Collecting customer emails on your website is one of the simplest and most automated ways of increasing your business sales and creating loyal customers. By sending out targeted newsletters to your customers you’ll be giving those people an incentive to visit your business and keeping your business on their minds for their next purchase.
Once you have your optin setup and your newsletter designed, 10 minutes a month is all it takes to see more sales.
STEP 1 – CHOOSE AN EMAIL MARKETING PROVIDER
The first thing you will have to do is decide on which email service you would like to use for your newsletter campaigns. A few options include:
Mailchimp – Free for up to 2,000 subscribers and 12,000 emails per month
AWeber – Free for 30 days and then $19/month for up to 500 subscribers and unlimited emails
Campaign Monitor – Starting at $9/month for 2,500 emails to 500 subscribers or pay-as-you-go
Constant Contact – Free for 60 days and then $20/month for up to 500 subscribers
STEP 2 – ADD AN EMAIL OPTIN TO YOUR WEBSITE
Now that you have chosen an email provider to store and send emails you will need to create an optin to start collecting emails. The best way to add an email optin to your website is by using a software made just for that purpose. We recommend the following options:
SumoMe – Use ‘List Builder’ by SumoMe for free to create an optin on your website that collects customer email addresses. List Builder includes a completely customizable design and is mobile optimized so that you aren’t missing customers on their phones and tablets.
OptinMonster – Using OptinMonster is an easy yet powerful way to create and A/B test lead capture forms on your website.
Hello Bar – Hello Bar is a quick way to add an email optin bar to the top of your website for customer to enter in their email.
There are literally hundreds of options to choose from so choose what works best for you and if you’re not a developer, what’s easiest to use. Also make sure that this service integrates with the email marketing provider that you have chosen in step 1.
STEP 3 – CREATE THE INCENTIVE
Once you have added the email optin to your website and connected it to your email marketing provider you will need to create an incentive for customers to actually give you their email.
If you simply write “Sign up for our newsletter” you are not going to get very many email signups. People want something, anything, and they want it for free.
Here are a couple options:
$5 Off Coupon – Using your email marketing provider, send each new signup a coupon for $5 off their next meal at your restaurant. Not only does this offer the customer an incentive to give you their email, but they’ll also now have to come into your restaurant to redeem the coupon.
Contest – Create a contest as an incentive to collect emails. For example, add each new signup into a draw for a free appetizer or dessert each month.
Choose one of the above options or create your own idea and give customers something in exchange for their email address and you’ll see your conversion rate go up.
STEP 4 – USE YOUR LIST TO GROW YOUR SALES
Now that you have started to grow your email list it’s time to get some value out of it instead of just letting it sit there and grow.
Start sending a monthly (or no more often than weekly) newsletter to your subscribers. In this email you can include upcoming events, news menu items, current specials, coupons, contests or anything else that will inform customers of what’s happening at your restaurant and convince them to dine at your establishment in the near future.
It’s easier than you think to set this up and start growing your own email list for your restaurant. Get started on it this week and let us know how it goes.
