Recently, the Canadian restaurant chain Montana's has started making use of the email list they have been collecting for some time.   The first two email broadcasts they've sent out make it quite clear that they are still new to email marketing and are trying to find their footing.

Let's take a look at the emails, and where they went wrong, in order to help you avoid making similar mistakes in your own campaigns:

Email Number One:

This first attempt is not too bad. It focuses on one offer, includes some mouth-watering imagery... if you're the type of person who likes ribs.  They are missing the full potential possible here though: the biggest issue is the lack of price being displayed. The common gut reaction when you see an advertisement like this without a price is "this must be very expensive, and they just want to get me in the door before telling me how much it will really cost."  It's unfortunate, because while ribs aren't typically cheap fare, Montana's is only charging a dollar or so more than their regular single order price for all-you-can-eat ribs. Not only are they missing out on a great selling feature, but they may be turning some customers off who are skeptical because there isn't a posted price.

The second issue is there is no method of tracking how well this email promotion did for them versus the other advertising they've done. While  Email Marketing is much more cost effective that more traditional forms of marketing, there is still a cost to it, so it's important to know if you're making money, breaking even, or losing money.  An easy way to track this is to include a coupon with the email.  In this case, preferably something that is relatively inexpensive for the restaurant to provide but will add incentive to come visit the restaurant.  A free drink may be a good offer, since it costs pennies on the glass, but the chain may not want to use a free drink since it's an easy form of revenue.  Nevertheless, offering some sort of coupon that can be tracked could give  some exact numbers on how many patrons came in because of the campaign, and that information is very valuable.

Email Number Two:

This email corrects the tracking issue of the previous mail broadcast, assuming this is the only method through which they're promoting the free deck of cards offer. Count up how many decks of cards have been sent out and  you have a pretty good idea of how many people this ad brought in. The issue with this email is the offer itself... it's a bit of a head scratcher.  Purchasing a kid's meal gives you a free deck of cards, which is not really an age appropriate freebie!  Why not offer something that makes more sense to a kid, like a Montana's themed toy?  Or if you're dead set on the deck of cards, why not make them free with the purchase of some specific regular meal instead of the kid's meal?

The offer you make with your email needs to be compelling and logical; you don't want to confuse your market or provide a gift that's not age appropriate to the offer.

This concludes our first Email Marketing critique, if you'd like to have us provide insight and advice on one of your email marketing campaigns for free, contact us by clicking here.