With more than 1 million restaurants in the United States alone, it can be difficult to stand out in the restaurant industry, whether you run a small family restaurant or a famous chain with multiple locations.
Luckily, thanks to email marketing, getting your restaurant’s name out there and building a relationship with your customers is easier and cheaper than ever.
Not only is email an essential mode of communication in our day-to-day lives, but compared to other digital marketing channels, such as social media marketing and influencer marketing, email marketing has a much higher ROI.
New to email marketing but want to learn more about how it can benefit your restaurant? Don’t worry. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at what makes restaurant email marketing so effective and leave you with some restaurant email marketing examples and tips to help you get started.
Is email marketing for restaurants worth the money?
Email marketing campaigns are one of the most cost effective ways for restaurants to attract new customers and build rapport with existing customers. In fact, not only does email marketing have a much higher ROI than social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook, but it’s also 40 times as effective at acquiring customers.
Overall, restaurant marketing emails are well worth the money, and having a clear and actionable restaurant email marketing strategy is one of the best things you can do. Other than a high ROI, there are multiple ways your restaurant can benefit from email marketing:
- Drive more traffic to your website: Email campaigns that contain interesting subject lines, strong call to actions, and a direct link to your restaurant website will help you effortlessly gain website visitors without them even seeing your Google listing.
- Develop customer loyalty: Reward loyal customers with personalized promotions. Send a birthday email that gives them a free dessert, or encourage them to sign up for your loyalty program. The more you take care of your customers, the more likely they are to visit again and recommend you to their family and friends.
- Establish your restaurant branding: With a weekly or monthly restaurant newsletter, you can stay in touch with your customers and tell them what you’re all about. Whether you’re a farm-to-table restaurant or one that serves tasting menus, marketing emails can help demonstrate your values, culture, and mission.
- Stay connected with your customers with automated messages: Trigger automated emails after certain customer actions. For example, leave a good first impression by sending automatic welcome emails to customers who sign up to be a part of your email database.
Email service providers, such as Mailchimp, have free marketing automation tools that can help you grow your business.
Email marketing ideas to spice up your restaurant campaigns
Now that you have an idea of how restaurant email marketing can benefit your business, what do you need to do to make it happen? Here are a few email marketing campaign ideas that are sure to attract customers and promote your business.
Chef profile
Cultivate a more personal relationship between your customers and your business by familiarizing them with your head chef. In an interview-style marketing email, present your customers with a closer look at their everyday life and hobbies. Give them more insight into how your chef creates their culinary masterpieces.
Don’t forget to include other relevant content, such as photos of the delicious dishes and your chef in action, to increase click-through rates.
New seasonal menu overview
During the holiday season, give your customers an overview of your seasonal menu in your marketing emails. Invite customers to try out new dishes that have an extra festive flair. As part of your email strategy, get in the holiday spirit and impress your customers by setting up a food drive or giving out gift card incentives.
Highlight a menu item
Highlight specific menu items to differentiate your restaurant from the competition. Whether you choose limited-time menu items or popular menu items that are making their comeback, calling attention to what makes your restaurant special can appeal to new and old customers alike.
Recipe newsletter
Keep in constant contact with your customers with a weekly or monthly restaurant newsletter featuring popular recipes or recipes from past menus. Create restaurant email marketing templates that showcase recipes and take your email subscribers step-by-step through the cooking process. As the restaurant owner, end every newsletter with personalized messages to show your customers that you really care.
Promotions and special offers
Nothing drives foot traffic quite like a good deal. Whether it's a discount for first-time visitors or a freebie for loyalty members, exclusive offers give subscribers a real reason to show up. Rewards like these also signal that being on your list actually means something.
Reviews and awards
Restaurant marketing can be difficult, but showing your customers social proof can drive engagement and boost local search rankings. Feature reviews from food critics and awards from magazines in a restaurant marketing email. Get customer engagement by asking for reviews in your email campaigns as well. Use feedback forms to get input and include the good reviews on your restaurant website.
Spotlight your social media
Urge customers to connect with your restaurant on social media in your email marketing. For example, spotlight an Instagram post that links directly to your restaurant’s account. Launch a raffle or competition for your customers on social media. Give them rewards and deals as they help you spread the word about your restaurant.
Event invitation
Invite your customers to upcoming events at your restaurant as a part of your restaurant marketing strategy. From charity events and cooking classes to date nights, special events can be great marketing for your restaurant and entice subscribers to visit. Reach your target audience with events that interest them.
Behind the scenes
Give subscribers a peek at what happens before the doors open, such as prep work, deliveries, or kitchen rituals. This kind of content builds a sense of familiarity that keeps customers genuinely invested in your success. A short video or photo series works especially well here.
