For every restaurant, getting customers through the door is essential. But it’s getting them to keep coming back – again and again – that’s essential for future success.
Email is great for this- driving footfall and loyalty with targeted campaigns – as long as you have a great list.
Here are 6 compelling reasons how a great email list will help your restaurant generate better ROI, improve marketing reach, and boost brand awareness.
1. Your customers expect to see business marketing in their inbox
Compared to other marketing channels, your customers expect to see marketing content from businesses, sent directly to their email addresses. They’re also more likely to keep it there, ready for when they’re prepared to open it. It doesn’t disappear or get lost as easily in social-media algorithms. Of course, you need to make your email headlines attention-grabbing to encourage open rates, but this is a great starting point when it comes to restaurant marketing.
2. You’ll always be in control of data for future marketing
If platforms such as Instagram or Facebook were to disappear tomorrow, your followers and their data would too. Building an email subscriber list specifically for your restaurant means you’ll always own this data set, essential for a robust future marketing strategy, and building a strong customer base.
3. Email lists generate powerful, hard-to-resist personalization
An email directly from your restaurant has excellent opportunities for personalization and segmentation. Combined with customer data collected from guest WiFi or at POS, you’ll be able to send targeted, personalized, and relevant email offers to every single customer. You’ll be able to send the perfect email reminder to book a table for a birthday, but you can also send upselling offer emails based on recent customer spend and choices.
4. Your restaurant will be able to generate SEO boosting reviews
Reviews are essential for every restaurant. They encourage other diners to visit you, give you accurate feedback, and help boost your search rankings on Google. An email list means you can ask for reviews easily and automatically- simply send customers a direct link to a review site after their most recent visit in a triggered email campaign. This is also a great strategy to get ahead of negative reviews by getting feedback through email first.
5. Restaurant email marketing can be easily automated
Restaurants need marketing to generate significant ROI without constant input. Email offers this. It’s flexible, low cost, and the best thing – it can be easily automated based on business needs. Combining a POS system with an email service provider (ESP) such as MailChimp will maximize customer data segments automatically – giving your restaurant powerful email targeting tools.
6. Properly reward loyal customers
Restaurants need regular, loyal customers. They spend more, act as valuable brand ambassadors for your brand and stick with you over any competition that opens up. So you must reward them. Loyalty programs work because they make customers feel special. A segmented email list populated with customer data (whether from guest WiFi marketing or an integrated POS system) makes this easy. You’ll be able to send VIP offers, loyal customer rewards, and relevant upselling to maximize your loyal base.
So how can your restaurant create a quality email list?
An organically grown list of customers open to your restaurant marketing will generate better ROI and, ultimately, a better bottom line.
Here are 3 ways to build a quality subscriber list:
1. Give your restaurant guests fast, free WiFi at your venue
Every guest now wants and expects WiFi from any venue they visit. But WiFi marketing is also a powerful marketing channel for every restaurant. Not only can you send direct offers and content to customers logged on to your network in real-time, but you can quickly build up an email subscriber list too. You can also use the data and insight generated from WiFi to power your email segmentation further — supercharging your marketing further.
2. Use quizzes or irresistible offers to capture email addresses
Grab people’s attention! Your restaurant customers will all love to get something for free; (or for the price of an email address at least). That ‘something’ can be offer-coupons, hard-to-resist discounts, or a VIP ticket slot for future events. You can also use quizzes across social media as part of your restaurant social media strategy. Quizzes are an excellent tool for boosting your email list. As well as engagingly boosting your brand, you’ll be able to collect email addresses in exchange for sharing quiz results with your customers.
3. Combine email collection with your restaurant POS software
Restaurant POS system software is a great way to capture customer email and contact information at the time they order drinks or pay for their meal. You’ll then be able to import this data directly into an email service provider (ESP) system, segmenting and boosting your restaurant CRM simply and effectively.
You’ll then be able to target recent customers with ‘return offers’ or email diners who haven’t visited you in a while.
To wrap up
Email list building is an essential marketing channel for every restaurant. Email gives you control over your data as well as the ability to segment, target new leads, and boost loyalty.
