Wednesday

7 Email Marketing Tips

Email marketing has been around long enough that I didn't think this kind of info would be necessary. Apparently it is.

If you want me to act upon your message, forward to friends, or at the very least READ your email, please follow these basic tips:

1. Pictures are fine. But if your message is embedded in an image I will not see it. I don't get email images on my mobile device and my Outlook prevents them as well. Use pictures/graphics to augment your message, not to be your message.

2. Send messages more often. Addresses change, people forget they signed up. Sending messages more often helps engage people and lessens the risk of unsubscribe.

3. Don't send messages too often. Really. You're not THAT important in someone's life. Send messages that are useful to your customers, don't keep sending just because you feel the need to talk all the time.

4. Make your messages timely. I got an email from a fast-casual place letting me know about FREE sandwich day. Great, that's useful info. But the message was 27 days before the date. If you want email to be an inexpensive communication channel, send me a reminder a couple of days ahead of time. This is a message I will forward.

5. It's not all about you. What have you done for the community? How have you contributed to your neighborhood? People get tired of hearing about "Marsha, Marsha, Marsha!"

6. Give me an action item. What behavior do you want to effect? What reason have you given me to act on your message? Use dayparts and added value, not just discounts.

7. Email is just one channel of communication. Use it to reinforce your advertising, your in-store messaging, your local store efforts. It's part of a marketing mix, not a really large hammer that solves all problems.

Tuesday

CFA - Losing Money or Gaining Customers?

Chick-fil-A is giving away free spicy chicken sandwiches. The sandwiches aren't on the menu yet, but CFA is taking reservations.

Don't they know that will increase their food costs? They'll lose tons. TONS I say!

On its face, this seems like a contradiction to the NRN article of NPD's study on what's next, No More Free Lunches.

But a closer look shows that CFA is simply falling back on the tried and true tactic of product roll out: if the product is good, put it into people's mouths. Taking a reservation is a great addition to their arsenal. Now they can follow up.

But as Bonnie Riggs, NPD’s restaurant analyst, notes: “You want to get them into your restaurant and hopefully you can up-sell,” Riggs said. “But you have to have something to generate buzz to get them into you restaurants first.”

This isn't new for CFA. Their free food promotion to those wearing their favorite school's gear to kick off the college football season last year, or mailing out thousands of freebies to drive trial of milkshakes, both come to mind.

The trick is what they do with the customers after they've tried the product. That's the part most restauranteurs don't get about these kinds of specials.

Which is good for CFA and others who know what they're doing.

Monday

Sign of the Times

"Typically, if you're unemployed, you're not getting up at six and not going through the drive-thru," said Jeffrey Bernstein, an analyst at Barclays Capital. "There is a direct correlation between unemployment and breakfast sales." (From QSR Web.)

Hate to say this, but marketing doesn't overcome this type of trend. You can't modify this behavior.

If your breakfast sales have been hurt, find something that is working and make it better.

Customer Service. . .Again

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. -- Maya Angelou


We talk about it all the time, but based on recent experiences in restaurants I'm not sure we actually get it. An adequate experience does not equate to great customer service.

"Well bully for you. You didn't piss anyone off today."

I honestly think you'll need about 50% fewer marketing dollars if you just get that "feeling" right. I honestly know that you need about 100% more marketing dollars if you don't.

Friday

Ringling Brothers. . .a new client?

Update - Feb. 19, 2010: Apparently Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey has focused their marketing plan based on this old LSM tactic (originally posted 1/28/08). . . only they used a zebra in downtown Atlanta.

Local Store Marketing has always been part science, part P.T. Barnum. I thought it appropriate to share this analogy by an unknown author:

When a circus comes to town, and you put up a sign, that's advertising.

If you parade an elephant through town, that's promotion.

If the elephant knocks down the mayor's fence, it's publicity. If you can get the mayor to laugh about it, it's public relations.

If the town's citizens come to the circus, and you show them all of the entertaining booths, show them how much fun they will have when they spend their money at the booths, answer their questions and, ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that's sales.

Monday

Social Media IS LSM

Some good advice on using social networking tools to engage your customers and develop loyalty in this article on Social Media Marketing in the Restaurant Business.

The point I take is that social media is an extension of you and your product, it's another channel of communication for your existing marketing plan.

Everyone loves to know the owner. Everyone likes to feel like they're a member of an exclusive club, or to get additional privileges.

Get feedback, engage customers, make them feel special. Do this through Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and on discussion boards.

But you need to also do this in person, at PTA meetings, in your dining room. The author hits the nail on the head, but she only speaks to electronic communication channels. Add those channels to the real-life ones. Social media is effective because it increases frequency of message.

Social Media and Restaurant Marketing

So how are you using social media to market your restaurant? Seems like asking for advice on the matter is like asking 10 economists for their opinion on any subject: you get 12 different answers.

- Carefully plan out your branding message, or shoot from the hip?
- Engage customers and develop a relationship, or shotgun a message to drive trial?
- Social media will bring me hundreds of cusotmers, just because they can find me on their iPhones!
- My Facebook page has lots of pictures and my menu.

Maybe a social media strategy isn't the pinnacle of success. Maybe social media are simply one more way to increase your frequency of message. Maybe these tools are just one more channel through which to promote your marketing strategy.

There's a lot of advice out there, but most of it makes social media seem like just today's version of a radio commercial: it reaches a lot of people, but the clutter nullifies the message.

A social media strategy is important. But it's only one leg of an overall marketing strategy. After all, the goal isn't to create awareness. It's to create sales.