Restaurant Best Practices for Email Marketing Engagement

When you consider that 91% of all U.S. consumers use email every single day, and that emails prompt purchases 3 to 1 over social media, there’s no doubt that email marketing remains a powerful tool for restaurant businesses. That said, there’s an art to sending emails that your restaurant customers will actually open. Here are a few tips for creating engagement with your consumers through your email marketing campaign.

Tailor Restaurant Emails to the Individual Customer

The first and most important aspect of a successfully engaging email campaign is making your messages custom-tailored to the specific individual you are messaging. This is more than just including his or her name in the subject line. This customization also includes different messages and layouts based on factors such as age, gender, purchase history, click-through behavior and location. A recent survey reports that segmenting emails increases open rate as much as 39% and decreases unsubscribes by an average of 27%. Today’s email programs make it easy to segment your marketing messages, and given the advantages of doing so, there’s no reason not to include this level of targeted marketing in your email campaign.

Design Your Emails for Mobile & Social Compatibility

A second major factor that makes or breaks customer engagement in terms of emails is whether or not the email is mobile-friendly, easy to use and easy to share on social channels. Avoid large graphics that don’t render well on smartphones—especially if those graphics contain key details of your advertisement. Make your content clear and to the point. If there is action that can be taken (getting the customer to click-through somewhere) ensure that the bugs are worked out, the process you’re asking them to do is seamless and simple and that your message is easy to share with their friends. Even better—offer an additional incentive for sharing the offer with their own contacts.

Analyze Your Metrics to Fine-Tune Your Restaurant’s Email Marketing Campaign

You’ll hear it everywhere you look in the business world: analyze your metrics. Email marketing is no different. The only way you’re going to be able to tell which messages are working for you is to analyze your data. Use the information that you garner to fashion even better, exclusively targeted messages to your customers. Find ways to alter your approach to those segments that aren’t performing as well. Remember that open rates are just the beginning of understanding your numbers. Technology now enables us to follow the effectiveness of our email offers all the way to restaurant visits.

There’s no doubt email marketing can be a great way to drive revenue and customer engagement while having a high return on investment. Ensure that the emails you send are relevant to the consumer and sent at a frequency that makes sense for what you’re offering. Remember that being inundated or bored are the top reasons people leave mailing lists. Keep your messages targeted, timely and valuable to the consumer. Engagement is key to email marketing success.

Obtaining Useful Customer Feedback in Your Restaurant

Customer satisfaction means everything to a restaurant business. Fortunately, the easiest way to ensure that your customers are satisfied is to quite simply ask them for their feedback. Most people are happy to share their opinions—especially if they know that you will actually take action on the feedback they provide.

Asking people what you can do better before there is a reason to complain demonstrates your commitment to integrity and excellence. It makes your customers feel valued and underscores that you are committed to creating an enjoyable experience for them. Plus, you might be surprised at some of the good ideas your customers will offer! Here are the three main areas in which you can obtain useful customer feedback for your restaurant business.

Getting Feedback for Your Restaurant In-House

There’s no better time to ask for feedback on your customer’s experience with your restaurant than when they are right there on the premises and the experience is fresh in their minds. Ensure that you have feedback forms readily available, and train your servers to politely ask customers to fill them out to significantly increase your number of responses. Whether you use an old-school pen and paper, or include a digital feedback form in your point-of-sale system, don’t miss the opportunity to get fresh, in-the-moment feedback on how well you’re doing (or anything else you’re curious about, for that matter) right there, in-house.

Getting Feedback for Your Restaurant Through Online Mediums

The digital world offers another rich arena for you to gather feedback from your consumer base. Make sure that your restaurant’s website has a comment form and direct people’s attention to it by putting it on their receipts and sending your social media followers to it. You can also send your mailing list a survey via email. Ensure that the survey is easy to use and express how the feedback will be used to improve the restaurant. If you have an example of how you have taken positive action based on a customer comment, post it for everyone to see. People are more likely to take action if they know that you are really listening.

