The restaurant industry has an above average email open rate. Over 26% of emails sent to restaurant subscribers are opened.
The bad news is that not many restaurants are taking advantage of the email opportunity. A shocking 18% of restaurants in the US have an email program.
So email marketing works and it actually works better than other industry, but restaurants are ignoring the opportunity.
That’s the bad news. The great news is that for your restaurant there is an incredible opportunity. Your customers probably don’t only eat at your restaurant. You share their business with others, but email could be a way for you to win more of the share.
The other guys aren’t doing it. It’s an opportunity for you. And here’s how to do it.
Strategy #1: Promote New Menu Items Or Old Favorites
Olson’s used their email to promote their new sorbet. Yum!
Your menu items are the reason people come to your restaurant. There are other reasons like the atmosphere and the quality of your service, but at the basic level your customers come for the food and drinks.
You don’t need to offer promotions and discounts to win customers. You need to make them feel incredibly hungry and you can do that by teasing them with your menu items.
New menu items are intriguing. Many restaurants frequently offer specials and new menu items. I like the emails where a restaurant introduces a new menu item and then asks for engagement from subscribers. Use the headline:
Help Us Decide If This Will Become A Regular Item!
Make your customers feel like they need to try out the new item. It’s a good strategy and it won’t cost you profit because you don’t have to offer a discount.
Strategy #2: Piggyback On Events
Father’s Day is a great day for your customers to show Dad how much they care.
Eating out is often an event for people. Some will go out just because and others will go because it’s part of their routine. But for others, eating out is about some kind of event or even an excuse.
The reason is an event like a holiday, birthday or even a sporting event that’s taking place.
Create a simple spreadsheet and use it to plan your emails. You could even write in a notebook if you want to. But grab your calendar and mark all the important events down including sporting events, pop culture events and all kinds of things.
There is probably something going on every day, but you can focus on the big ones that happen each week.
Sporting events are reasons for customers to go out to eat. Rock Bottom knows this.
Piggyback your email message around the event making it seem like in order to celebrate your customers have to come in and make it an eating out experience.
Come And Join Us For The Big Game This Friday!
Come And Celebrate The Fourth Of July With Us!
Strategy #3: Provide Entertainment With Different Media
Check out the fun interview and video Chefs Feed did.
With email you don’t just have to do the same thing each week like events and new menu items. A good way to mix it up is to offer different content that will entertain your customers.
These could be text-based articles, tips or even behind the scenes looks at how your restaurant operates.
People are curious. They like seeing videos on how you create certain dishes. A video of you talking about how you make your special dish shows off your passion and makes the customers feel more like they’re a part of your restaurant.
You could also do a series where you interview your staff. You could ask 3-5 questions of the wait staff or the chefs. Ask them fun personal questions like favorite hobbies, but also ask them a couple questions about their favorite menu items or favorite special.
Final Homework
That should get you started with the type of emails you should create for your email program, but there is more that you need to do.
Send Weekly Emails: In the studies shared above, the restaurants that did send out email only sent them out monthly. That’s not enough. You should be sending out emails at least weekly. Your customers eat 3 times a day. That’s a lot of opportunity to win their business. Weekly might even be too little, but start there and work you way up.
Get Signups In-Person: The best way for restaurants to get people on their email list is to do it in-person in the restaurant. Make it part of the wait staff’s job to ask for emails. A customer can always say no, but you’ll probably get more signups than you think. People can easily takeout their phones and signup. Tell them they’ll get exclusive information about new menu items and fun videos about what goes on behind the scenes.
Get Signups From Social Media: Finally, use social media to get email signups. Social media is great and you can share content there, but always ask social followers to signup for your emails. Your email list is something you control and own. It’s better than a social media following.
There is the information you need to do email marketing.
Get out there and start getting more customers!
