Restaurant Email Marketing Strategies For 2022

Email marketing is an excellent strategy to grow your restaurant and expand your customer base. Although email marketing can be challenging, it’s a great way to build relationships with customers and patrons. It’s also a great way to bring in new business as well as retain current customers. If you want to see your restaurant thrive through the year 2022, then you definitely need to use these restaurant email marketing strategies!

Why email marketing is so important for restaurants

Email marketing is important for restaurants since it’s one of the best ways to establish relationships with customers. For example, email marketing can help your restaurant build relationships with customers by sending them helpful information, exclusive offers, and updates about what’s new in the restaurant.

These are all great ways to make customers feel appreciated and give them the chance to get connected with your restaurant.

Another reason email marketing is important for restaurants is because the return on investment for restaurant email marketing is very high. According to a Constant Contact article in 2021, the average ROI for hospitality email marketing is $53 for every $1 spent on an email campaign. That is quite the return!

What are the best ways to get people to open your emails?

According to a study done by the Pew Research Center, one of the most effective ways to get people to read an email is through... sound! In fact, email subject lines that include sounds such as “whoosh” and “kerplunk” can be up to 50% more successful than those without audio cues.

In addition, a separate study done by Return Path concluded that email subject lines with numbers have a 20% higher open rate than those without. That means that using the number “5” in your restaurant emails could increase your open rate!

How can you use email marketing for restaurant promotion?

Email marketing is a great way to promote your restaurant because it’s targeted and personalized. This means that you can use email marketing for restaurant promotion by including coupons, discounts, rewards programs, and special offers for your subscribers! For example, if you own an Italian restaurant then you might offer free breadsticks or an appetizer upgrade just for signing up for your email newsletter.

In addition, you can use email marketing to promote any special events at your restaurant such as a holiday party or a special dining experience. For example, if you’re hosting a New Year Eve gala then you might want to send out an email a week before the event to let people know about the special menu and how to make reservations.

The importance of automation in your campaigns

One of the most important email marketing strategies for restaurants is automation. That’s because it can help you save time and money while also increasing your conversion rates! Although you will need to use triggered emails as well as scheduled messages to effectively automate your restaurant email marketing, you should still consider using this strategy as soon as possible.

Of course, you’ll have to ask yourself a few questions when it comes to email automation. For example, what steps do you want your customers to take? Do you want them to visit your restaurant website after they opt-in? Or do you actually want them to eat at your restaurant before they sign up for your email marketing campaigns? In addition, what do you want people to do once they’re at your restaurant? Do you want them to buy a specific item? Or would you rather have them order anything from the menu because it will help increase average ticket size and improve your overall revenue?

Finally, keep in mind that automation should be customized for each restaurant. For example, you might want to create an automated email series for your lunch crowd while using other strategies specifically catered to your dinner guests.

Tips for creating an effective subject line that will make people want to read more of your message

The subject line is the first thing that people will see when they receive your restaurant email marketing. That’s why it’s so important to make sure that it grabs their attention and makes them want to read more of your message! According to Return Path, one of the best ways to do this is by starting the subject line with “FREE”. In fact, the return path study found that subject lines that started with “FREE” were 25% more likely to be opened than those without the word.

Of course, it’s also important that you address your target audience directly in your restaurant email marketing messages. This is because emails with subject lines that addressed the receiver increased open rates by up to 44%! In addition, it’s a good idea to use personalization in your subject lines. This means that you should include their first name!

One of the other email marketing strategies for restaurants is to follow the 50/50 rule. This refers to creating subject lines that are short and informative. Although you don’t want to give away the entire contents of your email campaign, you still want to make sure that people know what they’re getting before they open it!

How do you know if it's working or not and how often should you send these messages out?

Once you start emailing your subscribers it’s important to measure the results and adjust accordingly. That way, you can make sure that your campaigns are actually effective for driving traffic and increasing sales at your restaurant. Unfortunately, this is a lot harder than most people realize and most restaurants don’t even track their open rates. In fact, according to a study conducted by Inbox Blueprint, only 20% of restaurants track their open rates on a regular basis.

In addition, it’s important that you test out different email marketing strategies to find the ones that work best for your restaurant and your customers. According to a report from Econsultancy, “Email marketing is changing fast and this requires marketers to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies. This means that growth areas like mobile, multi-channel delivery and content represent real opportunities for return on investment (ROI).”

If you do decide to track your open rates, you will want to make sure that you pick the right metrics to pay attention to. There are dozens of different email marketing metrics you can track such as open rates (both overall and segmented by time), click-through rates, bounce rates, and unsubscribe rates. In addition, it’s a good idea to create a spreadsheet that will help you record this type of information on a regular basis.

Segmenting your restaurant email list for maximum effectiveness

One of the most important things that you can do to make your emails more effective is by segmenting your contact list! In other words, you want to create lists based on specific demographics and interests. This will allow you to send them exactly what they’re looking for and it will help ensure that your message is relevant to each individual.

One of the best ways to do this is by looking at their past purchases at your restaurant (assuming you have a way to track this information through something like a loyalty program). You can easily track how often they visit, what they order, and even if they work in the food industry or not!

We know that email marketing can be a daunting task, but if you have the time and resources to put into it - it's worth your while. If not, let us do all of the work for you! Our team will create an effective strategy with personalized content so you don't have to worry about what to write or how often to send emails. Feel free to email us - [email protected], or schedule a free consultation here.

Which one of these top restaurant email marketing strategies interests you? Let us know in the comments below!