Useful Feedback Is Already Available in Your Restaurant’s Data

Whether or not you’re actively asking for it, your customers are always giving you useful feedback; you’ll find it in the numbers when you analyze your restaurant’s data. By doing this, you’ll be able to see not only which items you are selling the most (and least), but will also be able to discover trends in the sale of your products that you can take advantage of. Keeping a regular eye on these numbers is particularly easy if you’re running a digital or online ordering system.

The type of feedback you ask for is up to you. You should certainly try to gauge your customer’s satisfaction, but you can also gather feedback on anything else you might be curious about, such as that new menu item or latest change in décor. Some restaurants offer some form of incentive to customers in exchange for providing feedback, and if you’re comfortable giving something away, it will most likely increase your number of responses. That said, you also need to be careful not to undermine your brand’s reputation. Making customers feel that their feedback can really lead to change in the restaurant can be incentive enough in and of itself. However you do it, make sure you are doing it. Gathering customer feedback provides you with invaluable information that can help you run a better and more successful restaurant business.

3 Tips to Rev Up Special Offers and Successfully Introduce New Menu Items Through Social Media

One of the best aspects about social media is that it allows you to communicate with your restaurant’s customers instantaneously. This makes introducing new offers and menu updates a cinch. If it’s done correctly, social media can be a powerful tool to get your audience talking, induce incremental visits to your restaurant and build a loyal customer base. Here are three tips that will help to rev up your social media efforts, whether it is to introduce new items or simply better engage your community.

Design a Web Based Restaurant Menu, Optimized for Mobile

The most critical aspect of a successful online campaign, social media or not, is of course having a website that is properly designed and optimized for the web—and these days, that means optimized for mobile web viewing as well. Make sure that your menu, in particular, is web based and not a PDF. Web pages are easier to share on social media than PDFs, and they are easier for search engine bots to categorize and return as a search result. Social media sites can also pull more information, such as pictures, titles and descriptions, to include along with the post from a web page than it can from a PDF.

Smartphone use is, in some ways, driving the growth of social media, and it’s also critical that your webpages are properly designed for mobile if you want to properly utilize this form of marketing. Make a paired-down, to-the-point version of your site that is easy to read and takes customers to the information they’re looking for with as little hassle as possible.

A Good Picture of Your Restaurant’s Food Is Worth a Thousand Words

Nothing gets people interested in a new item more than a good picture of the taste-bud stimulating delight that awaits if they visit your restaurant. All social media networks have a strong visual component; some are designed exclusively around the sharing of images (Pinterest or Instagram, for example.) Posts that get shared are almost always those with a good picture. What this means is that it’s worth it for you to invest in a little professionally done food photography of your menu offerings. Send them through your social media platforms and post them on your website. Make sure to include sharing buttons to let people easily pass those mouth-watering photos around.

Take it a step further and install a “photo op” where people can take fun pictures of themselves at your restaurant and post it to their own social media sites. Or, consider rewarding people for posting their own images of themselves or the food in your restaurant to their social media channels.

Partner Your Restaurant with Other Businesses to Promote New Items

Another great way to rev up interest in new menu offerings is to promote them by partnering with a business, group or well-known individual in your community. For example, you might ask a local celebrity to describe his or her favorite dish and then create a version of it in their honor that you can promote. In another example, you could partner with a local charity and donate a portion of the specially created menu item to a fundraiser on their behalf.

The options are truly unlimited, in terms of utilizing social media to create buzz about your menus and service offerings. The key is making sure that what you’re trying to share is interesting and of benefit for the customer to know, is visually appealing and is optimized for easy online and mobile viewing.

Greater Focus on Family Opens Opportunity for Restaurants

The last several years have seen a heightened appreciation in the populace for meaningful moments and experiences. We are focusing more on what we have and less on what we don’t. We want to give our energy to what is most important in our lives. For many people, that means family. In fact, for 62% of today’s consumers, it is a sign of success or accomplishment to be able to spend a lot of time with their families. This sentiment holds true across age groups, and while it’s stronger in females, it’s a significant feeling among males too. What’s this information have to do with the restaurant business? It’s an opportunity. Families are looking for ways to spend time with each other, and restaurants are perfectly suited to provide the setting.

