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5 Restaurant Email Marketing Templates You Can Copy Right Now
Sevenrooms
5 min read
Aug 11, 2023
Sevenrooms
5 min read
Aug 11, 2023
There’s no denying that email marketing is an effective way to get customers into your restaurant. From Sunday brunch to birthday discounts, email marketing fills seats, fosters loyalty and boosts revenue.
But when you’re juggling staffing, customer service, reservations, inventory and so much more, marketing might get relegated to the back burner. What’s the solution? Restaurant email marketing templates that make the process fast, easy and efficient — even for the busiest restaurateur.
Keep reading for five effective restaurant email templates created from SevenRooms’ Email Marketing solution, plus best practices for creating successful email marketing campaigns.
Clue in customers with a timely restaurant newsletter. In the template below, the restaurant introduces seasonal summer items and events using a playful color scheme.
They also use summer language like “refreshing” and “sizzling” to continue the seasonal fun. Three bold CTAs — “Book Now,” “View Menu” and “Reserve Now” — provide ample opportunity to secure a booking, and the social profile links help the restaurant build a cross-channel following.
Use each text block to update subscribers on exciting happenings at your restaurant and add enticing visuals to keep them scrolling. Incorporate your branding and use food, drink and guest imagery to complement each section.
Here are some email newsletter ideas:
Research from Campaign Monitor recommends sending email newsletters at least once a month but no more than twice per week. Just ensure you have worthy news to share to avoid unsubscribes.
As you can see, it takes just a few simple tweaks to make this template your own, which makes creating — and sustaining — a restaurant email marketing strategy realistic and easy.
In this example, the sleek and elegant template serves a dual purpose — it’s a welcome email and a grand opening announcement. You’ll notice the restaurant included key details like the date and time and a distinct RSVP button to attract new customers and repeat guests.
They wrap it up with icons that lead to their social media accounts and a display of their address and phone number.
Use this template to announce grand openings, chef’s table events, prix fixe menus, live entertainment, sneak peeks and other special events throughout the year. The sophisticated email design will grab your subscribers’ attention and build excitement.
Keep the content skimmable — include fundamental details, but don’t overwhelm with more than a few sentences per block.
Remember, special announcements lose their luster if you send them too often. Unless you have weekly events, send sparingly — no more than a few times per month — to keep interest piqued and engagement high.
An image-forward email can draw guests in by tempting them with offerings from your restaurant. In the template below, the focus is on the imagery — and rightfully so.
Photos of pancakes, burritos, bagels and mimosas greet subscribers upon opening, and language like “velvety,” “drizzled,” “savory” and “tantalizing” make for a mouth-watering combo. Add a catchy title and compelling offer, and you’ve got a sure-fire recipe for success.
Images will be crucial when using this template. High-quality food and drink photos help secure reservations and impromptu visits.
Descriptive language is also a must. Turn a simple mimosa into an “effervescent glass of sparkling wine with a selection of fresh fruit purees” and a standard burger into a “juicy all-beef patty on a handmade pretzel roll.”
Top it all off with CTAs that drive the subscriber to action and link your social profiles to gain followers.
How often you send food and drink emails depends on your target audience and overall strategy (consider the other emails you have in your queue, as well). Mix up the emails you send — think happy hour specials, holiday brunch offerings and dinner promotions — to keep guests interested.
Use guest data to send tailored emails you know will induce cravings and spark action. Invite a bubbly-loving big spender to celebrate their birthday with a complimentary champagne toast or entice a margarita fan to check out your new Taco Tuesday promotion.
Cue the confetti — this festive template lets you celebrate guests with personalized offers that up the wow factor. In this example, the guest receives a personalized birthday greeting, an offer for the best table in the house and a champagne toast.
The navigation at the top provides easy access to the restaurant’s website, menu and reservations system, ensuring the subscriber can easily take advantage of anything you offer them.
Send birthday, anniversary and other celebratory invites to turn one-time guests into loyal customers. Again, guest data is crucial here — collect birth and anniversary dates so you can thrill guests with personalized offers and customized greetings at the exact moment they feel like celebrating.
Use festive imagery featuring champagne, happy guests and desserts as well as descriptive language like “cheers,” “toast” and “pop” to create a celebratory vibe.
Customize the top navigation to direct subscribers to the most relevant and important links, like landing pages, your website, reservations, menus, promotional offers and more.
Train managers and servers to ask for email addresses when taking reservations or handling walk-ins to build your restaurant email list quickly. Follow up with a welcome email that explains your guest loyalty program and a form to input birthdays and other milestones.
In this template, the restaurant used simple but effective imagery, titles and copy to grab attention and get sign-ups.
All three text blocks promote the event, but each one contains concise, unique details, like the date and time, the bottles guests will sample and what they’ll learn if they attend.
The cherry on top? CTAs that convey urgency and encourage an immediate RVSP.
Use this template to announce wine and spirit tastings, holiday parties, cooking classes, guest chefs, wine and paint parties, exclusive dinners and more. Update restaurant branding elements, like your brand’s color palette, logo and visuals to make this template your own.
Include key information like the event title, date, time, menu items and pricing; leaving these details out can frustrate subscribers and make for a bad experience.
Capitalize on the fear of missing out (FOMO) with language that encourages RSVPs and sign-ups — think “limited time,” “selling fast” and “don’t miss out.” Keep the copy short, simple and straightforward — less is more when it comes to marketing emails.
If advanced booking and pre-payments are what you’re after, ensure you have a way to collect online payments before sending this type of marketing email. SevenRooms makes enabling popular online payment easy. (By the way, our data shows that reservations with a prepayment attached spend over 35% more per guest than those without it.)
When emails are professional, personalized and engaging, they perform better. Follow these best practices to get the most out of your email marketing campaigns. For even more tips, download our Restaurant Email Marketing Guide below.
Every restaurant marketing strategy should include email. After all, it lets you communicate with your target audience in a direct and personal way. Even better? The ROI of email marketing is unlike any other. According to Litmus, for every dollar spent, email marketing returns $36.
Still not sold? Mango’s Tropical Café increased their revenue by $44,000 in seven months after implementing SevenRooms’ email marketing solution, enabling them to segment their audience and send targeted offers and trigger-based emails.
With SevenRooms’ easy-to-modify restaurant email marketing templates, you, too, can queue up emails in minutes. Our Email Marketing and Marketing Automation solutions let you send everything from promotional emails to event invites.
Book a demo to learn more about how SevenRooms’ customer relationship management software can capture guest data to personalize and elevate your email marketing efforts today.
Restaurants can use email marketing to share promotions, new menu items, special announcements and events. The most effective emails are segmented and personalized based on subscriber behaviors and preferences.
Restaurants can build an email list by collecting addresses through their website, reservation channels, social media, in-store sign-ups and online order placements. Be sure to always request permission to send marketing emails and offer incentives like discounts or exclusive content to encourage sign-ups.
