Email marketing is a fundamental component of successful restaurant marketing best practices.
When paired with a WiFi analytics and marketing platform, it provides an outstanding opportunity for inbound marketing, where customers who have already indicated interest in your company can be nurtured into loyal, higher-spending patrons.
In today's ultra-competitive restaurant industry, your email campaigns must be optimized for success.
This means making sure your emails are delivered properly, written to engage the customer, optimized for mobile, and timed correctly.
- Start with the Email Marketing List.
Building an email subscriber list is essential for successful email marketing campaigns.
Using a WiFi analytics and marketing platform, you can build your list passively. When users log into your WiFi, they enter their email address for access.
Over time, you can build thousands of subscribers in this manner - without lifting a finger.
Bloom will verify the email addresses and enter them into your database for easy segmenting and sending.
Most importantly, Bloom can provide engagement analytics, so you can track open rates, clicks, unsubscribes and offer redemptions on each email sent.
- The Email Message.
Speak authentically and conversationally, but get to the point.
Over half of all emails are now opened on a mobile device, so your email becomes the electronic equivalent of an elevator pitch.
You've got 30-seconds, you must make it good. Ideally, you want to hit 150-250 words.
You want to make sure your email sounds like it was written by a real person, with personality and a human touch.
Writing conversationally doesn’t mean to write like you talk.
It means to write so that it doesn’t sound like writing.
- Use words that your customers use
- Inject your brand’s personality
- Try to engage them with questions
- Make it a two-way conversation
- Keep sentences short
- Do not write for your high-school English teacher
It’s not about perfect grammar, it’s about sending a message which communicates ideas with clarity and personality.
In today’s world, consumers are generally looking for a reason to delete your email, not to open it.
A consistent and friendly message can help you get that email opened every time.
- Optimize Emails for Mobile.
Since a majority of emails are opened on mobile devices, when designing your campaign, keep in mind that not only do most people read emails on their phones, that's what they use when deciding where to eat.
Printable coupons don't do your diners as much good as a redemption code.
Also keep in mind that mobile screens are smaller than computer screens. If possible, use a responsive email template which will adjust to “fit” on a smaller mobile screen.
You should also use smaller file sizes for your images. This will decrease the load time of the images, allowing for a much better user experience. At the same time, you should increase the size of your font, links and call-to-action buttons.
When ready to send, make sure to send a test email to make sure it appears well on desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones.
- Measure, Analyze, and Revise Emails for Success.
Know the process and KPIs you are going to use to determine success.
A/B split testing can be a great way to know whether you get a larger pop from "$5 off a $25 purchase," or "20% off a $25 purchase".
Or perhaps your customers engage better with an image of a dessert, instead of an appetizer.
If one variation does better than another, continue using it and move on with another variable to test.
The testing possibilities are endless, look at the results closely and plan your next campaign accordingly.
- Timing is Important for Successful Email Marketing.
Email marketing can be used for things like driving holiday promotions, bringing in tourist money during a local festival, or livening up the slow days of the week.
When creating these types of campaigns, send your emails and reminders out in time for people to plan their visit, but not so far in advance that they are forgotten.
If you're having a Monday special, send your email out on Friday.
If you want to send a coupon to be used on a customer's birthday, send it out a week in advance so they will have time to weave a stop at your establishment into their plans.
Email marketing offers excellent ROI potential if executed properly.
You need a plan, it must be executed in accordance with best practices, and you need to see and understand the numbers on the backend.
Bloom Intelligence offers Wi-Fi marketing and analytics solutions tailored to drive subscriptions and customer engagement while measuring ROI on every campaign.
Repeat customers mean repeat profits.
Let us show you the power of professional inbound WiFi marketing today. Click here to schedule a free demo.