Email marketing has become a vital tool for small businesses that want to send regular marketing messages.
The initial attractions are obvious – it’s fast and cheap. But that’s not all – email marketing offers sophisticated opportunities to target messages to the right people at the right time and bring in business.
Ideally, the aim of email marketing is to talk about recent and upcoming news, events, promotions and other information related to your venue. You can highlight special offers and then prompt recipients to click through to your website or contact you directly.
It’s a very good way to keep your customers informed and even educate them on something that you offer – it may be that you’re promoting a new seasonal menu with locally sourced ingredients, a special cocktail or a favourite wine of the month. Whatever it is, it’s the direct engagement that is the key to bringing in more customers.
The first thing is to collect email addresses and build up your database and there are many ways of doing this. Ask customers to leave business cards, if you offer free Wi-Fi then create a pop-up form as people login, ask your social media followers to subscribe to your email list and have an opt-in form on your website. Remember, you must have a privacy policy to assure customers that you will not abuse their data and only use it for the purpose indicated.
There are some very good e-marketing software packages available that automate everything and allow you to track what customers are opening and clicking on. This is great for checking which type of content is really working for you.
We offer a tried and tested centralised system that will capture and store all your valuable customer information. Whatever way your customers engage, whether it’s social media, Wi-Fi connectivity or till receipts, you need a system that collects all the data and allows you to engage back, so that you can spread the word on what you’re doing for your customers.
We can provide you with a system that will plan and execute your events. Anything from a Gin tasting evening, launch event or a summer BBQ, our partners at Qube Technical Solutions can offers all the tools that you need.
Using Q Connect, you can bring together a customer database that is connected to everything, including your social media platforms, booking system and even your website if you want it to.
The main thing to remember is that it’s crucial to pay careful attention to the number of emails that you send. If you send too few, you risk falling out of contact and perhaps losing out to competitors. If you send too many, you risk being a nuisance to your customers and begin flagged as spam. Finding the balance is key and this can vary based on your venue’s demographic.
If you want to learn more about how email marketing can benefit your venue, then get in touch.