Restaurant Marketing Campaigns Should Target a Broad Definition of Family

Restaurants have always been favorite gathering places for families. That part hasn’t changed since the restaurant industry began. What has changed is the definition of what people now consider to be family. It used to be that a “traditional” family meant a husband, a wife and maybe some kids. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, however, that type of family now makes up less than half of all American households today. The larger group is now composed of multi-generational households, single parent families, same-sex families, families in which the adult children still live at home, and households that consider themselves family, but are not actually related. The take home message for the restaurant operator is that marketing campaigns need to take this diversity into account and target these various demographics accordingly if they wish to truly tap into the opportunities that await in the arena of family business.

What Families Really Want from Restaurants

It’s important to remember that most people’s primary objective when they go out to eat together is to have an enjoyable experience with each other. The choice about where they go to do that is secondary. Ensuring that your restaurant provides a warm and welcoming atmosphere, where people can focus on and hear each other, goes a long way toward facilitating the meaningful experience families are looking for. Of course, family deals and discounts, platters geared toward large groups and perks for making a group reservation ahead of time go a long way too.

On Premise Service Isn’t the Only Opportunity for Restaurants Catering to Families

Providing your family patrons with a service and experience that they love doesn’t have to end on the premises. There’s a huge opportunity in take-out and delivery from family customers as well. Families that order out want to feed a lot of people without a lot of hassle. Deals that provide a full course meal which feeds multiple people are appealing, and it makes sense to have them on hand as part of your overall marketing strategy geared toward family groups.

It’s not uncommon for families to pick one restaurant in particular to return to as a group again and again for years. The experiences that have together over your food become treasured memories for the customers, and they often become some of the most loyal and best referring patrons you have. It only makes sense then, to take extra effort to ensure that your marketing plans include targeting this important demographic.

Important Questions Restaurants Should Answer Before Putting a Mobile Ordering Platform in Place

Having a mobile ordering platform in place is becoming more and more essential to any restaurant’s future longevity. Restaurants around the country are rolling out mobile initiatives left and right, and there’s no question about the success of that endeavor. However, there are a lot of decisions that need to be made before your new mobile ordering platform is ready to go public. Here are a few key questions operators need to answer before joining the mobile ordering movement.

Should Your Restaurant Invest in its Own Mobile Ordering Hardware and/or Software?

The first question to consider is whether or not it makes sense for your restaurant to invest in its own, customized mobile ordering platform. There are a lot of advantages to doing so. You can create your own proprietary software and apps, perfectly customized to your particular restaurant and customer demographic. You can also add nifty bells and whistles. One of these “bells” is a GPS locator that sends an order to the kitchen when it recognizes the person who has placed the order is near.

The downside, of course, is that it takes more time and money to develop your own platform, and doing so may not make sense for every restaurant out there. There are a number of mobile ordering technologies that already exist. It might be smarter to simply use an API (application program interface) to put one of those to use for your business—especially if time or money is an issue.

How Is Your Restaurant Going to Handle the Costs, Data and Security Issues that Arise with Mobile Ordering Platforms?

The next questions to think about in terms of rolling out a mobile ordering platform have to do with properly and efficiently handling money, data and security. For instance, you must decide who is going to host, manage and process payments from your customers. Are you going to use an existing service such as Google Wallet or Square, or are you going to look for a different solution? If you do decide to use a third-party, what transaction fees are involved? Vendor fees vary widely, so be sure to shop around.
Mobile ordering has excellent potential for drawing on demographic data if properly designed and payment processing security is paramount for any business. So, in terms of data, operators need to consider the following questions: What data are you collecting? Who owns it? Where is it going to be stored? How safe and secure is that data? What are the security levels?

What Goals and Strategies Will Your Restaurant Put in Place for its Mobile Platform?

