Email Marketing Blog - Pixelnews

Before writing this new post for the blog I’ve been investigating a lot of restaurant websites. I’m very surprised about the fact that almost no one of them had a subscriber form to sign up for a newsletter or to receive offers and discounts by email. I truly believe that all these restaurants are missing a huge opportunity to establish a relationship with their customers and a way to drive people to the restaurant. If you took the time and money to create a website of your restaurant, why wouldn’t you try to ask for your visitors for their email address to contact them later? It is completely effortless and it will give you a lot of benefits.

What is what every restaurant owner who wants to get advantage of the effectiveness of email marketing should be doing? These are the basic steps you should be taking to implement a successful email marketing program:

Create and build your own list

Every email marketing program starts building the contact list in an organic and natural way. It is very important to be patient, realizing that this is a matter of quality and not quantity. Buying or renting an email list is a really big mistake. You also want to make sure that you get permission from your subscribers. If you don’t get the permission you’ll be a spammer. You can start getting email addresses organically and with permission using the next techniques:

The first step is setting up a subscriber form in every page of your website. To improve the subscription rate:

•    The subscription form should not be long. Not more than 5 fields. If it takes too much time to fill out no one will submit it.
•    You must clearly specify the benefits of been part of your list: better offers, special discounts, special information, etc.
•    You could encourage people to sign up by offering an extra gift like a pdf wine guide or by entering a draw to win a price like a nice Moet Chandon Champagne bottle.

You can ask for email addresses in your restaurant. When your clients ask for the bill the waiter could give them an small form and tell them about the advantages of been part of the list.

Insert a card promoting your email campaigns with your takeout and delivery orders. Simply add the url of your website and ask people to go there to subscribe.

You should promote your email program or newsletter in every promotional piece that you have like paper menus, cards, flyers, etc also directing people to the website to subscribe.

When someone is calling to make a reservation means that he/she has an especial interest in your restaurant. When the reservation is made you can also tell this customer about the promotions, discounts and news he could be getting if he/she were part of your emailing list.

Segmentation and Schedule

Setting the right frequency for your campaigns is key for the success of your email marketing program. Too many emails will get your subscribers tired of you, unsubscribing or even worse, flagging you as Spam. Sending a newsletter once a month is the best. You should schedule as well all the events, bank holydays, etc, for special campaigns. You can also partner with businesses around you like theatres or cinemas and send campaigns like Tickets + dinner with especial discount.

The segmentation of your list is also one of the most important things. Every campaign is not relevant or interesting for all your subscribers, this is why you have to segment your list by age, sex, interests, etc.

The campaign creation

The sender and the subject of the campaign will be the first thing our subscribers will read, therefore the sender must be familiar to the subscriber and the subject must refer to the content in the campaign.

The layout of the campaign should be very similar to your web page, with the same logos and colors, and should at least have the next components:

•    Always send a text version of the email
•    Use the “alt” tag on every image
•    Always include a link to the campaign to be seen on the web
•    The main content should be in the top left corner
•    Always include a visible unsubscribe link
•    Include a “Forward to a friend” link

The Stats

Once the campaign is sent you have to check the next stats to know what’s happened:

•    Open Rate
•    CTR (Click Through Rate)
•    Conversion Rate
•    Unsubscribe Rate
•    Viral Rate
•    Bounced emails

All this data allow you to know what is more interesting for each of your subscribers, who is unsubscribing, who is forwarding your message, what is the best day and time to send the campaigns and much more in order to improve the campaigns, the content and also improve the segmentation of your list.