What Should You Put in Your Restaurant's E-Newsletter?

Are you a restaurant owner or marketing associate and considering starting an e-newsletter for your company? You should. They're a great tool to market your restaurant, bring in new business, and cultivate a brand behind your company. By creating a newsletter, it allows your "fans" or customers to be more aware of your business. Use an e-newsletter to send them updates, send them coupons, or let them know what is to come with your company. It's a great way to share without bombarding your customers with information they don't want, but instead share information that they do want.

First, you'll want to share updates regarding your company using this e-newsletter. What types of updates? Consider if you have upcoming days that you're closed or limited on seating. If you're a restaurant that caters or rents out your space, you may have this conflict from time to time. Being open to your customers about closures makes them less apt to be caught off-guard, diminishing the chance for upset customers. If you you host events at your restaurant or participate in local community events consider sharing those as well. Let your customers know what you're passionate about and let them join in by publicizing it in your e-newsletter.

Beyond closures and events, let them know about new menu items. An e-newsletter is a great way to share new items on your menu to get them interested. Customers who see a new item may come in specifically try it. Sharing new items this way could potentially bring in new business too. One person may tell another and they may try your restaurant for the first time. Word of mouth is still an extremely powerful form of marketing, and an e-newsletter can provide this if people share the updates from your restaurant.

Next, you'll want to include coupons in an e-newsletter. This entices people to sign up for your newsletter initially. You want to include coupons periodically to keep them as well. You may consider including a "Friends & Family" coupon too. This allows your current customers to share the coupon with their friends, again, like the new items, could bring in new business you wouldn't get otherwise. The best thing about including coupons in an e-newsletter is that it costs little to nothing in terms of advertising expenses. Rather than the old-fashioned way of mailing out a paper coupon, these can be printed off by your customer or shown on a mobile device without you incurring a large out-of-pocket cost that you may or may not recover.

Also consider using an e-newsletter for bigger information. New management, new head chef, new location, etc. The big things should also be shared with your customers. Customers now more than ever want to be in-the-know. With social media everyone wants information immediately. Use this tool to stay ahead of the competition, keep your customers close so that they root for you to succeed. They'll be more apt to help you by sharing recommendations that will keep them coming back.

Going off of that, consider including a spot on your e-newsletter that asks your customers to share their latest experience at your place. Share it on Facebook, on Twitter, email it to your customer service. Use it by way of contests to get people involved even more.

There's so many different ways that you can use an e-newsletter to your benefit, it's a shame not to have one. Send one out on a schedule, choose monthly, bi-weekly, or weekly. Just make sure you find a good balance between often enough people remember to come to your restaurant but not so often people feel that you're bombarding them and they unsubscribe. As always, for all your restaurant needs, check out our website, www.PublicKitchenSupply.com.