Email marketing

How to convert customers to more loyal and more regular customers

Email marketing should not be seen as a channel which will instantly acquire lots of new customers. If used effectively it can be used to communicate to your existing customers reasons to visit your pub, therefore converting them to more frequent and loyal customers. 

How do I start?

First of all you need to collect your customer data, as with no email addresses you have nobody to contact. You can start capturing data in the following ways:

-    Competitions, for example ‘Win a meal for two’
-    Offers, for example ‘Complimentary dessert when you spend…’
-    Your website:

- Sign up for our newsletter

- Contact forms with opt-ins

When capturing customer data please note that all UK businesses must comply with the laws of the Data Protection Act. There are two fundamental points that relate to consent that you must follow. You can only email market to customers if:

1. They are previous customers who have purchased from within your pub (this is called a soft opt-in).
2. They have opted in to receive email communication from your business.​​

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In both cases you must allow the recipient the option to opt out: if they do so, you must remove them completely from your database, ensuring that you never email them again. Further information on data protection laws can be found here 

Design and content

Unless you are experienced in HTML you will need to use a professional designer or agency. All web-based distribution software will only accept HTML that has been coded to best practices.

Remember that your readers will read from left to right and top to bottom – therefore your most important content should be positioned at the top of the page. Don’t rely on your readers scrolling down as you only have seconds to grab their attention. Another key consideration is that by default most email programs, for example Outlook, don’t display images by default. This means that key messages should never be presented within images, only as HTML text.

Reporting 

The beauty of digital marketing is that all campaigns are measurable. Your distribution software will have analytics build in, and they often come with a user guide which will help you interpret the results. The key metrics to look out for are:

Delivery rate - This is the quantity and percentages of emails delivered.  
Unsubscribe rate - The number of readers who have opted out of receiving future emails from your business.
Open rate - The number of readers who have opened your email. 
Click through rate - You can measure how relevant each message is by seeing whether your readers have clicked through on the call to action link.  

Other useful tips:

• Use a powerful subject line to increase open rate. Test different subject lines to see which work best. Avoid using words such as ‘free’ or ‘sale’ as these are deemed as spam keywords and will hinder delivery rates. 
• Test different creative treatments and layouts. Your analytics will tell you which ones perform best. 
• Use hyperlinks and different colours within HTML text highlighting value and encouraging clicks.
• Use alternative text for images in case they aren’t loading.
• Always include a ‘Can’t see this email? Click here for a web version’ message at the very top of the mailer. In most instances your software will automatically embed this link.
• Avoid using large images, especially when above key messages as your reader will have to scroll down too much to read your content.
• Include clear and prominent calls to action. Avoid using images/buttons in case they don’t load.
• Consider multiple calls to action, for example ‘view our menu’, ‘find out more about...’, not just ‘visit our website’.