Email marketing for restaurants

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Put your customer database to work

A customer database is an essential tool in a drive to increase sales. Each of the people on it, by giving their contact details, has shown an interest in your restaurant. They’ll be expecting to hear from you. This is what direct marketing is all about - targeting people who are interested in your product.

Pay-back time only comes when you use your database effectively to promote your business. Not so long ago this would have meant expensive mail shot campaigns. But life got easier. Now we can use e-mail to promote our businesses. It’s quick, cheap and enables us to reach a wide audience in minutes.

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. . .

What would make you read a particular e-mail?

Personal – a friendly message from someone you know and like will usually take priority over a drab and impersonal circular

Eye-catching – an interesting title or attractive graphic is more likely to grab your attention (more on this coming soon!)

Brief - the more long-winded the message the less likely you are to read it

Clear – if you have to think too hard about what it’s trying to say, you’ll probably give up before the end

Telling you something worth knowing – you’re more likely to pay attention if you think there’s something in it for you

Not too frequent - too many messages from the same source and you’ll start to feel hassled

Think carefully about what you want to tell people . . .

Start by deciding what you want to get across in your message and do it in as few words as possible. It should be something to the customer’s advantage - an offer or special event, a new product or promotion. Start with an attention-grabbing paragraph - for example

Spring Fever! Book a table for 4 before 30 April and you’ll receive a 10% discount on our normal menu prices. Click here to see our exciting new menu
We’ve got a new wine supplier who’s providing us with a fantastic range of wines. Try our delicious Beaujolais Villages £8.99 (usually £10.99) available throughout May and June
Join us for an evening of Irish Folk music on Thursday 13th May. Relax and enjoy a three-course meal to the sounds of Andy and Sara (click reply button for menu - outstanding value at £30 per person)
All-you-can eat buffet for £15 a head on Wednesday nights! Be sure to book your table.

As well as making clear what you’re offering, tell customers what they need to do to next take advantage of it. For instance...’Call now to make your booking on 01252 278XXX. State dates any offer is valid and mention any restrictions or exclusions. It might sound obvious but don’t forget to include the name and address of your restaurant and contact details

Imagine you’re the customer

Send your marketing message to yourself and imagine you’re the customer seeing it for the first time. Does it have impact? Is the tone welcoming or does it sound too glib? Does it look as you hoped it would on the screen? This is like the artist standing back from his painting and adding a few refinements fo perfect his work.

Trial it amongst friends

Before any mass circulation, try out your e-mail amongst a few friends. Ask them for some honest feedback. Monitor their responses and learn from them. Consider changes to your next e-mail campaign to improve it.

Respect customer confidentiality

When sending several e-mails in one go, it’s important not to disclose the names of other recipients. This can be done by using the BCC (blind carbon copy) window on the new message screen. Follow these simple steps

Click on create message (or new message)

Click the ‘To:-’ box (usually next to your address book) and the BCC window should appear on the right of the screen.
Enter your own e-mail address in the ‘To:-‘ box (it’s important not leave this blank).
Enter in the BCC box all the recipients you want to circulate, separating each name with a comma but no spaces

Enter the title and body of the message and send in the normal way

When you receive the message yourself you’ll know it’s been sent to the others as well!

The problem these days is that we’re all bombarded with so much publicity in one form or another that we can’t be bothered to read most of it, even when it’s right in front of our noses.

To stand a chance of overcoming this, your message needs to appeal to the recipient.

Example

Bill Jones wants to send a message sent to jimsmith, tdavis, barryb and tmoran without any of them knowing who else he’s circulated. His message header will look like this:

To: billjones@magicmail.com
Subject: Special promo menu!
Message in box as normal
Bcc: jsmith,tdavis, barryb,tmoran,

The message will go to Bill Jones and all 4 people in the BCC box but each person will only see their own name

How many e-mails to send in one batch?

If you don’t have many addresses, send each message separately. As the numbers build up you may want to send in batches to avoid them getting blocked by anti-spamming software (this varies with different email providers) . If your list is extensive, consider investing in software to allow you to send out bulk emails efficiently and to help manage your list.

Use your database to get last-minute bookings

If it’s close to the date of an event or promotion and you still need more bookings, you could e-mail everyone on your database who might be interested. Consider a special last-minute offer to fill more seats.

Keep your records up to date

Update your database as often as you can to keep track of customers and the kind of offers and events they’re likely to be interested in. The more current the information, the better the chance of successful results.

Unsubscribing

Include a clear statement about how customers can remove their name from your e-mailing list. For example.. ‘reply to this e-mail putting “unsubscribe” in the subject box.’ It’s important to then follow this through quickly and remove anyone who unsubscribes from your database.

Things to consider before you send . . . .

A few more tips about e-mail marketing. . . .

Make an A5 card using your logo and design it so that your customer can complete it with his or her basic information - name, date of birth, email address and telephone number (preferably mobile so you can send a Happy Birthday SMS).

Print it on good-quality paper or card and leave in a prominent place - in a holder on the bar or on the table.

Once completed, put this information on your spreadsheet, recording the birth date in numerical form. This way you can sort all customer birthdays into month order from January through to December in an easy-to-view format.

A month before the customer’s birthday, send out an invitation with a good offer. Be generous. Mention that for parties of six or more you’ll be worth giving away a free meal or a bottle of wine or champagne.

Get started with this idea . . .

Newsletters

Another useful way of keeping in touch with those on your database is by sending out regular newsletters which include lists of coming events and special offers in your restaurant. Try and make these fun. Include a couple of pictures of recent events (but always get a customer’s permission before publishing a photo!). Run a competition. Let people know about developments in food and drink. Don’t make these too long and don’t send them out too often. Even if someone doesn’t make a direct booking as a result, the newsletter will keep reminding them that you’re there.