As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to change the landscape of the restaurant industry, restaurant marketing is more important than ever. In today’s blog, we discuss how to attract customers to your restaurant through email marketing.
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is any direct marketing effort that uses email to promote a business’s products or services. When it comes to restaurant marketing, emails are a great way to keep your customers invested in your restaurant between visits.
How to Do Email Marketing?
Here’s how to attract customers to your restaurant through email marketing!
Build an Email List for Your Restaurant
The first step in creating a successful email marketing campaign is to create an email list. The easiest way to do this is through a restaurant loyalty program where customers can earn discounts and/or free food and drinks through points they earn during each visit. Another good way to collect email addresses from customers is by including opt-in prompts on the website and allowing patrons to access free wi-fi in exchange for their e-mail address.
Create an Email Sequence that Works
No one likes to receive three emails a day from a restaurant they ate at once on a whim, but by carefully considering email sequencing, you can target your customers when they’re most likely to bite. Some common email sequence types include a welcome email, an abandoned cart sequence, customized loyalty member emails, seasonal newsletters, and discount sequences.
Nail Down the Messaging
The two most important parts of any marketing email is the headline and the preview text. Because 47% of email recipients open an email based on the subject line alone, the headline is your one shot to pique interest. Not only should you be following along with popular email marketing advice, but you should also be supplementing the headline with eye-catching preview text. In addition to counting characters to make sure your whole message is showing up, you can also try asking questions, playing into people’s Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), employing funny puns, or cutting your sentence short to take advantage of people’s natural curiosity.
Offer Something Valuable
Make sure every email you send adds value to the customer. The easiest way to do this is by including special deals and discounts to customers on the email list. That said, there are other ways to add value. You might, for example, send out an email to let people know about your new no-contact curbside takeout and delivery procedures. Or you might send out an email to update people on a seasonal menu item that’s about to hit your restaurant. You can even use email marketing as a way of reminding customers of upcoming promotions and events. Not only does McDonald Wholesale offer the highest quality ingredients, but we also provide restaurant marketing and other helpful services to our loyal customers. Check out our restaurant management blog where we cover everything from how to grow your restaurant’s takeout business to what you need to know about ghost kitchens.