Birthday and anniversary emails
A simple email wishing a customer a happy birthday — paired with a complimentary dish or discount — goes a long way toward making them feel like more than just a table number. These automated messages are easy to set up and tend to have some of the highest open rates of any restaurant email campaign.
New menu announcement
Launching a new dish or seasonal menu update? Let your subscribers hear about it first. Giving email subscribers early access or a sneak peek creates a sense of exclusivity and gives them a concrete reason to come in.
Restaurant email marketing best practices to follow
Having great content ideas is only half the battle — how you execute them matters just as much. These best practices can help make sure your emails actually get opened, read, and acted on:
Make it easy to become a part of your mailing list
Increasing the size of your mailing list is the first step to good restaurant email marketing. The more people who subscribe to your email campaigns, the more likely someone will be interested in visiting your restaurant. Have streamlined, easy-to-spot opt-in forms scattered throughout your restaurant’s website, so site visitors can sign up for your mailing list without difficulty.
Leave a good first impression with professional email design
The design for your restaurant’s email is as important as its content. A well laid out email is easy to follow and click through. Aesthetically pleasing visual elements, on the other hand, make subscribers less likely to close out of your email. Keep in mind that humans process visual information 60k times faster than they process text.
Segment your mailing list to target certain demographics
All restaurant email marketing strategies should focus on segmentation. Separating your mailing list by age, location, preferences, family status, and more can help you better understand and target them when you need to send out an engaging email. Personalize the welcome emails and birthday emails you send to leave a lasting impact.
Test your emails
An email that has been through A/B testing or spam testing is more likely to succeed in converting customers. Businesses that test their emails receive a 28 percent higher ROI. Make multiple versions of the same email marketing campaign and send them out to different subscribers to see which one yields the best results.
Come up with eye-catching subject lines
Restaurant email subject lines may be the most important part of your campaigns. After all, how can you convert a subscriber into a paying customer if they don’t even open the email you send? Spend time creating an irresistible subject line that resonates with your targeted audience. Keep it short and sweet but personalized and descriptive.
Boost your conversion rate with deals and promotions
Deals and promotions are at the heart of boosting conversions. They give your subscribers a reason to stop in your restaurant. Combine them with other marketing efforts to see your revenue soar.
Always analyze your results
Keep a close eye on the customer data you have and your analytics to continuously improve your email marketing. Mailchimp’s Email Marketing Software, for example, optimizes your emails with data from millions of other top-performing marketing campaigns. It even allows you to bring in data from other platforms, such as Shopify, Google Analytics, and QuickBooks.
Creating automated retention loops for long-term growth
Email automation is one of the most effective ways to improve customer loyalty without adding more to your plate. Once your sequences are set up, they run in the background — reaching the right customers at the right time with zero manual effort. Here are four automations worth building into your restaurant email strategy:
Designing the "New Diner" welcome sequence
First impressions set the tone for the customer relationship, so it pays to get this one right. A well-crafted welcome sequence introduces new diners to your story, your menu, and what makes your restaurant worth coming back to. Sending two or three emails over the first week or two keeps your restaurant top of mind while the experience is still fresh.
Setting up "Win-Back" flows for lapsed customers
Every restaurant has customers who visited once or twice and then went quiet. A win-back flow is how you bring them back. A simple sequence that acknowledges their absence and offers a reason to return, like a limited-time discount or a new menu highlight, can re-engage customers who might have just needed a nudge. Done consistently, these flows help improve customer loyalty by showing regulars that you notice when they're gone.
Celebrating milestones with birthday and anniversary automations
Few things make a customer feel more valued than being remembered on a special occasion. Sending a birthday email with a complimentary dish or discount is a small gesture that tends to leave a lasting impression.
Implementing post-dining feedback and review requests
A post-visit email gives customers a structured way to share their experience while it's still fresh and signals that your restaurant takes quality seriously. For satisfied guests, it creates a natural opportunity to leave a review; for others, it opens a direct line of communication before a negative experience makes its way online. This kind of follow-through is one of the more underrated ways to improve customer loyalty over time.
Add email marketing to your restaurant marketing efforts
Restaurant email marketing is a great way to garner more interest in your restaurant, no matter if you are looking for new customers or want to retain existing customers. Affordable and easy to implement, email marketing can help your restaurant reach new heights.
Mailchimp’s Email Marketing Software makes restaurant marketing even more straightforward. With expertly designed, drag-and-drop email templates, time-saving automation, and smart segmentation tools, send relevant emails and earn more revenue with ease.
Need help from the beginning? Take a look at our restaurant website design tips and must-have restaurant website features list. Remember, if your marketing strategy isn’t working, it’s never too late to pivot your strategy. Let Mailchimp help today.