Restaurant Marketing Ideas Using a Customer Database, Email and Text Message Marketing





Having a customer database means you can turn restaurant marketing ideas into profitable reality. One of the biggest challenges facing a restaurant is not so much coming up with ideas and promotions, but telling your customers about them - quickly, efficiently and affordably.


Why Database Marketing is Perfect for a Restaurant

It’s difficult to run an event or promotion for, say, one night, and make it profitable. The cost and effort of traditional advertising turns such ideas into a gamble. It’s too reactive, too ‘hit and hope’. Database marketing is much more pro-active, which is why it especially suits a restaurant (and other hospitality businesses).

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Here's why:
  • Your customers choose to receive your marketing

  • You can use database segmentation and filters to focus on specific groups of customers, keeping your message relevant

  • You build a relationship with customers based on personalised communications and rewards

  • You deliver your message directly to their email in-box or mobile phone

  • You can track the response rate


Check out these ideas...


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Recipes Make GREAT Content Ideas
People who like to eat good food often like to cook it too. Two of our most successful restaurant client campaigns included a recipe - this bulk email marketing campaign has a downloadable recipe, and the other uses an email newsletter template in downloadable PDF format>>

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Use a Simple Table Tent Card to Build Your Database
If you’re not using simple tent card data capture forms in your restaurant, you’re missing out on a potential goldmine of information. These are a MUST HAVE, and the lifeblood of a profitable opted-in database. They’re cheap, easy and low-tech too>>

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Birthdays - a Brilliant Marketing Opportunity
Knowing when their birthday is gives you a fantastic reason to get in touch with a customer. Find out more about what we think could be the ultimate small business strategy>>

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Keep Relevant Using Segmentation
Marketing segmentation means splitting your restaurant customers into groups, such as male, female, vegetarian, has a family and so on. It’s key to telling the right customers about your restaurant marketing ideas. Filters allow you to extract the right segments from your database, another of the advantages of a database management system>>

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Don't Ignore Text Message Marketing
Over 95% of marketing text messages are read by the recipients. With that sort of penetration you’d be crazy to ignore them, particularly when they can massively out-perform email marketing. Here’s a case study that, although featuring a bar rather than a restaurant, is a perfect example of how effective text message marketing can be>>


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GEORGE SAYS...
Not only have I created email campaigns for restaurants, but I have also owned and run a restaurant myself. This was in the days before email and text message marketing. I was never short of restaurant marketing ideas, but often struggled to find an efficient way to tell my customers. Database marketing totally changes all that.

It takes some time and effort to build a profitable database, but I URGE you to do it. Your restaurant will never look back...



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