Restaurant Email Marketing - How to convert occasional customers into loyal customers
This articles takes a restaurant as a example for email marketing using newsletter. However, similar methods can be applied for several small business; whether you have a beauty saloon, pet shop, fitness center or any other business you are in.
The majority business owners think that their first time visitors will return to them in the future and give them more business. But this seldom takes place unless you take some steps to keep in touch with your one time and occasional customers. Email Marketing is one of the best means for this. We will take a look at how a restaurant can launch an electronic newsletter to be in touch with their one time, in frequent and loyal customers too.
Once a restaurant or any business wishes to start an email campaign, the very first thing is to look at building an email list. For the restaurant, they can start building the list from the restaurant itself. They can use comment cards for this by including an email sign up form in the comment card. Send the comment card and a pen along with the bill to the customer. Explain that the restaurant is doing a fortnightly or monthly newsletter with a lot of information, promos and special offers. Most of your customers will be happy to register. You can also offer an incentive for signing up; say 10% discount on the next bill or do a draw every month or two to pick one for a free dinner for two etc. You could also keep a bowl with a small sign saying "Drop your card and win a meal for two"
Next place to collect emails is your website; add a sign up form on your web - preferably on all pages. You can offer an incentive for people who register on your site.
One more area where you can gather emails are during door deliveries. Send a sign up form along with the delivery. Your customer can fill up the card and send it back with the delivery boy or bring it back themselves next time when they come to your restaurant and claim whatever incentives you are offering.
Once you have a sufficient number of customers signed up, you can start thinking of preparing the newsletter. First thing you need to determine is what to include in the newsletter. A good image of a dish will make the newsletter eye-catching. You can add a link to the menu on your site. If you do not have a menu on your site, you should add this right away. Never send the menu along with the newsletter, instead always place a link to the web. This way every time you update your menu, people will see the updated menu next time they access it through the newsletter link. One more thing you can insert is a link to your site where the route map and directions on parking and arriving to your restaurant by public transport is published. If you are offering Gift Cards, you can also advertise this on your newsletter.
You should also include your current offers, happy hour details and other promotions. If it goes well with your clients, you can also think of inviting recipes from your customers and publish the selected recipes on your site and give a link on the newsletter to the recipe.
Another thing you should include in your email campaign is sending out Xmas, New Year and other greetings; more importantly birth day wishes. In the sign up form your must add date of birth field with date and month only, not the year. This way most of your customers will enter their date of birth. You can then send out birth day wishes along with a birth day gift in the form of a special discount or free dinner valid for a month or so. People always be thankful for when they receive their birth day wish and a birthday present.
Now that you have your email list ready and have an idea of what to include in the newsletter you need a dependable email marketing and newsletter system. You can look at one of hosted solution that offers service for a monthly fee or look at setting your own email marketing solution.
Author Resource:
Learn more about email marketing and web development and get higher profit from your business. See the video presentation here. http://bit.ly/UcHv8P For more information on email marketing and web development, please visit Nucleus Web & Advertising. http://bit.ly/TbX0wA
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed
Print This Article
Add To Favorites
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.look4articles.com/images/rss.jpg "XML Feed For RSS")