Restaurant email marketing to the guests who already ordered

Your Instagram reach belongs to Instagram. It can drop on any Tuesday. Your email list belongs to you. A guest who ordered a rice plate last month will see a message in their inbox, in their own time.

A kitchen does not need a campaign calendar. It needs a short, honest email when something changes: a new dish, a closed week, a quiet night.

Each one is short. Each has one link: your own site, at yourname.pickup.kitchen, so a tap takes the guest to the menu.

• New dish. Subject: “New on the menu: miso salmon bowl”. Body: two lines on what is in it, the price, and the days it runs.
• Quiet night. Subject: “Tuesday pickup, ready in 15 minutes”. Body: slots are open tonight, order before 6 and it is ready when you arrive.
• Holiday hours. Subject: “We are closed Dec 25 and 26”. Body: the last day to order, and when you reopen.
• Weekly menu. Subject: “This week: lemon chicken, pesto pasta, three salads”. Body: the dishes by day, and the order cutoff for the week.
• Win-back. Subject: “It has been a while, Sofia”. Body: one line about what is new since their last order, and a link to the menu.

Keep the subject under six words and say the one thing in it. Open with a line that sounds like a person, such as “New on the menu this week.” Then give two lines: what it is, the price, and the days.

End with one link to your site. Sign it with your own name. If a guest cannot read it in ten seconds, it is too long.

Say what is inside. Skip tricks.

• “Lemon chicken is back, this week only”
• “Closed Monday, open Tuesday at 11”
• “Order by 8 p.m. for Saturday”
• “Kenji's pork bowl is on tonight”
• “Slots open for Friday dinner”

Send when the guest can act. A dinner special lands best in the afternoon, while slots are still open. A holiday notice should go out before your cutoff, not after it.

If you sell weekly plans, send the next week's menu before the plan ends, so the renewal feels like a continuation.

Start with one email a month. Add more only if guests keep ordering after each one.

Every guest who orders on your site is saved on your customer list. From the same login you send a marketing email to the people on it. There is no second tool to pay for and no export to a different system.

This is separate from the emails guests already get about their own order: confirmed, ready for pickup or on the way, and delivered. Those go out on their own. Marketing emails are the ones you write.

Week one: turn on the email field at checkout and tell staff to mention it. Week two: send your first email, a new dish or an hours notice. Week three: look at the dashboard for any lift in paid orders.

Week four: send a second email in the same style. Keep what worked and drop what did not.

Resist the urge to send weekly at the start. A monthly note that people read is better than a weekly one they skip.

The simplest test is orders. Send on a Tuesday, then look at the dashboard, which shows paid orders for the last 7 days and the last 30. If Tuesday and Wednesday were busier than last week, the email earned its place.

Keep the same subject style for a few sends. Change one thing at a time, such as send time or the number of dishes in the email.

Whatever tool you use, only email guests who gave you their address, say who you are, and make it easy to stop. A smaller list of people who want to hear from you beats a big list of people who ignore you.

Add the email field at checkout in your settings, so new guests leave an address when they order.

It is not text-message marketing, and there are no loyalty points. Guests who agree at checkout get order texts, like “ready for pickup”. Promotions go by email.

If you need restaurant marketing software that runs birthday offers and point programs, this is not that. It is the plain way to tell your regulars what is new.