5 Ways to Segment Restaurant Customers for Better Marketing

Choosing to segment your restaurant customers is one of the best tactics for your digital marketing strategy. Email segmentation, or the process of divvying up your list into more specific categories to offer more relevant content to your subscribers, is extremely powerful for building relationships, generating loyal customers, and growing your revenue. Restaurant customer segmentation matters!

According to Hubspot, segmented and targeted emails generate 58% of all revenue. By personalizing your restaurant’s message to speak precisely to the recipient by using restaurant customer segmentation, you’ll be better effective at driving your email content engagement.

In fact, in addition to increasing sales for your restaurant, here are the top benefits of segmenting your restaurant customers and how it can help improve your overall digital results.

Benefits of Segmenting Restaurant Customers

Increases Open-Rates

Numerous studies and reports prove that segmenting increases email open rates. If you feel your messages are getting lost in the inbox, sending personalized content will yield better responses.

Increases Click-throughs

Because your message speaks directly to the user, they’re more likely to click on your call-to-action or accept your offer. MailChimp shares that brands receive 100.95% higher clicks than non-segmented campaigns! Segment and get patrons clicking on your links.

Encourages Future Engagement

Your recipients will get used to you sharing valuable content that relates to their needs and desires. Therefore, they’ll keep opening up your messages and continue engaging with your restaurant brand.

Separates You from Competitors

Hubspot also shares that 42% of marketers do not send targeted email messages. By embracing email segmentation, you give your restaurant marketing the slight edge by personalizing your content and giving your customers more of what they want!

5 Interesting Tips for Restaurant Market Segmentation

Now that we’ve convinced you of the advantages of segmenting restaurant customers, here are five category ideas to actively employ this strategy to better your marketing:

#1 Preferred/Loyal Customers

Loyal customers are valuable to your business. It’s easier to sell to an existing customer than to market and sell to a new one. Therefore, reward your repeat customers by establishing a preferred customer program. Let them know that they’re on an exclusive list where they’ll receive specials and offers just for them!

#2 By Location or Neighborhood

Get super-specific in your customer segmentation by targeting local neighborhoods or individual business districts in your area. You can promote specials that drive these communities through your doors and brings them together. Imagine offering a promotion for a specific school, for example. It’s the perfect plan to get people together as a meet and greet.

#3 Purchase Decision

Each of your customers has a food preference that they gravitate towards, whether it’s your gluten-free choices, meat lovers, or unique dishes. By collecting data from either your Wi-Fi or customer analytics, you can use this information to upsell and keep them coming back.

Surprise your patrons by offering a discount on the foods they love and highlighting an item that perfectly complements their choice.

#4 Customers Who Haven’t Reviewed

Customer reviews are incredibly important and can make or break your business (Source: Inc.). In fact, the majority of people embrace reviews just as much as they would a personal recommendation. Creating ways to get customers to give reviews should be an ongoing tactic in your restaurant marketing.

With that said, use your email marketing software to segment your list by customers who have not left a review. Offer a small percentage off their next order as a thank you when they post a review.

#5 Use Your Wi-Fi Analytics

Your Wi-Fi analytics tool provides invaluable data about your customers including their visit frequencies, first-time customer data, and how long they spend at your store. By having guests offer their email to use your Wi-Fi services, you create the perfect opportunity to segment your customers, especially new ones.

You see, how you market to a first-time customer should be completely different than how you would an existing or frequent customer. So, your Wi-Fi analytics can bolster your email marketing strategy while helping you create a personalized experience with your restaurant brand…in-store and digitally.

Begin Your Restaurant Customer Segmentation Today

With these ideas, begin to make changes to your email marketing by executing restaurant customer segmentation and crafting triggered campaigns. Your patrons will appreciate the personalization and feel as if you’re speaking directly to them. It will make your digital marketing highly effective.