A Step-by-Step Guide to Restaurant Email Marketing

Despite the popularity of email across most industries, email marketing still remains underutilized by many restaurants, primarily due to a lack of in-house expertise or the internal bandwidth necessary to set up and manage effective campaigns.

However, a significant average email open rate of over 35% within the dining and food service industry indicates that this marketing channel is too valuable to overlook. 

By effectively harnessing the power of email marketing, restaurants have the opportunity to significantly enhance their customer relations and encourage repeat business. Email marketing can be an important platform for engaging with the community and nurturing a loyal customer base.

In this guide, we'll simplify the process of starting an email marketing program for your restaurant, aiming to demystify the tactical steps required and highlight practical implementation strategies.

Step 1: Select an Email Marketing Platform

Integrating email marketing with a Point of Sale (POS) system can significantly streamline operations, automating data capture and enabling more targeted, effective communication strategies. While not a strict requirement, the use of a POS system that includes email marketing capabilities can greatly simplify the process of connecting with customers, gathering valuable data, and leveraging that data to drive sales.

A POS system acts as the central hub for your restaurant's operations, recording transactions, managing inventory, and now, with advanced systems, helping manage customer relationships through integrated email marketing tools. These systems capture customer contact details at the point of sale, which can then be used to send automated email communications such as receipts, promotions, and personalized offers based on purchase history.

Toast POS and Square are two of the most popular POS systems that offer integrated email marketing capabilities.

If you don’t have the budget or aren’t interested in integrating with a POS system with email capabilities, consider starting out with one of these free email marketing platforms instead. Without a direct integration, you may need to use a tool like Zapier or manually import new email contacts via CSV. 

Step 2: Build Your Email Subscriber List

There’s no point in investing in an email program if there is no one subscribed to receive your campaigns. Here are some practical strategies for restaurants to gather email addresses at various customer touchpoints, along with suggestions on incentivizing customers to share their information:

1. During Reservations

• How to Collect: Implement an email field in the online reservation form where customers can enter their contact information.

• Incentive to Offer: Provide a confirmation of the reservation and a welcome discount for first-time customers or a complimentary appetizer or dessert.

• Example: "Join our VIP list during your reservation and enjoy a free drink on your first visit!"
  

2. At Checkout

• How to Collect: Ask customers if they would like to receive digital receipts via email instead of printed ones. This not only helps collect emails but is also more environmentally friendly.

• Incentive to Offer: Enter all new email subscribers into a monthly draw for a free meal or a discount on their next visit.

• Example: "Sign up for e-receipts and enter our monthly draw for a chance to win a dinner for two!"
  

3. Via Website

• How to Collect: Use pop-up forms or dedicated sign-up sections on your website. Ensure these are visible on the homepage or integrate them into blog posts or the footer.

• Incentive to Offer: Offer exclusive content such as behind-the-scenes looks at the kitchen, chef interviews, or recipes. Promote sign-up exclusive deals or early notification of special events.

• Example: "Subscribe to receive our secret recipes and early bird reservations for special events!"
  

4. Social Media Channels

• How to Collect: Encourage followers to sign up for your newsletter through posts and stories. Use direct links in your bio or posts that lead to a sign-up page.

• Incentive to Offer: Run social media contests where participants need to subscribe to your email list to enter.

• Example: "Follow us, subscribe to our emails, and comment on this post for a chance to win a $50 dining voucher!"
  

5. On-site During the Dining Experience

• How to Collect: Train staff to ask customers to sign up at the end of their meal for more personalized service and exclusive offers. Use tablets or comment cards that can be filled out before they leave.

• Incentive to Offer: Immediate small token gifts like a free coffee or dessert can be effective.

• Example: "Enjoy a complimentary coffee on us next time—just sign up for our newsletter before you go!"
  

By implementing these strategies, restaurants can significantly grow their email marketing lists. Each method not only provides an opportunity to collect emails but also to enhance the customer's experience and engagement with the brand. Always ensure that the process is compliant with data protection regulations, such as GDPR or CCPA, by letting customers know how their data will be used and giving them an easy way to opt out if desired.

Step 3: Build Your Email Campaign Strategy

Creating a content calendar for your restaurant's email campaigns is an essential step in maintaining a consistent and strategic approach to email marketing. This calendar acts as a roadmap, helping you plan out when and what to communicate to your audience, ensuring your messages are timely and relevant.

