply segment your customers according to gender, location, birth month, and the like. Any information that links your customers together can be used in your segmentation process.
It’s like a targeting tool but it works more into specifics. By implementing this process, your customers will be receiving campaigns that are more relevant to them. It will allow you to create tailored and targeted deals that customers will find more appealing.
Construct a welcome series email
Upon signing up to your email marketing list, your customers will be receiving a welcome email for you. If you’re going to continuously grow your mailing list, you should set up a welcome email that will make them feel that it’s worth it subscribing to your brand.
On average, welcome series email has an open rate of fifty percent. In comparison to standard welcome newsletters, they are 86% more successful. Also, keep in mind that this is the first type of email content you’ll be sending your subscribers, you may want to build a good first impression.
You may begin with a friendly salutation or an expression of gratitude. Afterward, provide them an overview of what to expect with the subscription that they made. Close it with a little reward like a free slice of cake or a reasonable discount for their next visit.
Make sure that you’ll capture your subscribers’ interest the moment that they see your welcome email. Work out your subject line. Balance the elements such as design, typography, color, placement, and timing.
Compile reusable email templates
We understand that not everyone’s gifted with artistic talent, thus it may not be easy for you to create email templates on your own. But this is one of the advantages that your email marketing service provider offers, they also provide templates that you can use.
There are also tools, such as Canva, that you can use to create templates for your future email campaigns. It’s a must that these templates should look good and function well with every device, especially with smartphones.
A tip, in creating or choosing templates, make sure that it’s well-aligned with your branding. The designs and other elements should not cloud or overshadow its content. Keep it simple and clean to make it enticing and easy to understand.
Make sure that your brand will be visible. Strategically place your logo and incorporate the colors that are in line with your theme. Consider putting links to your website or online ordering system webpage to make it resourceful for your customers.
With reusable templates, you’re enforcing consistency with your email marketing campaigns. It’s also a great way to instill brand retention for your subscribers.
Compose effective campaigns to influence customers
You have to make sure that your content and other email marketing campaigns will be persuasive enough for your subscribers. Provide relevant and exciting content to keep them interested in supporting you.
For your promotional and marketing updates, make sure that it’s enticing enough to lead your subscribers into buying or availing of that promo. If you’re not that confident with your writing ability, consider checking with your staff or hiring someone that will focus on this area.
But, if you’re open to learning more, you just need to practice your writing skills. Check out how other brands construct their marketing campaigns and learn what you think will work on your audience.
Plan your content ahead of time
A content calendar should be useful for you. The restaurant caters to different types of customers with different types of needs and demands. If you have a calendar, it’ll be easier for you to formulate content that will meet the dynamic needs of your customers.
There is also a small chance of you missing out on important and relevant dates such as the holidays, Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and the like. Planning gives you ample time to create adjustments should there be sudden changes in the calendar.
Implement email marketing automation
If you’re going to apply automation to your email marketing campaigns, you’ll be saving a lot of time and energy. Automated emails are the ones that are sent automatically to your customers that are programmed to respond to triggers.
It uses triggers such as birthdays, calendar events, welcome offers, and the like. Once your system receives any of the triggers, it will then send a personalized email at the best possible time.
Without this feature, it’s nearly impossible for you to monitor every birthday of your customers, or every time someone joins your subscription program. This feature enables you to build and manage a secured relationship with your customers.
Ensure that all features have been tested before launching
Mistakes are inevitable. But with careful planning, you can avoid obvious and simple mistakes such as incorrect spelling or grammatical errors. The absence of a link when you mentioned that there would be one would cause confusion and frustration amongst your subscribers.
You should conduct dry runs on your email marketing first. Before you send your campaigns, preview, and test every feature. Make sure that all links are included and good, all images are displayed, and all promo codes will be running.
Identify the optimal time to send your campaigns
Research what’s the best time to send out your campaigns. Your subscribers will not be monitoring their emails all day. There’s an optimal time when most of your subscribers will be opening their email.
It may differ for every group or customer segment. But generally, marketing experts see Tuesdays and Thursdays be the best days to boost the open rates of your email campaigns.
For the exact time, you may want to send it out sometime around 8 am to capture those who are checking their emails first thing in the morning. For a later time, consider sending out campaigns around lunchtime to 1 pm.
After sending out your first set of email campaigns, you have to monitor and track its results. Analyze the numbers and look out for room for improvement that you may find. Practice reviewing the results to make sure that you’ll prove an improved campaign every time.
If you’re going to look at it, there are lots of email marketing strategies for restaurants that you can use. Just make sure to prioritize the needs of your business first, before jumping into the trends.
Keep in mind that even though you have the same business model, concept, and theme, your restaurant is still different in many ways. Always choose the platform and tools that will improve the quality of the service you provide.
source https://www.etakeawaymax.co.uk/restaurant-email-marketing-things-to-do/
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