Since Plano, Texas-based Bennigan's Grill & Tavern integrated e-mail into its marketing plan three years ago, the database has grown to include more than 700,000 guests.
"That's a dedicated system of more than half a million Bennigan's customers that we can now reach quickly and cost efficiently," said Jennifer Gamble, senior marketing manager for Bennigan's.
The chain is part of a growing trend to use e-mail marketing campaigns as a way to reach a targeted restaurant customer base.
According to the 2007 National Restaurant Association industry forecast, 75 percent of fine-dining restaurants, 52 percent of casual-dining restaurants and 40 percent of family-dining restaurants were using e-mail marketing in 2007.
As 2008 looms just around the corner, restaurants are continuing to look at how they will communicate their brands during the next year. Kathleen Richardson, vice president of client services for Alexandria, Va.-based Fishbowl Marketing, urges them to join their counterparts who have embraced e-mail as a marketing tool.
One of the greatest benefits of e-mail marketing is the level of targeting it affords, Richardson said. While television, radio and outdoor all are vehicles to reach a mass audience, e-mail "is a great vehicle to more personally engage with your customer in potentially a private setting in a way that other media can't do."
Since the e-mail can be sent to certain segments of the population, operators can tailor the message accordingly.
"You can say, 'I only want to send to my database of mothers with two children.' Or mothers with two children that live in Atlanta," Richardson said. "Or, based on other information that you gather, mothers with two children that live in Atlanta that are vegetarian."
E-mail marketing allows Bennigan's to target the message to its audience, Gamble said.
"By e-mailing our guests with coupons, happy hour specials and events, we can target a specific audience or region depending on what's happening in their restaurants," she said.
And since customers opt in to receive the messages, "Bennigan's is speaking to customers who have said they want to be spoken to," Gamble said.
Apparently, the number of guest who want to be spoken to is fairly high. According to the NRA's 2007 Restaurant Industry Forecast, one in four consumers likely would choose to receive e-mail notification of daily specials from their favorite table-service restaurant.
While some may argue that direct mail can be just as personal or targeted, Richardson pointed out one way that e-mail can outperform that form of marketing.
"You have a way to be very interactive with e-mail that you might not with a static piece that you get in the mail," she said. "For example, you can include video, you can include radio, you can include all of the above in that communication directed to that customer."
While companies both small and large must consider their budget parameters and objectives, Richardson said e-mail marketing can be effective for all types of restaurants.
"These days, where the industry is becoming increasingly competitive and brands are maturing and, therefore, always are challenged to keep the brand fresh and to keep business brisk, and where marketing budgets get slimmer and slimmer, we feel really good about the expertise of our teams here to help," she said.
