Customer loyalty can make or break a restaurant’s success by increasing visits, growing revenues, reducing marketing costs, and providing predictable income. Building a loyal customer base with email marketing can be a significant time investment, but it’s one that pays off in the long run.

88 per cent of people open their email every day, so there’s an opportunity to engage a captive audience. Operators need to create a marketing strategy focused on developing customer loyalty to try and secure long-term business to help them increase profits and stay protected from changing economic climates.

Email marketing is an effective medium because recipients need to sign up, so you know they are interested and engaged in your content. Rely on the data from online ordering, loyalty apps, in-person visits, and more to genuinely get to know guests and their behaviours. Using tools like AI and email automation for help can increase your engagement by up to 13 per cent, but be careful to monitor your messaging and stay on brand.

Build your audience

Creating a robust database of email recipients is the key to a successful email marketing campaign, but how can you entice customers to sign up? Adding features to your website and social media to collect data can help you build your list initially, but you can also incentivize sign-ups with promos or freebies to generate even more interest.

A word of caution: there is a fine line between staying engaged and too much contact. Keep the frequency regular, but not overwhelming and watch the valuable data you receive from “unsubscribe” stats to tweak your approach.

Personalize your approach

Targeting a specific customer base with personalized email campaigns allows you to connect with your customers and speak to them in the way they want to engage with your business.

Regular communication is key. You want to stay top of mind so that when someone decides they are going to visit a restaurant, they think of you first. Tactics like email marketing can help you stay in contact with your customers. Once you get to know them, you can use email marketing to personalize your approach with things like birthday offers, relevant blog posts, announcements of new seasonal menus, promoting upcoming events, and more.

Not only can your emails be used to advertise promos and LTOs, but it’s essentially a tool to give customers a reason to return to your restaurant. You need something that will set you apart – besides great food and service. Use your email marketing to build a genuine connection, get to know your customers, and offer them value they can’t find anywhere else.