Restaurant email marketing guide: your recipe for success

Social media, paid search and ads play a role, but email marketing is by far the easiest and most effective way to get more customers into your restaurant or cafe. As the most established digital marketing channel, email continues to grow with an expected 4.3 billion users by 2022!

If that figure whets your appetite, wait until you hear some of the other advantages of restaurant email marketing:

• It drives customer retention. The profitability of your restaurant depends on your ability to get customers and keep them coming back. When it comes to retaining customers, email marketing is 56% more effective than any other method.

• It's a direct line to the customer. Whether you need a review or you want to promote a special menu, email marketing gives you a direct line to your customers and has a level of personalization few channels can match.

• It's cheaper than social and gives you more control. The organic reach of your Facebook page keeps steadily declining while the cost of running ads keeps increasing. With email marketing, you control how and when you communicate with your customers.

• It gives customers what they want. Not only is it a cost-effective way to reach your customers; studies confirm that people actually prefer receiving special offers and promotional content through email.

Convinced that creating an email marketing plan for your restaurant is a smart move? In this guide, we’ll show you how to:

• Build a restaurant email list

• Create engaging restaurant newsletters

• Craft appetizing email subject lines

Plus we’ll top it off with some mouth watering restaurant newsletter best practices and ideas to help you get started today! →

The first thing you need when developing an email marketing strategy is subscribers. The more subscribers you have, the more bookings you can generate through your campaigns.

We cover how to grow a high-quality email list in another ultimate guide.

While it might seem daunting at first, growing your list is pretty straightforward. It just takes patience and consistency. You already have customers that visit your restaurant, social media profiles and website every day.

All you need to do now is start collecting their email addresses. Here are 8 tried-and-true ways to grow your email list both online and off:

1. Offer free Wi-Fi in exchange for an email address 

Requiring a person to accept certain terms and conditions to use Wi-Fi isn’t new or offensive. Provide an opt-in form to access the restaurant's Wi-Fi and watch your email list take off. You can easily do that with the help of Bloom Intelligence integration.

2. Put marketing copy in strategic places

Take advantage of the times when first-time restaurant patrons are actively taking in written information. Include your website URL and messaging that encourages patrons to sign up. You can add your message to your menus, posters and even at the bottom of receipts.

Make the call-to-action (CTA) enticing! For example, "Join our mailing list to be notified about upcoming beer tastings!"

Are you stuck for ideas about how to influence your subscribers to take a particular course of action? Learn how to create an effective CTA in this guide.

A well-designed table tent with an offer for a free dessert or an enticing event like a cooking workshop can also lead to the collection of email addresses.

👉 Tip: Use a QR code to encourage immediate sign-up.

3. Have a server or cashier ask for an email address after the meal 

The most obvious time to ask is after customers have had a positive dining experience.

Train your staff to be able to talk about the benefits of your mailing list and offer something desirable in exchange. (20% off the next meal, a free gourmet coffee drink...think about an incentive your customers would want and go with it.) 

4. Include a customer comment card with the bill 

Yes, it’s old school, but many people enjoy filling things out while waiting to settle their bill. While you’ve got their attention, and they have a pen in hand, ask if they’d like to be added to your list to receive future emails about exclusive content and discounts—and boost customer loyalty in the process.

5. Leverage mobile payment apps 

If you use Square (the most popular POS in the US), it automatically sends digital receipts to your customers. Ask them to enter their email to get the receipt and give them an opportunity to opt-in for important restaurant news and deals.

Your offline marketing efforts may lead to an online customer experience, so let’s not forget those online tactics.

6. Utilize pop-up forms

You can add pop-ups on your restaurant website, giving visitors a simple way to share their email addresses. Choose between time-based, welcome mat, scroll-triggered, hello bar or exit intent pop-ups.

Here's an example of a pop-up on the homepage of the FOGO De CHAO steakhouse.

7. Embed opt-in forms on your website

You can also choose to embed an opt-in form on your website. It can be on your sidebar or any page you choose.

Here's an example of a simple embedded opt-in form on the Tovala homepage.

8. Create a landing page

If you have a social media presence, you can leverage that to grow your list. Simply create a landing page that contains an opt-in form and add the link to your social media profiles. You can even share a link to your landing page every once in a while.

Here's an example of an opt-in landing page used by Tutti Frutti.

For more inspiration, you can visit our restaurant landing page example gallery.

Whichever method you use to collect email addresses, make sure you offer an incentive for people to subscribe.  

Once you have an email list, the next step is to engage those customers. Treat them like you would patrons in your restaurant.

Entertain them with interesting content while you have their undivided attention. We go in-depth on how to craft email content people care about at the following guide.

That means you shouldn't just store their email addresses and send an email when you want to promote something. There are plenty of other things you can share. Here are some restaurant content ideas:

• New or seasonal menu items

• Birthday email wishes

• Upcoming special events

• Happy hour promotions

• Recipes and reheating tips

• Loyalty program for regular customers

• Exclusive discounts, coupons, and gift card deals

• Surveys

• Employee profiles

• Requests for reviews

• Instructions on how to order online, schedule a delivery or make reservations

• Simple thank you from the restaurant owner

Your aim is to provide value for your subscribers at every interaction. Get creative!

Here's another excellent example of a restaurant email from Swiss Chalet. Notice the image of delicious food and candles on the table that show off their new menu items. Images like these can inspire positive feelings in the minds of readers and give them a desire to come in and actually taste that food.

Unopened emails never get read, so let’s talk about the importance of subject lines. Getting a customer to open an email is the first step to getting them in your restaurant.

Similar to writing engaging content, you need to think of subject lines that they will care about. 

How do you do that? We explain how to email subject lines to boost open rates with this ultimate guide.

Pique their interest and make their stomachs growl! Here are some subject line examples you can use for inspiration.

This post wouldn't be complete without some examples of restaurant email templates to inspire your own campaign.

Not sure how to design emails that people will read? We break down how to do this in another guide that walks you through planning the layout of the email and its visual composition.

In this promotional email, Olive Garden uses great imagery to entice their subscribers and ends by offering them a discount on their next meal.

Omaha Steaks proposes quick and delicious meals at home. Notice how they incentivize customers to purchase by including an offer to get a free skillet with 4 meals.

It's clear that enticing food images are typical of restaurant emails and they help your email newsletter stand out. Pizza Express uses them to promote their new menus while zeroing in on the Meat Free Monday trend.

In this email, Panna uses their email newsletter to grow their community on social media, which gives them even more ways to reach their loyal customers.

The Gladstone Inn utilizes personalization to send subscribers a gift voucher leading up to their birthdays. They even include an option to book online or over the phone in one click within the newsletter so that subscribers can book their birthday dinner on the spot.

Need more inspiration? Visit our food-related newsletter example gallery for more great restaurant marketing ideas!

Email marketing is something all restaurants should be taking advantage of, as it delivers the greatest return on investment of any marketing channel.

It’s not molecular gastronomy. 

Your recipe for success:  

• Gather subscribers for your email list using both offline and online restaurant email marketing strategies.

• Always create compelling subject lines. A single opened email could lead to lifelong patronage at your restaurant or cafe.

• Engage with your customers often, sharing stories, promotions, coupons, surveys, employee profiles, recipes and more.

• Employ email marketing best practices such as email automation, responsive email design, personalization, branding, and A/B testing to improve your messaging and your reach.

With marketing emails, remember to treat your new subscribers as you would your dine-in customers. Listen, give them exactly what they want and create a positive experience that they want to repeat. Make your customers hungry for more and watch them come through the door!

Are you using any of these email marketing best practices for your restaurant or cafe?