Last but not least, it’s important to set goals and strategies in order to maximize the effectiveness of your new mobile ordering system. What kind of budget are you going to allocate? How can you capture the biggest audience quickly? Do you have a marketing plan in place to get people to use your new system? Are you going to pair your mobile ordering platform with any sort of loyalty program? And, most importantly … have you set success metrics and set up the ability to track the results of your endeavors?

Putting a mobile ordering platform in place for your restaurant doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does require some strategic planning and a bit of shopping around. If your restaurant business if ready to make the move to mobile, making sure you’ve done your homework ahead of time will make a big difference in how effectively you can roll out your new mobile initiative.

3 Restaurant Marketing Trends to Watch in 2014

Marketing in today’s world can feel like a fragmented endeavor, what with all of the various options that are available. Traditional media marketing through television, radio and print remain important cornerstones of successful restaurant campaigns, but modern marketing options through social networks and digital and mobile platforms are equally critical. Rather than despairing over the fragmented nature of all of these options however, restaurant operators should embrace them as an opportunity to shine in multiple avenues and look for ways to implement integrated marketing and branding plans that build consumer awareness in new ways. Here are three restaurant marketing trends you will see a lot more in 2014.

Utilizing Restaurant Industry Applications and Refining Social Media Interactions

Smart phones now account for some 64% of all mobile phones in the U.S. and that figure grows steadily year by year. Consumers increasingly expect to be able to use their phones to interact with your business. Restaurants around the country are rolling out mobile-coupon and mobile-loyalty platforms with great success. Along with payment, loyalty, ordering and reservation functions, several restaurants are also developing games that align with brand messages or give food rewards to players to entertain and engage users. There is as much fragmentation within the type of device on which an application runs as there is in marketing avenue options. So, until there is an ‘ultimate device’ that everyone uses, it’s best for restaurant operators to keep versatility as top priority when developing and improving their applications. 

On the social media front, restaurant operators need to be more mindful than ever about how they look in the eyes of the public, and be prepared to deal with crisis should it arise. Previous years have shown us how quickly a brand’s reputation can get damaged through social media by careless responses from moderators regarding customer concerns. With a number of hot topics, such as minimum wage, poised to make headlines in 2014, restaurant operators should have a response plan of action or think about adjusting their cultural identities to best turn politics to their advantage. 

Old-Fashioned Restaurant Marketing Still Works, Especially on T.V.

With the rise of digital and social marketing, it can be easy think that you can let traditional media marketing fall by the wayside. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite the increasing popularity of digital and social marketing, television, in particular, remains a highly influential form of advertising. In fact, 68% of consumers surveyed in September of last year said they take action at least some of the time after viewing a TV commercial. The only thing that inspires a higher action rate than that is recommendations from friends and opinions posted online.  This underscores the folly of neglecting traditional forms of media marketing. 

Restaurants Co-Brand for Greater Reach

There is one final trend to watch in 2014 that we’ll discuss here. That trend is the potential that can be unlocked by partnering with the right companies and getting your research and development teams to collaborate. Such unions can be wildly successful for both businesses. Think of Taco Bell’s Dorito Locos Tacos, Cinnabon lending its signature flavor to Burger King’s breakfast products, as well as bottles of vodka, and McDonald’s and Kraft’s McCafe-branded coffee scheduled to hit grocery stores this year. Looking for ways to partner up and collaborate with other businesses in your area is a smart way to create a win-win situation for everyone, and you can count on seeing more such unions in the upcoming year.

Media marketing strategies will continue to evolve with technology and consumer demand. To be successful in the coming years, restaurant operators should focus on building integrated marketing plans and recognize that multiple media avenues are opportunities for creatively reaching and engaging customers.

3 of the Most Successful Restaurant Marketing Campaigns in 2013

As a restaurant operator, it never hurts to take a look at what is working really well for the competition. There were a number of highly successful restaurant marketing campaigns in 2013 worthy of review by the restaurateur looking to up their restaurant’s marketing campaign track record. Here is a brief review of three of the most successful. 