Integrating key holidays and local events into your email marketing content strategy is crucial. These dates are opportunities to connect with your customers by offering special promotions or themed content that resonates with the celebratory mood.

In addition to scheduled email campaigns, you should also consider which automated campaigns are possible to set up based on the customer data that you collect and the level of sophistication of your selected email tool.

Examples of Restaurant Email Marketing Campaigns

A well-rounded email marketing strategy for a restaurant should include a variety of campaign types, each serving a specific purpose. Some examples of restaurant email campaigns include:

1. Weekly Specials

• Regular updates about weekly menu specials or chef's choice dishes can keep your audience engaged and looking forward to what's new each week.

1. Special Events

• Announcements for upcoming events like live music nights, wine tasting dinners, or cooking classes can help fill seats and create buzz around your restaurant.

1. Holiday Promotions

• Tailored emails that align with upcoming holidays can promote special menus, limited-time offers, or special dining hours.

1. Loyalty Programs

• Emails that promote your loyalty program, reward milestones, or offer special bonuses for frequent visitors nurture long-term relationships.

1. Birthday and Anniversary Emails

• Personalized greetings for birthdays and anniversaries with special offers like a free dessert or a discount on a meal add a personal touch to your communications.

1. Seasonal Menus

• Announcing the launch of new seasonal menus or highlighting ingredients that are in season can attract food enthusiasts eager to try new dishes.

1. Newsletter Updates

• A regular newsletter that provides insights into your restaurant, stories behind dishes, or features on your staff can help deepen connections with your clientele.

1. Feedback Requests

• Post-visit emails asking for feedback or reviews can provide valuable insights into customer experiences and demonstrate that you value their opinions.

Each of these campaign types can be strategically placed in your content calendar to maximize engagement. For example, scheduling a series of emails leading up to a major holiday with teaser content, early bird specials, and last-minute reminders can help increase anticipation and customer turnout.

When mapping out your calendar, consider the timing of each campaign carefully. Avoid overwhelming your subscribers with too many emails in a short period and ensure each message has a clear purpose and call to action. This strategic planning helps in maintaining the interest and engagement of your audience, ultimately contributing to a higher return on your email marketing efforts.

Step 4: Create and Launch

Now that you have your campaign strategy, it’s time to get to building! The next step is to create the actual email content. 

Tools like Canva offer a user-friendly interface for creating graphic design elements like email banners. Canva has a ton of different templates that you can adjust to your restaurant’s branding, without the need to hire a graphic designer. 

As you want your emails to appeal to customers and get them into the restaurant, be sure to use high-quality imagery of your food and drink items. Consider investing in professional food photography that you can use across both your website and marketing materials.

For crafting compelling email copy, ChatGPT can be an invaluable resource. It can help generate creative content ideas, catchy subject lines, and persuasive body text that resonates with your audience.

Remember to always include a call-to-action (CTA) in your email campaign. Your CTA could be to "order online", "make a reservation", or to "view the menu".

Step 5: Analyze and Iterate

Don’t fall into the trap of simply launching a campaign and moving on. Regularly tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) is crucial to understanding the effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns. 

Essential email metrics include open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, and unsubscribe rates. Noticing trends in these metrics can help you gauge the health of your campaigns.

You may look at the data and see opportunity to improve a specific metric. This is a great opportunity to introduce A/B testing. This method involves sending two slightly different versions of the same email to a small segment of your list to see which performs better. You can test various elements such as subject lines, email layouts, images, and call-to-action buttons. This data-driven approach allows you to refine your emails based on actual customer preferences.

Once you have identified what works best from your A/B tests, apply these insights to your automated campaigns. This might include personalization techniques, timing adjustments, and more targeted content. Optimizing these elements can lead to higher conversion rates as your emails become more aligned with what your subscribers want to receive.

Conclusion

As a restaurant owner or marketer, you don’t need to go all-in and email from the start. Instead, take an incremental approach, with a primary emphasis on email subscriber sign-ups, then layering in additional touchpoints and campaigns as your list grows. Prioritizing automated campaigns, like “Happy Birthday” emails, can also significantly reduce the manual work you’ll need to put into launching each campaign. 

Remember, your email program should be an evolving process. Keep building, testing, and iterating to find what works best for your audience.