Email marketing is a powerful tool to drive repeat orders and boost diner loyalty. Not only do the majority of customers like to be contacted by brands via email according to surveys, the average Return on Investment for email marketing is $36 for every dollar spent. That makes restaurant email marketing a valuable channel for diners and for you.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through some best practices to ensure your emails stand out and drive orders. With our tips & suggestions, you’ll be able to leverage the power of restaurant email marketing to its fullest extent.

How to Collect Diner Email Information

With the constantly growing spread of online orders, it’s easier than ever to collect customer email information. The most convenient way is with a POS system or online ordering platform that captures diner emails at checkout. The only catch? Make sure you actually have access to the information that is being collected by your digital ordering system. Some programs will retain that data for themselves, but ChowNow ensures you always own all your customer data.

There are plenty of other ways to collect email addresses as well, including:

  • A signup page on your website.
  • A loyalty program that requires diners to create an account.
  • Reservation or catering forms.
  • Questionnaires or feedback forms.

You could even incentivize diners with a discount or promotion for joining your email contact list. Just remember, customers need to be able to opt-in and opt-out—you don’t want to come across like email spam.

Four Essential Restaurant Email Marketing Best Practices

No matter what kind of email you’re sending, we have some high-level tips to ensure your marketing efforts have the most impact.

Segment Your Audience

Not every email is going to apply to every diner, so make sure you’re only sending emails when it’s relevant. By segmenting your email list, you can ensure diners receive the communications most valuable to them, which makes it more likely that they will place an order. Cluttering a customer’s inbox with too many irrelevant emails is a surefire way to lose a customer’s email subscription! 

Once you have a sizable email list, you can segment it based on a variety of characteristics to target specific diners. Here are some factors that you should consider.

  • Customer frequency. An email to a new diner will be significantly different from an email for a frequent diner or a lapsed diner that you’re trying to win back.
  • Menu preferences. You can use past orders to create targeted, personalized emails. 
  • Location. If you have multiple locations with different menu items or promotions, you should only email relevant customers.

For typical email marketing efforts, customer frequency is the most important factor to consider. 

Use Clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

In marketing, a call-to-action is what you want the customer to take away from the communication. It’s the next step the customer should take now that they are aware of your announcement or offer. In email marketing, this is usually a button or link with a clear action like “Buy Now” or “Order Online”. You want your CTA to be clear and prominent in the email since it’s what turns your email into a new order/revenue.

Use Enticing Visuals

There’s an old saying when it comes to food preparation: we eat with our eyes first. When it comes to restaurant email marketing, high-quality, enticing visuals help draw in viewers and make them hungry for what you’re selling. You don’t have to be incredibly fancy, but you should always include appetizing images of your menu items to catch diners’ eyes.

Use Email Automation

Take some of the work off your plate with an automated email service. Such services make it easy to send well-designed emails on a regular schedule without the need to become an email marketing expert. ChowNow’s email designs, messaging and cadence have been optimized to maximize results—our Automated Email Marketing increases orders for our restaurant partners by as much as 60%. 

Five Email Marketing Ideas to Get You Started

Now that you have a handle on restaurant email marketing basics, here are five email ideas that you can easily implement.

Welcome New Diners

Make a strong first impression with an attractive welcome email. For one thing, they’re useful as a confirmation that customers have subscribed to your email services. More importantly though, they’re an opportunity to highlight your top menu items or offer a simple promotion to ensure diners come back, such as a free item with their next purchase.

Promote Your Preferred Ordering Channel(s)

Although it can be valuable to maintain a presence on multiple ordering platforms, some channels likely provide better profits to you. An email announcement—and a clear CTA—makes it easy to encourage diners to use those more profitable channels, especially commission-free direct ordering.

Offer Promotions

This will likely be your most frequent and valuable email format. Promotions are a great way to entice diners, and an email makes it easy to spread the word. Promotions can be sent to targeted audience segments, or you can create recurring emails that remind customers about your regular offers, like 10% off appetizers on Tuesdays. Even if you’ve been offering a promotion like this for a long time, a reminder in the customer’s inbox is an easy way to draw them back.

Promote New Menu Items

Whether it’s a brand-new item, a revamp of a familiar dish or a seasonal item available for a limited time, you need to make sure customers know about it. High-quality, enticing visuals in an email that focuses on the new item is a perfect way to highlight your menu updates.

Request Customer Feedback

Maintaining communication with your diners is an essential part of growing as a restaurant. Customer feedback helps you refine your business and customer reviews help promote your business. An email makes it easy to encourage your customers to share feedback either directly with you or through review aggregators like Google reviews. To learn how to master Google restaurant reviews, check out our blog with key tips and strategies.

Restaurant email marketing is one of the most useful tools for driving repeat orders from diners. New, current and lapsed customers respond well to the convenience and value of emails, and the flexible nature of emails means you can customize them to whatever you need to help drive profits. If you’re interested in maximizing your restaurant’s email marketing potential, check out ChowNow’s automated email marketing. You get the benefit of our expertise to help drive repeat business and increased revenue without any extra effort on your part. Schedule a demo to try it for your restaurant!