Wendy’s Makes a Home Run with Crowd-Sourcing

Crowd-sourcing can be a very powerful promotional strategy, but getting your customers engaged and interacting with your brand can be tricky. Wendy’s hit the crowd-sourcing home run in 2013 with their ‘Pretzel Love Stories’ and ‘Pretzel Love Songs.’ In these campaigns, they encouraged fans to comment on the Wendy’s Facebook and Twitter pages about how much they loved their new pretzel bun products. They then took these comments and cobbled them together into humorous video skits and songs telling the ‘pretzel love stories’ as crafted by the fans. They gave public credit to the people whose comments were selected, and, of course, ended each promotional video by encouraging viewers to send in more comments to help them write the next pretzel love song or story. The campaign went viral and ended up being a brilliantly successful marketing tactic for the restaurant.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Excels at Brand Positioning

Brand positioning can make all the difference in terms of how the public thinks of your restaurant. Over the last several years, Chipotle Mexican Grill has made its name with its ‘Cultivate a Better World’ and ‘Food With Integrity’ marketing campaigns, designed to demonstrate the brand’s commitment to sustainable and ethical food choices. In 2011, they put out a promotional video entitled “Back to the Start” which was wildly popular online. In 2013, they followed this up with a new video and matching smartphone and tablet apps entitled “The Scarecrow.” The object of the game is to guide the scarecrow character through a dystopian future landscape of processed food in search of sustainable sources to feed customers. The chain also offered free food rewards to download and play the mobile game. The campaign was again, wildly successful, and serves as a solid demonstration of how effective it can be to associate your brand with a cause about which people care. 

Domino’s Takes the Pie with Personalized Pizza Profiles

While pizza joints were some of the first restaurants to embrace online ordering technology, it wasn’t until this last year that chains like Domino’s upped the ante in terms of customized online ordering. They decided to give customers the option to save a personalized ‘Pizza Profile’ in which they could save the details of their favorite orders to expedite future ordering. They then paired this feature with an extensive video marketing campaign illustrating the frustrations and waste of time ordering over the phone, and assured customers that they could reduce their order time to 30 seconds or less simply by creating a Pizza Profile on the Domino’s website.  Not only did this campaign bring in thousands of new customers, but it also had the added benefit of giving the company the contact information and permission needed to market to these customers in the future. 

Whether you want to look for ways to take advantage of restaurant technology, focus on positioning your brand, or find inventive new ways to appeal to your customers, it’s smart to scope out tactics being used successfully by competitors and employ them within your own business. Marketing success in 2014 and beyond will rely on taking notes on what’s working for others and integrating those ideas into your own unique restaurant marketing campaign.

Restaurant Marketing on Facebook and Your Website

While they haven’t yet reached the importance of traditional media (at least, not for most demographics), websites and Facebook pages are vital points of contact for many restaurants and bars these days. Today, I’d like to offer a couple of tips about how to use these two important online marketing tools.

 

Should You Concentrate on Facebook or Your Website?

 

Are you getting very much customer interaction on the Web? More and more of us are these days. But it’s important to identify where that interaction happens.

 

That’s why it’s important to see if your website or your Facebook page (for example) gets the most more interaction. Quite often, it will be Facebook that gets more interaction!

 

If you don’t have a webmaster, you can easily install analytics on your site with Google Analytics. Their website is at http://analytics.google.com. (Of course I’m no Google spokesperson, but their analytics platform is the easiest way for most of us non-technical types to get accurate reporting about what our websites are doing without having to deal with unnecessary technical issues.)

 

What to Do with Your New Knowledge

 

Knowing where your guests interact online is just the start, though. What do you do with this knowledge?

 

If guests are more prominently looking at your Facebook page, then make sure you are interacting back on a regular basis. Put all of your major events, as well as new drink and dinner items, on your Facebook page as soon as they are available. If you have daily specials, post them there as well.

 

Even if you don’t have daily specials, it’s important to post to Facebook every other day or so, if that’s where people are finding you. And consider posting links to your website on a regular basis!

