EMAIL MARKETING
Email marketing is dead, right? Honestly, nothing could be farther from the truth. Email marketing isn’t just sending out emails. It’s a tool for data collection, consumer relationship building, & targeted messaging and is a vital tool to have in your restaurant’s arsenal. Read more below for email marketing tips, benefits, and platform pros & cons.
Email Marketing Tips
Email marketing is much more than just data collection & annoying spam emails. Timing is a crucial component of the effectiveness of your emails. The majority of people are connected to their digital devices for most of the day, however they are more likely to read and interact with a marketing email during the last couple hours of the workday.
Think about it, they’ve been working all day, are probably hungry, & are just ready to take their mind off whatever they’ve been dealing with all day. Your email filled with pictures of juicy burgers & fruity cocktails lands in their inbox right around the time they are about to get off & boom! Guess where they want to go for dinner? Bonus if you include a coupon or incentive for them to stop by.
Benefits of Email Marketing
Database Building – customers either signed up for your newsletter or already ordered from your establishment and provided an email. You’ve got them hooked, now keep feeding them!
Brand Awareness – Reconnect with customers who are already familiar with your brand & reinforce their relationship with your establishment.
Affordable Marketing for Restaurants – Several email platforms now have the ability to track customer journeys at a cost-effective price. These are great for smaller restaurants or bars that have a limited database to start.
Real Time Engagement – People are constantly connected to their mobile device. Email Marketing allows your business to appear directly in their inbox as opposed to social media which they may or may not see.
Drive Traffic to Your Website – By including clickable and interesting content within your email, you can drive traffic to your website & ultimately your business. Increasing traffic to your website is an important aspect of being seen on the web. Learn more about why this should be a top priority for the digital presence of your business on our SEO page.
Overview
Now that you have a few email marketing tips under your belt & the knowledge as to why it is an important aspect of your business’s marketing efforts, the next step is to pick a platform to execute your plan. Below you will find some of the most popular email marketing platforms that restaurants can use for their marketing efforts.
Integrated Emails
Most Content Management Systems, or CMS’s and Point of Sale, or POS Systems offer integrated email marketing as part of their platform. While this is a convenient option for data collection, it is not always the most robust in terms of analytical tools or customization. However, if your restaurant plans on offering marketing techniques like loyalty programs for your restaurant, this may be the solution for keeping your database in one place.
Constant Contact
Constant Contact is an older platform than Mailchimp & does not have a free plan. That being said, Constant Contact does offer some powerful marketing tools as well as a cleaner interface for sorting contacts. While both Mailchimp & Constant Contact offer templates to create your email, Constant Contact has slightly more customization for each of theirs in terms of visual coding. Both platforms offer automation for their customers, but Constant Contact charges at minimum $45 for this feature while Mailchimps is available on their $13 Essentials plan.
Mailchimp
Mailchimp is the most popular email marketing platform & is pretty universal when it comes to integration with websites, POS systems, & other marketing tools. It is a great way for a smaller restaurant to keep in touch with customers & offers a free plan with 500 contacts and 2,500 email sends per month. In addition, Mailchimp also offers great analytical tools that measure the effectiveness of each email campaign you send as well as automation for welcome emails, ‘abandoned cart’ emails, retargeting emails & for paid plans, and an even more extensive customer journey tracker.How An Email Marketing Agency Can Help
Embark Marketing offers email marketing management as part of our packages. We offer set-up, database integration, monthly newsletter creation, automation monitoring, & analytical audits to ensure your emails are effective & generating revenue for your business.
For new businesses, we can assess & determine which system will integrate best with your budget, audience, & goals. For existing businesses, we can work with your already existing systems to ensure you are getting the most out of your email marketing & customers through your door.