Email marketing is a powerful tool for restaurants, especially for those looking to grow their revenue and connection with guests. In fact, according to a recent survey from Popmenu, 71% of consumers prefer to receive emails over texts—proving just how effective of a tool email can be. In this article, we’ll explore the key components of an effective email strategy for restaurants and show how email marketing can help increase revenue for your business.

Plan Ahead

The first step to building an effective email campaign is finding something valuable to share with guests through thoughtful planning. Upcoming events, special topics, and limited-time offers are all excellent touchpoints that give diners a reason to place an order or plan their next visit. Looking for some inspiration for your restaurant’s next event? Our blog, 33 Restaurant Event Ideas, is the perfect place to start!

In addition to planning what your emails will cover, it’s important to decide when your emails will go out to your audience. It’s best practice to schedule 2-4 messages in advance to ensure consistent contact with your guests, and to avoid the stress of a last-minute email send!

Emporium Thai, a family-owned Thai restaurant in LA, makes the most of every event by planning a month ahead and developing engaging email content. The email below promoted this year’s DineLA Restaurant Week. By including detailed information about an upcoming event and providing a special offer, the restaurant was able to earn over $200 in online ordering revenue and set a new record with full bookings for DineLA. Talk about impactful email marketing!

Have Consistent Email Design & Copy

A key component to crafting an email that drives revenue is a branded and visually engaging message. Elements like colors, fonts, and tone should be consistent throughout every campaign. You should also use high-quality images of your menu items and behind-the-scenes glimpses of the kitchen to help tell your restaurant’s story. The use of movement through gifs is a great way to add a special touch to your message and guide your readers’ eyes right to where you want them to look.

Of course, we can’t forget the main course of an email; the copy! When writing content for your email, it’s important to maintain a consistent and recognizable voice. You’ll want to keep the copy short and sweet, only getting detailed on the most important information to drive the desired results. That includes details for an event or special offer, info on why the email matters to your readers, and a call-to-action (CTA) that shows your audience what step they should take next (more on that in the next section!).

Popmenu client, La Cabaña Venice, has seen great success with email marketing, generating over $54k through direct email marketing to their subscribers. In the example below, La Cabaña Venice effectively represented their brand by including their logo, high-quality images of their most popular menu items, branded copy, and a clear CTA designed to drive results for their business.

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Feature a Clear Call-to-Action

Including a direct call-to-action (CTA), such as “Order Now” or “Reserve Your Table”, is easily the most important part of any email. Giving guests clear direction on the next action they should take will ensure better results from your email efforts. Dohatsuten Ramen & Tapas gets creative with their CTAs by tying them back to their brand and tone. A well-designed CTA like the one below can significantly boost conversion rates and generate more revenue. In fact, this single email generated over $500 in online ordering revenue. 

Provide Offers and Discounts

Embedding offers or discounts within an email is a great tactic to entice readers to open your emails and start placing an order. It provides a clear incentive to your readers, encouraging them to follow through on your CTA, and can make a big impact on goals like growing online ordering revenue. 

Woody’s Q, a Popmenu client in Alamosa, Colorado, leverages offers within their automated email marketing efforts by welcoming new followers with a free pulled pork sandwich. This encourages guests to place an order and helps Woody’s get new customers to sign up for their email list. Over the last 5 months, this one offer has generated the restaurant nearly $2,000 in online orders.

Automate Email Marketing

For those who don’t have the time to draft robust email marketing campaigns, automated emails can be a great way to deliver unique messages that are tailored to a specific guest. With tools like Popmenu, you can leverage customer data, like past orders, birth date, etc., to send emails with personalized offers, birthday wishes, loyalty rewards, and more. The system identifies actions that guests take on your website to ensure emails are sent at the perfect time, so all you have to do is the initial setup.

Popmenu Boost client, GIOIA Pizzeria, has seen tremendous success through their use of automated emails. The tool has generated the restaurant an impressive $24,000 in online ordering revenue, with $5,700 of that coming from a single guest in just over one year! These results demonstrate the powerful impact email marketing doesn’t always require a lot of work. To learn more about GIOIA's success with Popmenu, read our case study!

Monitor Performance

Reviewing the performance of your email efforts is a necessary step to any successful campaign. By taking into account open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and revenue generated from specific emails, you can learn what messaging works with your audience, and what messaging could use some tweaks. 

A/B testing is an effective strategy to test different elements of your email—such as subject lines, photos, offers, and CTA’s—to learn what resonates most with your audience. By sending different variations of the same email to smaller segments of your subscriber list, you can uncover which elements work best. This data-driven approach ensures the delivery of valuable content to your guests and can help optimize your email strategy so you can replicate successful campaigns over time.

Work with an Expert

If you’re beginning to incorporate the tips mentioned above, you’re well on your way to mastering the art of impactful email communication. Yet, we understand that putting these strategies into action can still be quite time-consuming, especially when you’re busy managing a restaurant! Popmenu Boost is here to help!

With Popmenu Boost, you partner with one of our marketing consultants who will leverage their marketing expertise and the Popmenu platform to help your restaurant achieve its goals. From devising and implementing effective email strategies to building meaningful connections with your restaurant’s guests through other marketing channels, Popmenu Boost can help you reach your revenue goals while saving you both time and money.

Ready to take your restaurant’s marketing to the next level? Visit our Boost page to learn more about the service and to schedule your demo today!

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