Five ways to use email marketing to stay in touch with your customers

Industry research shows that email marketing is almost 40 times more effective than social media platforms in helping your business acquire new customers.

With that in mind, here are five tips on using email marketing to boost revenue.

1. Communicate regularly
   Your customers may be hunkering down, but that doesn't mean you shouldn’t stay connected. This is the time to communicate with your customers through email marketing like never before to keep your business relevant.
   
   Find the right cadence. Research shows that almost nine out of ten customers like receiving email marketing messages from businesses monthly — and 30% want them weekly. 

2. Provide special offers
   People are at home, looking for ways to save money. Offer them discounts to increase engagement and maintain your revenue flow. Help your business ride out the storm by emailing current customers with offers of coupons, free items, or other values if they refer someone via email to your business. 

3. Offer gift cards
   Gift cards provide an immediate infusion of cash and guarantee that a customer will return to your business in the future. Encourage customers to buy gift cards to redeem at a later time or in support of local health care workers or emergency responders. This will help maintain sales, while giving your customers something fun to look forward to.

4. Point people online
   Anything online right now is being consumed more than ever before. Point people to your website and update information about your location, operating hours, and how to order online, over the phone, or on an app. Remind customers that they can still shop for their favorite items on your website.

5. Pivot as a business and inform your customers
   Explain to customers how to get their orders. Give them instructions for curb-side pick-up or let them know how deliveries will be dropped off. Offer extra benefits for orders. For example, with most gyms closed, why not offer a link to online workout classes, or a training app they can download? Are you stocking groceries? Use email marketing to let customers know how your business has changed to better accommodate them.
   
   Leverage email marketing to keep your business top of mind with customers. At some point, the coronavirus will pass, and we’ll get back to dining on-premises. 

Customer relationships you strengthen now will help you get past current challenges and better position your business to rebound in the second half of 2020.

The National Restaurant Association and Heartland have teamed up to offer payments, payroll, point of sale, customer engagement and funding solutions to help manage and grow your restaurant. Learn More