In a world obsessed with Instagram and TikTok, there is an old, quiet tool that still pays off for restaurants: email. It isn't glamorous, but it has one huge advantage: unlike social media, the list is yours.
Why email counts
Social media lives on a platform you don't control: reach can drop and accounts can be blocked. Your email list is yours. You can talk to those customers whenever you want, with no middleman and no paying for reach.
What email lets you do
- Bring customers back: an offer for your quietest night, a nudge to people who haven't been in for a while.
- Announce news: a new dish, a seasonal menu, an event.
- Reward loyal customers: offers for your best regulars.
- Keep the relationship warm between visits, with stories and useful content.
What makes an email work
- A clear reason to open it and one thing for the customer to do.
- Relevance. Writing to someone who bought a similar dish beats the same message to everyone.
- Regularity without overdoing it. Quality before quantity.
- A good destination. The email leads to your ordering channel, where the purchase takes a few taps.
Talk to groups, not to "everyone"
Start with three groups: loyal, occasional and lapsed customers. Send each a different message: thanks and an exclusive perk, a nudge to come more often, and an invitation to return. Later add preferences: who always orders the same dish, who only comes at lunch.
The step before: build the list
There is no email marketing without a list, and a list is built by keeping the contact from every order, with consent. Every direct order grows it. After a few months the difference is large.
Start with a single message
You don't need to build everything. Pick one useful message and send it regularly: an alert about a new dish, or an invitation to people who stopped ordering. One working piece already brings results.
How GetFoodies helps
It keeps the contact of every customer who buys on your channel, builds the list for you and lets you email groups of customers from the same dashboard. With Get Social, the newsletter with the dish of the day, news and offers is handled by us.
Start building today
Even if you don't send a single email yet, start collecting contacts now. The list is what gives email marketing its value.