 

If more people are looking at your website, consider adding a blog or other interactive features. And don’t forget to put “Like” and “+1” buttons for people to share their love of your establishment on Facebook and Google Plus, respectively.

 

If people are visiting both your website and your Facebook page relatively equally, then just keep doing what you’re doing!

How to Make Yourself Stand Out Locally

These days, patrons are more and more community-centered. That’s great if you’re a local “mom & pop” establishment. But did you know that you can style your restaurant as “local”, even if it’s part of a national franchise?

 

It’s entirely possible. In fact, it’s preferable! You’ll pull more local business, and even more out-of-town business (especially if you are in a tourist location), by combining franchise name-brand recognition with attention to local community and culture.

 

Here are three ways to cement yourself into your community so that you escape the “anti-corporate/anti-national chain” malaise that has come about in the past few years.

 

Have a Signature “Local” Item

 

If it’s allowed, create a signature drink or dish that people can’t find anywhere else (even other restaurants in your franchise – subject to your franchise rules, of course).

 

Also be aware that, in time, the franchise might add your idea to the menu of all its branded restaurants. So be sure and name your dish or drink after your local area, or after something (landmark or event) that local patrons associate with your area. In fact, that is probably something you should do in any case.

 

Host Local Meetings

 

Perhaps you have a conference room that you could offer free of charge to local groups (businesses, non-profits, and other interest groups). Or you could offer discounts to organizations that choose to meet at your establishment.

 

In fact, you may not even need to concern yourself with discounts. All you will need to do in many cases is advertise that you are open to large parties, non-profits, business events, etc. Fliers in the mail can be an effective way of doing this. Often, all you need to do is get the idea out there.

 

Decorate Your Restaurant with Items of Local Interest

 

This can include local sports team jerseys; photographs of local landmarks, events, and celebrities; highway signs and other antique(-ish) memorabilia of anything your area is known for.

 

In the right establishment, newspaper or magazine articles about events significant to your area can also look great while adding local flavor. You may also want to consider event tickets, concern posters, etc., depending on the theme and demographic of your guests.

Why Restaurant Owners Shouldn’t Ignore Traditional Print Marketing

The National Restaurant Association recently performed a customer survey, and you might be surprised at some of the results. Despite all the hype being put on social media and mobile marketing these days, customers still respond best to traditional forms of advertising like television, word of mouth, and even newspapers.

 

Don’t Get Me Wrong about Social Media and SMS Marketing

 

Now I don’t want to give anyone the idea that I think these “new media” forms of advertising are useless. In fact, mobile marketing is just getting started, and it is more similar to traditional marketing than many people may think.

 

The important thing is that we shouldn’t ignore the old, just because we now have the new. In fact, the NRA’s statistics show that the old methods are valued by more customers than are the new methods.

 

So it’s the smart operator who will keep using traditional advertising and marketing channels, while slowly integrating new media into his or her routine.

 

Newspaper Advertisements for Restaurants Still Work

 

57% of respondents to the survey said that they check newspaper and magazine reviews when choosing a restaurant, while 51% of overall respondents said they also check newspaper advertisements when making their decisions.

 

Compare that to 37% who based their decisions in whole or in part on a promotional email, 36% who regularly consult online dining guides, and a dismal-yet-still-significant 25% who get “e-advice” from Yelp and other “user-created content” (i.e. consumer-driven) sites.

 

45% reported using the Internet to help them make their decisions, and that number will probably grow by next year – as will the numbers for the above-mentioned sources.

 

But at the end of the day, traditional methods are still king. At least they are for now. So you should definitely use them today!

 

The Most Traditional Marketing is Still the Most Effective

 

Surveyed customers preferred one source unanimously over all of those mentioned above, however. 93% regularly rely on recommendations from one or more family members, while 92% frequently consult friends.

 

It’s plain to see that word of mouth is still the most relied upon and trusted form of marketing your business. That’s just one reason to make sure every guest’s experience is a good one!