Email marketing, or rather: sending newsletters to restaurant guests – is this even relevant for the dining industry? The real question is: Can you, as a restaurateur, afford to ignore the topic at all? After all, guest loyalty is becoming more important than ever in the face of rising costs and competitive pressure. In this article, we clarify why it pays off to get started now and how to do it successfully.
(Written by Max Falkenstern. This article was originally published in German and has been updated and translated for our English-speaking audience.)
What is Email Marketing?
Email marketing is one of the most effective channels for guest loyalty alongside social media. Qualification plays a significant role in this: interested parties actively sign up for the email newsletter or give their consent to receive your emails.
Conversely, this means your contacts signal (genuine) interest in your business. This is a form of attention and appreciation that you can “repay” in your mailings, for example, through exclusive news and special promotions.
But while most restaurants maintain a company profile on Facebook and Instagram, sending newsletters is a real missed opportunity in the dining industry.
Possibly because there is a lack of understanding or restaurateurs shy away from the actually quite manageable investments.
Benefits of Email Marketing for Restaurants – there is Potential here!
The fact that it’s often overlooked is a genuine dilemma, because email marketing holds a lot of potential for the restaurant industry:
- Surveys by GetResponse, a newsletter software provider, show that the open rates of restaurant mailings are above the industry average at over 30 percent.
- At the same time, the study by the British Data & Marketing Association (DMA) estimates the return on investment (ROI) of newsletter marketing at the equivalent of €48 per euro invested. The cost-benefit ratio is therefore optimal for the hospitality industry with its thin margins.
- The costs for acquiring new guests are on average up to five times higher than investments in keeping existing ones. Email marketing is a suitable tool for reactivating regular guests for a restaurant visit.
- Email newsletters have a significant impact on purchasing decisions: 6 out of 10 consumers state, according to Salecycle, that they have completed a purchase based on an email offer in their inbox.
- Social media channels Facebook and Instagram have been drastically reducing organic reach for years; without paid advertising, it is difficult to reach your target audience.
- Data is the new gold: With a well-maintained contact list (including your loyal regular guests), you remain independent of platforms and their interests.
The bottom line is that a low risk is offset by a potentially high reward.
Guideline: The earlier you start with email marketing for your restaurant, the faster you build your own valuable contact list and can encourage your loyal regular guests to visit again.
Modern Email Marketing – Personalized and Needs-oriented
The most important thing about email marketing to remember: Nobody likes spam.
We all know from our private lives how annoying unwanted promotional mail in the email inbox can be. However, not all promotional emails are spam, more specifically: Relevant promotional emails are not spam. Because the main purpose is not to impose your messages just to sell “something”. Quality over quantity is required.
Successful email marketing in the restaurant industry works through direct, honest communication that is tailored to the needs and interests of your guests.
But how can this rule be translated into the practical reality of the hospitality industry?
Two simple examples of how it works well and less well:
| What not to do | What to do 👍 |
|---|---|
| The newsletter about the breakfast offer goes to all guests, regardless of their preferences. | The new brunch menu goes to your breakfast guests with a personal address – combined with an exclusive discount code and the option to buy a gift voucher directly online. |
| Guests who have been absent for a longer period of time receive the same mailings as your regular guests – and eventually stop opening them altogether. | Guests who have been absent for a longer time receive their own reactivation email: short, personal, and with a concrete reason to come back. |
Note: The more targeted the approach to your target audience is, the lower your wasted reach will be.
On top of that, you can measure the success of your email marketing campaign immediately after sending. Depending on the type and goal of your mailing, these can be key figures that go beyond the usual metrics such as open and click rates, thereby creating an understanding of the amount of additional revenue you have generated via your email newsletter.
Illustrated by the above chart with the breakfast buffet, these could be …
- … the number of newly acquired reservations for the breakfast brunch,
- … redeemed discount coupons at the end of the promotion,
- … sold gift vouchers,
- … ordered “to-go” breakfast menus if you offer a pick-up or delivery service.
The prerequisite for this is that email newsletters are linked to a call to action appropriate to the purpose.
Create a Newsletter for Your Restaurant in 3 Simple Steps
Step 1 – Reaching your goal with good preparation
If you want to approach email marketing for your restaurant correctly, you should at least have a rough plan in place as a first step.
A few thoughts on this:
- Choosing the right tool: You need an email newsletter service provider to send business-related emails. The selection is huge with providers like Brevo, GetResponse, Mailchimp, and Rapidmail. But more important than the range of functions for the dining industry is that the email marketing software is closely integrated with the reservation system and the contact list for receiving newsletters builds up automatically (see advantages of resmio)
- Success stands and falls with your contact list. Logical, because the potential reach results from the list size. Use your contact points with the guest to promote signing up. A good incentive could be a welcome gift (such as a coffee on the house).
- Your core message: What do you actually want to tell guests? Think about what information could be exciting and relevant to your target audience. Write down your ideas. Examples include special offers (Happy Hour, asparagus weeks, etc.), new menus, exciting events, recipes for your guests’ favorite dishes, a look behind the scenes of the kitchen/service, important information about opening and business hours…)
- Gathering your marketing assets: To be able to implement ideas, you primarily need content. A preliminary inventory can help to check what material you already have and what you might still need to produce. Your high-resolution logo and high-quality photos are obvious examples, but also a mobile-optimized website with a reservation widget. After all, you don’t just want to inform, you also want to actively fill tables.
