Email open rates for the Restaurant Industry are 35.69%!

Restaurant email marketing is an inexpensive yet effective way to reach new customers, retain old ones and grow sales. The numbers don’t lie. A Statista study found that 269 billion emails were sent daily in 2017 and that number is expected to increase to 333 billion in 2022. This bodes well for restaurant email marketing. Research shows 68% of customers prefer to receive promotions and promo codes via email, and those who did spent 3x more than those who did not.

The success of any restaurant email campaign is largely dependent on your email list. While most business owners choose to purchase generic email lists, restaurants have many unique opportunities to collect email and other information from their patrons. Here are 6 tactics to build your email list and incentivize customers to come back to your restaurant.

1. A sign up sheet in the waiting area of your establishment is a great place to offer  customers an opportunity to subscribe to your newsletter for exclusive specials or to learn about new menu items.

2. Offer invites to special events or host contests requiring customers to enter by signing up via email.

3. Give customers who order food or make reservations online the option to receive marketing messages from you.

4. Provide your customers with a link to invite others rewarding them for every sign up that originates from that link.

5. Drive sign-ups via paid search or social media marketing campaigns.

6. One of your greatest resources is your wait staff. Encourage them to collect emails by giving them the tools to engage with patrons (i.e. ask your customers to complete a survey before or after their meal).

The best restaurant email marketing campaigns are built on organic email lists. Your subscribers opted-in to receiving messages from you so they are active and waiting to hear from you. Cement your relationship with relational emails and drive engagement with promotional emails. The benefits of email marketing for restaurants are numerous, and if it is not a part of your overall marketing strategy, you are missing out.