Email marketing strategies for driving higher restaurant transactions

You can send personalized, timely campaigns more easily when your B2C CRM connects with solutions in your tech stack , and guest data flows and syncs across channels.

Select an platform that:

•  Integrates your reservations, online ordering, loyalty and POS platforms (like Toast, Square, OpenTable, Olo, Punchh, Thanx, and GoTab) to aggregate guest data from multiple sources 

•  Supports marketing automation across channels

•  Combines SMS and email marketing

•  Offers built-in analytics to measure ROI

Klaviyo’s future of consumer marketing report reveals why guests sign up for restaurant email lists:

• 37% want exclusive discounts

• 14% want personalized recommendations

• 14% want early access to events or new items

With that in mind, here are some ways you can build your email list and collect more guest data:

• Integrate with online ordering , reservation, event, and loyalty platforms—Olo, Toast, Square ,OpenTable, Punchh, Thanx, and EventBrite) for example—to gather email addresses from diners who opt in to marketing when they make a reservation.

• Offer Wi-Fi sign-up portals that capture guest information.

• Use QR codes on menus, receipts, and table tents to collect emails.

• Add pop-ups and offers to your website with compelling incentives.

• Capture emails at the host stand or during check-out.

When crafting your email sign-up forms, consider whether it makes sense for your restaurant to add a few fields collecting zero-party data you can use alongside your first-party data in future personalization efforts (more on this in a moment). Think: dietary preferences, birthdays, favorite locations , and more.

Segmentation is key for getting the most out of guest data. When you group subscribers based on behaviors, preferences, and locations, you can send more meaningful, targeted messages.

Here are a few examples of email segments that might work well for restaurants:

• First-time diners: Guests who have dined with you for the first time

• VIP diners: diners who visit frequently or spend a lot when they visit

• Guests in certain geographic regions: guests who regularly visit certain locations, or have indicated a preferred location

• Menu preferences: guests who have indicated dietary or item preferences 

Klaviyo custom objects let you capture and use custom data like reservations and gift card balances to send tailored messages, like combining a reservation reminder  with an offer for   their favorite dish.

Your guests want to feel like regulars—even if it’s their second visit. By leveraging unified guest data, you can serve up personalized experiences that feel thoughtful, and drive higher check sizes and repeat visits. 

With the right, you can use guest data to craft personalized, meaningful experiences that drive loyalty and sales. From tracking dietary preferences and past orders to spotting patterns in visit frequency and timing, every data point helps you tailor your marketing to:

• Send recommendations based on favorite dishes or seasonal menu items.

• Offer timely promotions when someone’s likely to reserve.

• Help guests celebrate birthdays or anniversaries with extra perks.

• Engage rewards program guests, and win back inactive loyalty member

Follow best practices for email list hygiene, such as:

• Using double opt-in to collect consent from new email marketing subscribers

• Clearly sharing what you’re going to do with contact data

• Keeping email lists organized

• Removing unengaged contacts

Create timely campaigns around holidays and seasonal events—like a prix fixe menu for Valentine’s Day or a summer BBQ—to encourage reservations.

You can also get guests excited about warm-weather dining with promotions like summer specials, outdoor seating options, and limited-time dishes that make them eager to book their next visit.

Sports season, for example, is perfect for promoting game-day menus or watch-party packages. You can also tap into local festivals or events, inviting diners to drop in and enjoy special offers or themed menus.

If you cater private events, promote tailored packages for occasions like rehearsal dinners, corporate events, or family celebrations. Highlight your restaurant’s versatility with case studies from past events that show how your restaurant is the perfect choice for special celebrations.

New dishes deserve an email debut that excites subscribers and drives more foot traffic.

Introducing a seasonal tasting menu, new specials, or bringing back a fan favorite? Include high-quality photos and chef commentary in your emails to build hype.

Create emails that reflect the human side of your restaurant. Shine a spotlight on your employees, share insights from your owner or head chef, display positive guest reviews, and tell community stories that show what your brand stands for.

Maximize the impact of your restaurant loyalty program for VIP guests—and boost customer lifetime value (CLV)—with tailored rewards and offer emails.

Use behavior, purchase and preference  insights to understand what makes guests tick. With unified guest data—from online ordering tools, POS systems, loyalty programs, and reservations platforms—you can personalize outreach to guest preferences.

To motivate your audience to act, consider sending:

• Celebration emails that reward tier achievements

• Reminder emails for guests nearing a new status level or points milestone

• Available reward emails with a clear CTA and easy redemption instructions

• Loyalty program perks highlighted in your restaurant newsletter to drive participation

Legal Sea Foods, for example, grows their list via their loyalty program, which offers rewards for every $1 spent, free dishes for signing up, and birthday dessert treats—showing that diners are happy to share their info for valuable perks.

Klaviyo’s future of consumer marketing report found that almost 4 in 10 consumers order from restaurant websites on mobile—so be sure you’re designing emails for small screens.

Use responsive templates that automatically adjust to different devices, and make sure your content is easy to scan. Clear, thumb-friendly CTA buttons make it easy for diners to make reservations or place orders on the go. Include optimized images that showcase your menu items  and restaurant’s ambiance to spark interest and spur action.

Strong visuals do more than make your emails pretty. High-quality food photography can convey the taste and experience far better than any description, making it a key part of drawing guests back.

Highlight signature or seasonal menu items to tempt guests back, and include employee spotlights—such as their profiles and top menu picks—to make your restaurant feel friendly, familiar, and worth returning to.

Consistent visual branding—across  images, brand assets, colors, and fonts—also builds recognition and trust across all diner interactions, helping you build stronger connections and loyalty over time.

Measure these key email metrics to track your email marketing success:

• Open rates: Open rates tell you how many people opened your email as a percentage of how many received it. To increase open rates, use smart segmentation and strong subject lines and preview text.

• Click rates: Click rates show the rate of how many people clicked a link in your email as a percent of the total recipients. Strong click rates show that your content encourages subscribers to take action, and that your CTAs are aligned with the messaging.

• Reservation confirmations: This is the percent of viewers who made a reservation from your email. Send these emails ahead of busy weekends or holidays to encourage bookings.

• Offer redemption rate: This could apply to loyalty or rewards offers, invites to join a loyalty program, and more.

• NPS score: You can collect this after a customer’s visit and use it to measure overall brand sentiment and experience.

• Revenue per recipient (RPR): RPR measures how much revenue your emails generate for each recipient. To generate more RPR, use strategic segments to make offers hyper-relevant.

• Guest retention rate: Retention rates show how well you hang on to subscribers or customers over time. Targeted, personalized campaigns keep guests engaged—and they’re one of the biggest drivers of customer retention.

Optimizing your emails can mean the difference between being opened or ignored. With the right data and targeted optimizations like the following, you can stand out in crowded inboxes and prompt subscriber action:

• A/B testing: Experiment with different subject lines, content, incentive types, and CTAs to see what drives higher open and click rates. You can also test AI-generated subject lines to see which ones resonate, and use Klaviyo AI-powered A/B testing, which learns which emails perform best across different segments.

• Send-time testing: A/B testing can also help you identify the best times to send emails for maximum engagement.

• Guest behavior analysis: Understand your guests’ habits—like when they visit or what they order most—with smart segmentation to help you send more relevant, personalized emails.

• Segment refinement: Create more impactful content by continuously optimizing segments around real guest actions like engagement levels and visit history.