Did you know that 68% of guests want to receive an email from restaurants at least once a month? In addition to that, when it comes to receiving offers, Email outperforms every other channel by 92%. Though it can be time-consuming to ideate new email campaigns, this form of communication is incredibly beneficial for restaurants looking to ramp up sales. To spark your creativity, we pulled some successful real-life restaurant email examples sent by Adentro clients. 

Restaurant email examples: Automation

Email automation tools help restaurants maintain relationships without repetitive effort. And while automation isn’t anything new, and most email platforms offer automation tools, not all platforms can automate sends based on guest visit behavior. When restaurants use a platform that tracks visit data, they can send automatic emails based on number of visits, visit frequency, location, and more.

Adentro, for example, has a Smart Email feature that uses visit data to trigger automatic emails. Restaurants just have to pair Adentro to their in-store WiFi so the platform can start tracking visit data. From there, restaurants can set up emails to automatically send based on specific behaviors. 

Smart Emails allow you to automatically: 

• Ask for feedback after a guest’s first visit
• Thank a guest for visiting during a particular event 
• Send out loyalty program updates
• Launch win-back campaigns for when a guest hasn’t visited for a certain number of day
• Wish guests Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary

Here’s a prime example of how restaurants can leverage visit-based automation tools. This could be sent out after a guest’s second visit OR if a guest returned after a 60-day period.

Restaurant email examples: Loyalty programs

Research shows that loyal customers…

• buy 90% more frequently
• spend 60% more per transaction
• deliver 23% more revenue and profitability than first-time purchasers

PLUS, increasing average returning customers by just 5% can lead to an increase of 25%-95% in revenue. 

These days, where consumers have so many options to choose where they spend their time and money, loyalty programs help restaurants stay engaged with their guests. At its core, a loyalty program rewards customers with various incentives for their frequent or continued engagement with a restaurant. And while some loyalty programs require significant up front investments or can be complex to manage long-term, leveraging automated emails to drive loyalty is an easy-to-manage way to achieve the same outcome.

Through Adentro, restaurants can set up Smart Emails that are triggered to send after a first visit, second visit, 10th visit, and to customers who have visited at least twice but haven’t returned in 31 days. You may also want to consider setting up Custom Smart Emails for Loyal Customer milestones. For example, give a more substantial reward at a customer’s 25th visit.

Pro Tip: Ease of use is important when it comes to loyalty programs. Make signing up incredibly easy for your guests by connecting your loyalty program to your in-store guest WiFi.

Adentro makes this easy with 3 easy steps:

1. Pair Adentro with the guest WiFi in your physical location. 
2. Include a loyalty program sign up option on the custom branded WiFi sign on portal (and consider offering a real-time incentive to make this even more attractive).
3. Start collecting in-store customer data so you can send more personalized loyalty program emails. 

Restaurant email examples: Win-back campaigns

Typically, only a subset of restaurant customers will be loyalty program participants. Even Starbucks, which has an industry-leading loyalty program, only sees 40% of total sales come from their rewards program. Instead, the majority of your customers will continue to be one- or two-time visitors, which is why win-back campaigns are a great way to increase visit frequency with your more casual customer base.

An email win-back campaign is a well-timed automated series of personalized emails used to increase brand consideration, re-establish the relationship, and ultimately incentivize purchase. Ideally, an email management software that provides marketing automation can help you set up campaigns and have them run automatically for you moving forward.

The idea is to gradually increase the incentive for the customer to re-engage with the brand. Not only will this give you insight into what offers they’re attracted to, but it also helps you save on offer costs instead of jumping straight into one of your richest promotions.

Here’s an example of a fun win-back campaign launched by CoolHaus. They incentivized guests to come back by offering something for free with purchase. 

Wrap up

All in all, email marketing is a powerful way to stay connected with your guests and drive restaurant revenue. We know it takes time and effort to see great results, but the ideas above will help set you up for success. 

Looking for more email marketing tips and best practices? Download A Restaurant’s Guide to Successful Email Marketing.