Restaurant marketing emails are the tastiest

Recent stats released by permission-based email marketing company Sign-Up.to revealed that restaurant marketing emails have the highest open (25.5%) and click-through (6.14%) rates after Government communications! Both figures were well above the all-sector averages of 17.98% and 3.56% respectively.

So, thanks to the UK public’s love of food and eating out, you already have a great head start in ensuring your emails are received and opened by their intended recipients – provided they are executed correctly of course. However, good opening and click-through rates don’t necessarily guarantee an increase in business…

Closing the loop in real time

The three most important questions to ask yourself before writing, designing and sending an email are:

1) What action do I want my customers to take when they receive my email?
Or in marketing terms, what is the ‘call to action’? e.g. Making a booking, becoming a Facebook fan or Twitter follower?

And

2) Can the customer actually complete that call to action quickly and easily?
Are you actually closing the loop on the sale? Growing your fans, followers and database right there and then? Don’t forget, your email recipients may not be opening your email when your restaurant is open, so make sure you include a link to make a confirmed booking online (not just a telephone number that may ring through to an answerphone).

3) Can my email recipients forward and share my email to friends and colleagues easily?
Don’t forget to add social network sharing links to your emails to increase distribution – if you have a strong call to action, people will want to spread your words to their friends. Make it easy for them by including a link to Twitter or Facebook.

You have a matter of seconds to attract attention and get the sale before they get bored and delete the email. Make your call to action obvious, measurable and immediately actionable – in real time.

For some great tips on planning and executing the ultimate successful email campaign, come along to our next FREE Livebookings Academy in London. Register online today at www.livebookings.co.uk/news_and_events

By Louise Routledge in Blog, Email Marketing, Louise's Column, Restaurant Marketing, Social Media Marketing