Business
Builders

'Tis the Season to Build your List

As the holidays approach, you are likely readying yourselves for holiday revelers, special menus and seasonal cheer.  Your preparations should also include plans to grow your email list.  List-building is the gift that keeps on giving to you the whole year round.  Take advantage of this increased holiday traffic to build your list and set up your email marketing program for great (and continued) success in the coming year.  Here are 8 tips to maximize this list-building opportunity this holiday season:

1.  Make your email marketing program a priority.
The best way to ensure a big list is to get your entire staff's buy-in to your email marketing program: top to bottom. Communicate the importance of the program, particularly during this holiday season.  Explain how the success of this marketing benefits them in increased traffic, sales and inevitably tips.

2.  Set attainable goals for your staff.
Propose goals such as “collect 1,000 names by Christmas” or “get two email addresses per staff per shift.”  These are reasonable and they add up fast:

8 servers for lunch and 10 servers for dinner each collecting 2 email addresses a shift

Daily total = 36 email addresses 

Weekly total = 252 email addresses
Monthly total = 1,008 email addresses

Keep up this pace and you’ll collect 12,096 email addresses in a year!

Holiday Promotions that Get Results

One of the most important times to send a direct mail campaign is centered around special events such as holidays, birthdays or anniversaries. These are typically times people will plan to eat out so why not encourage them to spend their money with you.  And one of the best ways to get the word out is Direct Mail Target Marketing because it is a targeted and measurable means of marketing.

Direct Mail Target Marketing allows you to identify your ideal demographic and then send targeted mailings to them. This typically offers you a better return on investment (ROI) because your message is being put directly into the hands of your ideal customer.

An aggressive direct mail campaign puts your restaurant at the top of the consumer’s minds so when they are looking to eat out, you’re their first choice.

Tune into the Holidays

At this time of year, many business owners eagerly await the holiday shopping and dining season.  Consumers enjoy hearing holiday music in malls and retail stores. Why should it be any different for restaurants?  It isn't.

It’s interesting to note that music has been shown to subtly persuade patrons to spend more while in dining establishments.  A study titled “The Effect of Musical Style on Restaurant Customers' Spending” in the Environment and Behavior journal concluded that there is a significant difference between patrons' spending patterns in establishments that play music and those that do not.  For example:

            *Music affects the speed of eating and drinking.

           * Music type influences what is ordered.

            *Music increases ordering of starters, coffee, etc.

            *Music persuades patrons to spend more time in a restaurant.