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I search for bar and
restaurant websites on a regular basis, both for research and
to see what other businesses are doing. Many of the
websites I visit have signup boxes for an email newsletter, of
which they promise to send me updates, coupons, special events
and other great stuff occasionally to my inbox. I have signed up for
countless newsletters over the last five years (Yes, I do have a separate
mailbox for this.)
Here's the interesting part
though, I rarely ever receive anything from the particular
business I signed up with. Maybe 5 out of a hundred businesses.
Some, on average, send one newsletter a year. Very few of
them send out newsletters for major holidays and/or monthly
newsletters on a regular basis. The worst is finally receiving
something but having the message full of grammatical errors or being very poorly formatted. In the restaurant world,
which I have been a part of now for over 20 years, it's akin to
ordering a meal at a restaurant and never receiving it, or
receiving it improperly prepared.
Many corporate chains are now
using email marketing in an effort to increase business and
brand loyalty. The only problem is that many chains are the same all of the time. They don't
have live music or do anything special for holidays so you end
up receiving emails telling you about purchasing gift
certificates or the occasional menu change. I have even received
newsletters that only ask me to fill out more personal
information- what a waste of time.
As you know, first impressions
are extremely important. If a first-time visitor to your website
takes the time to sign up to receive your newsletter they expect
to be mailed something soon! And when they finally do receive
something, it should be relevant and worth their time to open
and read it, prepared with care just as you would an entree or
your popular house cocktail. The problem is most operators know
as much about email marketing as they do about cleaning beer
lines!
If you own a restaurant, bar
or nightclub our e-Bar Restaurant Marketing service might help
you maximize email marketing for your business. We manage many
client's lists and send out monthly and holiday newsletters for
them so that they don't have to worry about it. And, with 3
years of experience with many of them, we have it down to a fine
art.
 Our
online tools make it simple for clients to manage their lists
and it's specifically geared just for the hospitality industry!
Our newsletters feature the same flavor and branding as our
clients business, and web site if they have one. Holiday
specific colors are used in newsletters as needed too and give
them more visual impact.
The most effective way to
build a client's list is to use comment cards or sign up cards
to collect email addresses and other information. Not only do
our clients build a list quickly, they also get much needed and
helpful feedback on their business. In addition, if clients
have a website they can add a sign up box for people to join their
list online. Finally, with a simple promotion clients can
maximize not only the quality of the information they receive,
but the quantity as well.
Email marketing has given our
clients the edge and provided them a way to get a promotion
directly to the consumer even on the day of...how else can you
do that without expensive radio advertising! Monthly newsletters
with live music and promotional event schedules give the
recipient the ability to print it out and hang it up for later
viewing. A website is fantastic, and a great start, but the
potential client needs to look you up or go directly to your
website to find out what you have going on.
So, if you own or operate a
bar, restaurant or nightclub and want to tap into email
marketing contact us for
more information on our service...or even look someone else up.
Heck, we just want your independent or mom-and-pop business to
succeed in the corporate world!
-Chris
Letcher
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