By Liz Slyman, Contributor
You’ve achieved a whole lot. You’ve launched a brand, started a restaurant, employed staff, made mouthwatering food, and have come a long way since you started. But email marketing still causes internal panic.
So, you’ve pushed it aside. But all of the gurus and articles you read about business ownership in 2022 say that you have to gain a presence in email marketing.
You’ve decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot. But you have no idea where to start.
Luckily for you, that’s what we’re here for — to help you, as a restaurant owner, create your first welcome sequence. This article will teach you why investing your time in email marketing is a must, what a welcome sequence does, and what should be included in each email.
So, swap your chef's hat for your marketer's cap, and let’s get cookin’!
Is Email Marketing Effective for Restaurants?
Yes, email marketing does work for restaurants. Let’s consider the premise of email marketing. This method of marketing uses electronic mail (email) to promote products or services. In your case, it will be used to promote your restaurant.
Whether you run a restaurant or you sell candles online, the method is the same. However, the way in which you implement the method will vary, and the content inside will adjust from business to business and industry to industry.
For email marketing to work, you’ll need to build up your list. Once you have a solid email list full of customers, you can use email marketing to promote any new menus, special deals, or other news that can drive revenue.
So, in a nutshell, the answer is yes. Email marketing is effective for restaurants.
What Can Email Marketing Offer My Restaurant Business?
There is a massive range of benefits that email marketing can offer your business. In summary, email marketing can transform your restaurant by:
1. Building long-lasting relationships with customers
We all know that service is a key component of a good restaurant. So, view your email marketing as an extension of your service staff.
Email marketing is more than just sharing content and valuable information. While this may be applicable to some industries, the restaurant industry uses email marketing in a more extensive way to create customer loyalty. Every restaurant strives to be the "go-to" restaurant in the area. The restaurant customers refer to others and bring visitors for dinner. Email marketing helps you do that by sending thank you emails for recent visits and offering restaurant loyalty discounts.
2. Capture feedback easily via email marketing
Most email marketing software out there offer surveys incorporated into your emails. Most service-based businesses — specifically if they’re digital — ask for feedback via a form after the service has been paid for and completed. That’s not done in restaurants; so often, the only time you hear any feedback about a visitor's experience is when they’re complaining.
Often, feedback is at its best when it’s completed in a calm manner. Rather than relying on your customers to leave a review on TripAdvisor, sending a specific survey with questions designed by your restaurant allows for a clearer view of the experience your visitors have when they’re at your restaurant.
3. Use email marketing to gain more customers during the slow periods
Restaurants and bars are bound to face slow periods. It’s part of the business. But you don’t need to take that lying down. You can use email marketing to battle against the slow periods. Offering deals that function through exclusivity, promotion, and general restaurant campaigns through email marketing can make a real difference, pulling in customers to your restaurant, even in the quietest of times.
4. Fewer expenses to pay, more impact to make
Restaurants pay heaps of expenses. Why add printing costs for pamphlets (that almost always go into the recycling bin) for no good reason? Every time you release a new item on a menu, you need to reprint it all. Plus, you’ve likely hired a professional designer to keep everything on-brand. It all adds up, and it gets pretty expensive.
But email marketing will help reduce those expenses. When a customer books a table using an online booking system, you can set up a trigger to send an up-to-date PDF of your menu to their email address.
What Goes in My Email Welcome Sequence for Restaurants?
Now you have a solid understanding of why you should invest in email marketing for your restaurant business, you should draw your attention to your welcome sequence.
What Is a Welcome Sequence in Email Marketing?
A welcome sequence is a series of emails that send on automation after being triggered. Usually, the trigger is set to “when someone joins your list.” This means that, after a lead enters in their email address and submits it, the sequence will start.
The welcome sequence differs from other sequences because it’s the very first series of emails a lead comes into contact with from your brand. Its purpose, according to the reader, is to welcome and nurture them, allowing them to become familiarized with your restaurant.
However, a welcome sequence does so much more than provide introductions.
