Elite Email, a marketing industry leader, asked 250 restaurant owners about their email marketing campaigns and how they are using email in their overall market reach. According to the report, email marketing is one of the newer initiatives many restaurant owners are using. Although personal postcards of “Thank you”, birthday and Anniversary greetings still bring in the best ROI, email has been a key way to maintain relationships and create a cost-effective way to reach out to customers to promote specials and events.
Monthly Newsletter
74% of respondents used email as a way to send a monthly newsletter highlighting upcoming events, new menu features, seasonal recipes and restaurant specials. Restaurant owners reported that their newsletters were excellent opportunities to include photos of menu items and special events, or photos of customers enjoying dinner at the restaurant. Most owners stated that the purpose of the email newsletter is to encourage, and through the use of vibrant, professional looking newsletters, restaurants were seeing the largest return rate.
Coupons
63% of respondents used email to send out coupons. This is one of the main reasons that customers sign up for email lists to begin with—promises of discounts and coupons. Through email, coupons can be delivered in a timely manner and can be targeted to the customer base that would be more inclined to use them. They can also be used to bring more customers in on days that tend to be slower and restaurant owners can control the length of time these coupons are valid. The best part is that most customers now have email access on their smartphones, which means that they are able to pull up these coupons from their phones or portable notebooks and redeem them without damaging any trees in the process.
Announcements
59% of respondents use email to send out special announcements about new menu items, new chefs, new offerings (such as a party room or menu special) or information about the restaurant’s growth.
No comments:
Post a Comment