Creating email marketing campaigns for your restaurant, chain, or F&B group helps you build relationships with your guests. Not only can you increase footfall on calm weekdays, but also you can use email to build retention and get referrals.
If you’re serious about using email marketing for your restaurant, you should consider creating an email marketing strategy.
This strategy should be part of your broader restaurant marketing strategy.
Why email marketing matters for restaurants
Guests are willing and interested
Your guest or customer willingly signs up to your mailing list, giving you consent to send them emails.
People trust email over social media
People see email as a trusted form of marketing compared to other channels like social media.
Effective marketing channel
Nearly 41% of 440 marketers surveyed by Litmus say email is “their most effective [marketing] channel.”
Customers prefer email promotions
60% of consumers subscribe to a company’s email list to get promotions.
Easily accessible
Research by Contentsquare shows 64.4% of consumers visit travel and hospitality websites via mobile.
Emails are great for personalization
76% of customers are annoyed when they don’t get personalized experiences.
10+ Restaurant email campaign ideas and examples
Email Newsletter(s)
One of the most common types of emails businesses send are email newsletters. These can be weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
Confirmation emails
Restaurants that take online reservations need to send a confirmation message to their guests.
Welcome emails
When guests subscribe to your newsletter, they should receive a welcome email.
Retention email campaigns
Research by Bain & Company shows a 5% increase in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%!
Re-engagement emails
This means engaging guests who haven’t visited your venue for some time.
Social proof emails
Social proof gives people a reason to trust a brand.
Special event campaigns
Many F&B concepts host weekly, monthly, and seasonal dining events.
Special offer campaigns (discount emails)
You can use special-offer campaigns to re-engage guests, increase footfall during weekdays, and retain bargain-lovers.
Referral email campaigns
Growing your customer base through referrals is easy and inexpensive.
New branch announcement emails
Email marketing can be an effective tool to drive foot traffic to new locations.
Guest experience management campaigns
Regularly send guest experience surveys using Servme’s guest experience management features.
How to get guests to join your mailing list
- Add a newsletter signup box in your website’s footer
- Use Servme’s reservation widget
- Get your servers to ask guests directly for their email
- Announce launching a newsletter on social media
- Ask waitlist guests to share their email
- Offer free Wi-Fi and ask for email
Wrapping it up
Creating an email list for your restaurant offers many opportunities to engage with guests. If you’re using Servme, you can do all of this and more.
