Building A Restaurant & Takeaway Business Customer Database : Why it’s So Important
How is your food service business, restaurant or takeaway business customer list right now ? If you haven’t been collecting emails from your customers, or adding their details to a database, then you are potentially missing out on huge business opportunities and literally throwing away incremental revenues.
Every time someone comes to your restaurant or takeaway menu website, or orders food from you, you should consider that person to not only be a customer, but to be a lead. This is an opportunity for future marketing, it is someone who has shown an interest in your food and a willingness to buy from you – and if you ignore that potential then you are missing out on a fantastic opportunity.
Today, most online ordering systems will include features that allow you to build a list based on your customers and to manage that list. In this post, we’re going to explore why that’s so important and why you absolute must include this in your food service business strategy.
The Power Of The Email Marketing List
Mailing lists are not just used by takeaways and restaurants. Mailing lists are used all throughout business and are particularly common to find online, where they are used by marketers hoping to sell products. And did you know that many of these internet marketers say that the mailing list is the single most important aspect of their business in terms of marketing and in terms of profits.
That’s because a mailing list gives them a way to reach their audience directly and without relying on a third party like Facebook or Twitter. It gives them a direct way to contact their audience in a format that is personal and that is hard to miss.
Not only that, but when people hand over their email address, they are demonstrating trust in the business and demonstrating interest in what they have to say. That means that the people who are on your mailing list are likely to be your most engaged followers and your ‘warmest’ leads.
That’s even truer for the takeaway industry, because the people on your mailing list are going to be people who have ordered from you in the past. That means they’re near, it means they like the food you sell and it means they’re not against ordering food online or eating takeaways. In other words, they’ve ordered once, so they’re more likely to order again!
Using Your Restaurant Customer Emailing Marketing List
Using an online delivery system is a fantastic way to build your mailing list, but what do you do with it once you’ve built it ? There are lots of options. Perhaps the most obvious is simply to invite your old customers to come back and order from you again.
You can do this directly (by simply asking them to come back!) or you can try to entice them back with special offers and promotions.
For instance, if you have a new special in, you can send an email around to all the people who have ordered online before and explain why it’s so delicious. Maybe it’s a one-time thing. Maybe it’s an opportunity they can’t afford to miss.
Either way, you’ll likely pique their interest. Their details are already entered. They already know they love your food. And when it gets to Friday night, they just have to click the link, open the site and click ‘Order’.