How to (not) write a daily email
While on my early morning idea walk, I walk past a restaurant that truly is in a prime location.
It overlooks a small pool (not quite a lake, but you get the idea) with views over a park and a gorgeous cathedral.
It has wonderful floor-to-ceiling windows. It's tastefully decorated. The food is great. I wouldn't quite say it's high-end fine dining, but it's a solid place to take a date, that kind of place.
There's only one problem.
And that problem is that it's half empty half the time.
Now, sure, on a Friday or Saturday night, the restaurant's doing well - and that's likely the reason it's been there for many years. So it's not exactly failing, which, as far as restaurants go, is pretty daymn good.
But as my lady and I stopped in the park to enjoy the sunrise over the cathedral, I started to think about how it was half empty, half the time. And the cogs started whirring in my brain - about how I could market this restaurant into being full ALL the time.
I started to gibber away, rattling off the various ideas I had... of course, starting with the most obvious: building an email list and emailing it daily. To which my lady asked, "But James, what would you even write about every day for a restaurant?"
So, in honour of this question, and especially for you if you happen to be either marketing a restaurant (brave) or running one (very brave), here is a non-exhaustive list of all of the potential ideas that I came up with BC (Before Coffee):
Write about the history of the restaurant
Write about how it was started
Write about the owner/s
Write a Q&A or interview with the chef/s
Write about a customer question of the day
Write about or highlight a customer's feedback each day
Write about the dish of the day
Write a weekly menu update
Write a monthly or seasonal menu deep dive
Write about the specific ingredients of a dish
Write about how the restaurant is performing financially
Write about promotions such as "This week we're running a sale on this item", and liaise with the chef on stock that needs to be sold
Write about promotions, discounts, and loyalty schemes
Write about where your ingredients are sourced from - for example, interviews with local farmers or highlights of suppliers that meet certain food standards
Write about any upcoming events you have planned
Anyway, you get the point. Daily email, daily offer. The CTA could be to "Book a table" or whatever the fock.
There are many people who sit there looking at a blank page with their fingers hovering over the keyboard, wanting to write a daily email but wondering, "What the hell do I write? What I sell is so boring." Or they say: "I'd love to write a daily email, but that won't work for my business. There isn't enough to talk about."
And to that, I say bullshyt.
There are so many moving parts in every business. There are so many things that you could talk about. You just need to open your mind to the possibilities of the daily email.
Once you can see the ones and zeros in the matrix, you can never turn it off. And no matter where you go or what you're doing, your mind will constantly whir with all of the potential marketing angles and ideas for every business that you stop at, look at, or come across.
But maybe you don't have the time or the inclination to write them every single day yourself.
To which I say... well, what if you don't have to?
If you know that your business could benefit from the positive effects of an automated email marketing system that fills your Stripe account while you sleep, send me an email with the word "AUTOMATION", and we can chat. I'll ask you a few questions about your business, and we'll figure out a game plan.
James Perkins
P.S. Working with me is an investment, obviously.
