Any successful newsletter has to strike a careful balance. You have to make it useful and interesting to your readers so they get and stay on your list. But you also have to make it SELL so you make money! ($$$)
But first, let’s talk about making it useful and interesting. Articles that the reader may enjoy such as “fluff” pieces, crosswords, games or customer pictures make for eye catching articles. Offering information that is related to your restaurant is probably the biggest bonus of all.
For example:
*Giving information about your new menu change, or a current running promotion, are the meat of your newsletter.
*You may want to throw in a recipe that is seasonal for your restaurant.
*Articles related to you (like a recent vacation); your customers love to hear about.
Let’s face it, people love to know your business!
It is important to be building a personal relationship with the reader so they feel more connected to you and your restaurant. Pictures of your family or staff or even your pets have proven to be very successful for building relationships.
If you don’t like to write articles, that’s OK! Short tips are fine, and often work even better than long articles. If you dread writing or just don’t have the time, you can find a cheap ghostwriter to do the work for you.
Next, let’s talk about the SELLING portion of your newsletter.
Here’s where you can use:
*Current Events
*Promotions
*Advertisements (from other local businesses)
*Testimonials
*Catering Specials
The key is to not overdo it – there’s a fool proof formula you can go by and that I have been using for years.
One last thing. Newsletters can be done either by direct mail or by email. This works differently for different restaurants. Customers that are in our senior sector, tend to like a hard mail copy of the newsletter, but remember, this choice is much more expensive for printing and postage, but if the response is there (and you’ll hear about it) it will be worth the expense.
Email newsletters are by far the easiest and least expensive to produce. Remember when building your list, encourage your staff to gather customers information such as email address so you can use this strategy.
Remember - do not send emails out using your own email server. Everyday email programs are NOT designed to send bulk email. If you would like to know the email company I use, please send me an email or respond to this thread and I will forward you all the information.
Be sure to check back next week. I will be writing about "How to quickly grow your data base of repeat guests."
Ben Martinez -
El Jardin Restaurant
Learn restaurant marketing strategies from Ben Martinez and Restaurant Masterminds
Creating a newsletter helps build relationships!
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