What Does a Welcome Sequence Do for My Restaurant?
Welcome sequences only work — and by “work” we mean convert — when goals are set. There’s little to no point in setting up a welcome sequence for the sake of it. Instead, there needs to be a clear promotion at the end of the sequence. For non-restaurant-based businesses, it can include a 1:1 call, training, or further free material. However, for restaurants, their end goal needs to be something like:
Make a reservation
Book a private party
Sample a favorite item on the menu
And so on, so forth.
You need a clear end promotion to lead up to, and this needs to feed into your goals. If, for example, you’re hoping to gain more guests for a certain time of day, your welcome sequence needs to build up to that.
Every restaurant will have its own promotion at the end of its welcome sequence, but it’s important to think carefully about your choice. It needs to be evergreen. This means that it needs to be unchangeable. Your welcome sequence is designed to run in the background, meaning it won’t need to be touched once you know it’s functioning properly (I.e., converting to customers).
How Many Emails Should My Welcome Sequence Have?
The answer to this question depends on your overall goals and purpose. That said, you should aim for between 4-6 emails for the best conversion response.
Email One: Welcome
The first email in your welcome sequence should welcome your leads to your list. It should be written in a way that’s warm and friendly, and deliver on the lead magnet you’ve provided.
For example, if your lead magnet was an updated menu, this is the email you’d deliver it with. Or, perhaps you used a coupon as your lead magnet, allowing for two-for-one on cocktails. (I’d jump at this!). The coupon would be provided in this email. It should be short and sweet, and simply deliver what you have promised.
Email Two: Set Expectations
As with any business, your email marketing campaign’s success relies on one key word: consistency. Don’t mistake this for frequency, as many do when they first start email marketing. They go in with the intention of sending an email every day, appearing time and time again in their lead’s inbox.
That’s not what consistency is about. Instead, it’s about appearing in someone’s inbox as a routine. That doesn’t mean you need to do so every day. If you can, then great! But there’s no need. Simply decide how often is feasible for you and your team. If that’s once every two weeks, that’s fine, just make sure you stick to it.
The second email in your welcome sequence will tell your readers what to expect now that they’re signed up to your list. Explain what type of content you’ll be delivering, where else they can find you, and how often you’ll be sending them emails.
Email Three: What Sets You Apart?
Now that your list knows what to expect from you, it’s time to put that into action. At this point, you’ll want to introduce members of the team and/or your restaurant as a whole. Consider your unique selling point, and place that at the forefront of your mind. This needs to ooze throughout your email.
Email Four: Introduce an Offer
The next two emails are hard-selling emails. They’re all about promoting the offer that you determined before you started writing. So, if that’s a “3-course meal with a 10% loyalty discount,” or if it’s a “discount for tables of four or more guests,” you can put that into motion with this email. It’s all about sensory language. You want to aim to have your reader’s mouths watering at the very mention of your restaurant. You could even include a photo or video that summarizes the experience they can expect when they book.
Email Five: Create Urgency
Sometimes, people need a little nudge. You can do that by creating urgency in your email, and this is the right place to do it. You’ll need to reword your previous email and add a dash of urgency by telling your reader that it’s a one-time welcome offer that expires in 24-48 hours.
What Happens After the Welcome Sequence Finishes?
After your welcome sequence has come to an end, you can set up a trigger to funnel certain leads into a different sequence. For example, if a lead acted on your offer and booked a table using the code provided in emails four and five, they could enter a new series that preps them for their visit. If they didn’t book, that could push them into a different sequence that aims to re-engage and sell in a different way.
About the Author
Over the past decade, Liz Slyman has worked as a copywriter and digital marketing executive for a multitude of companies from startups to and mid-sized businesses to working as the VP of marketing for award-winning, platinum-selling artists. Leveraging an understanding of the nuance of language in marketing, Liz founded Amplihigher, a content marketing and copywriting agency, designed to connect consumers to companies in a way that results in next-level brand expansion.