- Sending frequency: This ties in with the question of the sending frequency, i.e., how often you can send a newsletter. Aim for regular sending apart from special occasions, but stay realistic. If you are new to email marketing, a monthly interval is enough to gain initial experience.
Step 2 – Choosing your template
The good news first: You don’t have to be a designer or master programming languages to create a representative newsletter. Practically all software providers on the market offer practical email templates, sorted by purpose and industry, which you then only need to adapt to your brand identity with a few clicks.
- Your restaurant as a brand: Use your logo, house colors, and, if applicable, corporate font. This gives your newsletters a signature that is unmistakable for your guests. Keep the look consistent across all mailings.
- Structure provides orientation: The layout of your restaurant newsletter should allow the core content of the email to be grasped quickly. A standard layout includes the header with logo, a featured image, one (or more) text blocks, and a footer at the end of the email.
- Focus on mobile devices: Most guests read on their smartphones, which influences the email design: a single-column layout, large buttons, and generous line spacing are essential. If the form isn’t right, very few will engage with the content!
- Mandatory information in the footer: Emails sent to guests must contain mandatory legal information about the sender, which is basically quite similar to the legal notice on a website. This includes the restaurant name or company name including the legal form (e.g., LLC, Inc…), the address, and current contact details.
- Data protection compliance: An easily discoverable unsubscribe link in the footer is required by data protection laws and is therefore an absolute must in business emails. Reputable providers have taken precautions to prevent the unsubscribe link from being removed (by mistake) and getting you into trouble.
Step 3 – Sending the newsletter
Now that your template is ready, it’s time to bring your mailings to life. Following the concept of the attention economy, restaurateurs should always keep in mind that guests’ attention is a scarce commodity.
Guideline: Give the guest a compelling reason to engage with your email newsletter right from the subject line. The actual newsletter content should then ultimately fulfill expectations. The Call-to-Action (a button or link) should then guide them directly into your restaurant.
Some basic tips for successful restaurant newsletters:
- Subject line has priority: It is often decisive for whether contacts actually open your email newsletters. The optimal subject text is a maximum of 60 characters long and arouises curiosity. Advertising jargon (e.g., “free”, “sexy”, or “urgent”) is taboo. Personalized features like the guest name (“Markus, your invitation to the steak dinner is ready!”) strengthen guest loyalty enormously.
- Newsletter content as long as necessary, as short as possible: Better focus on a core message instead of trying to cram as many topics as possible into one email newsletter. This approach also helps you to guide guests towards a concrete action (such as a reservation).
- Use images sparingly: 1 to 2 photos enhance your email newsletters. More unnecessarily bloats your emails. Also keep in mind: Your recipients must first agree to the display of images. Therefore, your newsletters must basically also work without them.
- Encourage guests to take action: Your new lunch menu is all well and good, but in the end, it’s the reservations actually generated via email that count. A clearly visible button or link directly to your online reservation widget or your restaurant website builds the bridge to a visit.
- It’s better to check than to assume: Especially when you have developed an email newsletter template for the first time, a test send to a private email address is worthwhile. Open the email on your smartphone and briefly check: Core message immediately clear? Images high resolution? Links working? No typos? All legal information present?
- Determine the time of sending: There is a lot of (sometimes contradictory) information on the optimal time, general advice is hardly possible. It is conceivable to link the timing to the desired goal of your email: More reservations on Valentine’s Day? Then you should promote the event in several emails before it starts, about 4 weeks in advance, a week before, and last-minute (one day before, provided capacities allow).
Send Restaurant Newsletters easily via resmio
Dealing with specialized newsletter service providers, importing and segmenting guest lists, building practical newsletter templates – yes, that can be nerve-wracking for busy restaurateurs.
Taking your first steps is less complicated with the email marketing software from resmio.
An email newsletter tool is already firmly integrated into our digital reservation system and closely linked to the guest database and all other services.
In practice, this opens up many decisive advantages:
- Your contact list grows fully automatically without you having to do anything with your online reservations: guests can also sign up for the email newsletter directly via the form when booking a table.
- Pre-segmented recipient groups (e.g., guests with longer absence) and matching email templates support you in addressing your guests in a targeted manner.
- The direct link with table reservations, digital menus, as well as the coupon and ticket system from resmio makes it easier for you to motivate guests to take a desired action.
- Automatically sent guest emails for reservation requests, for online orders, and for gaining authentic restaurant reviews noticeably relieve you in your everyday work.
- Focus on easy operation: Select campaign goal, supplement suitable template with your own content and subject line, done!
Your restaurant deserves more: Try resmio 30 days for free!
Conclusion – Email Marketing is also Indispensable for Customer Retention in the Restaurant Industry
It is never too late to start dealing with email marketing.
Emails are among the most effective channels for increasing sales and long-term guest loyalty. Effort and costs are manageable compared to the benefits, which is why independent studies attest marketing via email an excellent return on investment (ROI). The success of your newsletters is also measurable in real time immediately after sending.
Getting started in email marketing is easy because most providers on the market have user-friendly solutions up their sleeves and offer cost-effective tariffs for beginners. Even more effective is the integration of the reservation system and the newsletter tool, as offered by resmio, for example. Sign-ups collected via the online reservation form land right in your contact list, which you can then address directly with a mailing.
A major advantage of email marketing is that the contact list remains in your hands – this makes you, as a restaurateur and entrepreneur, more independent of the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram. In a world where data is traded as the new oil or gold, you gain a decisive competitive advantage with a well-maintained contact list.
