Restaurant Email Marketing: 8 Proven Campaigns To Drive More Sales

I talked to dozens of restaurant owners about email marketing and noticed a pattern: The most successful ones spent less time on it.

Their secret? Automation. Struggling restaurants sent the occasional handwritten email, while top performers had “set it and forget it” campaigns running daily.

So, I studied their best money-making emails and built them into ready-made templates. As Owner customers used them, the data proved they worked.

This guide breaks down the eight most profitable emails for restaurants—emails that can boost revenue by 10%-20% and run on autopilot.

Now, let’s dig in. 👇

3 reasons why restaurants need email marketing 

Before I get into those emails, it’s worth asking: Why bother?

I work with restaurant owners daily. I know they have very little time to spare on another marketing channel. Anything new needs to show a return.

In spite of that, I always tell owners that restaurant email marketing is worth it. No question. It can transform your business.

And that’s because it offers three unique advantages that other marketing channels don’t:

1. Email directly grows your sales

There are only three ways to grow your restaurant’s revenue:

1. Increase the number of new customers
2. Increase the number of repeat orders
3. Increase the average check size

Most marketing channels affect just one of those numbers. We know restaurant SEO matters, because Google sends 15 times more new customers than social media. That alone makes Google valuable.

When done right, email marketing grows revenue across all these areas. New customers, repeat orders, and larger check sizes.

Email marketing also has one of the lowest costs of all marketing channels. So every dollar you earn brings more in profit than other channels.

2. Email grows your sales per customer

I recently met a restaurant owner at a tradeshow and loved how she described email’s role in her business. “I see email like a bridge,” she said. “It helps almost-customers become customers, and one-time customers get to regular status.”

It’s a great metaphor. Email moves customers from one stage to the next. Email makes your customers more valuable.

After subtracting marketing costs, many one-time customers aren’t profitable. It’s their second order (and beyond) that makes them profitable.

This really matters for fast casual and takeout-heavy restaurants. These types of restaurants have lower-margin entrees that guests order frequently. Repeat orders are what make the business work.

3. Results from email are reliable

Email isn’t affected by the latest Google algorithm update. Or any algorithm update. No one controls email so no one can come in one day and change all the rules.

This is really important. Platforms like Instagram and Facebook update their rules all the time. These changes sometimes make reaching customers harder for restaurants.

Email is a channel you control. How well your emails perform is up to you. If you send great emails to the right customers, these email marketing tips will work. It’s that simple.

Before you begin: Make sure to build your email list

Many restaurant owners tell me their biggest marketing regret is not collecting emails from Day 1.

You already know customer data gets trapped on DoorDash and Uber Eats. Third-party apps still make it almost impossible to export your customer data.

You’ll likely collect the most emails from the most obvious places:

• Your online ordering: Ask for emails at checkout to share order updates.
• Your mobile app: Get emails as customers are signing up.
• Your rewards program: Ask for an email as a requirement to join.
• In-person orders: Show the option on your POS or train staff to ask.
• DoorDash orders: Drop a flier that offers 15% off if guests order on your website.

You can get creative, too. But start with these places first. A restaurant with a healthy order volume will collect emails a lot faster than you expect.

And that lets you reach so many more guests with the email campaigns we’ll cover below.

But first, what makes email campaigns effective?

How to make an email campaign effective 

Not all emails are created equal—some get opened, read and drive real revenue, while others get ignored or sent straight to spam. Before I break down the most profitable email campaigns, let’s cover what makes an email effective.

The best restaurant emails grab attention, provide clear value and drive action. Here are the essential elements every high-performing email should include:

• Subject line: This is the first thing your customer sees. Keep it short, intriguing and relevant.
• Preheader: This is right below the subject line in a reader’s inbox. A quick preview of your email’s content can help boost open rates.
• Headline: Reinforce your message with a bold, clear statement that hooks the reader.‍
• Body copy: Keep it engaging. Focus on what’s in it for them—whether it’s a special deal, a new menu item or an exclusive event. 

The 5 best money-making emails for restaurants

Restaurant email marketing is a lot simpler when you realize there are two main groups of emails. And in those two groups, a small number of emails produce the biggest results.

Put another way, we can make money by setting up just a few emails.

After helping hundreds of restaurants with email marketing, I realized something. The best emails focus on the key moments a guest has with your restaurant.

At each key moment, you can send an automated email to influence a customer’s next step. That’s what makes these emails so powerful: they reach customers at just the right time. No wonder some milestone emails drive 30 times more revenue than one-off emails. 

In this section, I want to help you set up the most profitable milestone emails for your restaurant. The data is clear: these emails drive the most revenue in the shortest amount of time.

Campaign #1: Cart abandonment emails

Let’s start with our “almost-customers.” These are guests who add items to their cart without checking out, and there’s no arguing that abandoned carts could mean money left on the table.

There are two things I love about these campaigns. First, they work fast. My friends Mo and Omar, co-founders of Talkin’ Tacos, send great cart abandonment emails. They set these emails up in minutes with Owner, and they now earn shy of $2,450 in new sales per month.

Second, these emails are simple to make. Your copy and visuals can be direct. Nothing fancy. Just remind guests what they left in their cart and show them a picture.

‍

Make sure it’s easy to complete the order right from the email. Preferably, in just a few clicks.

These emails work on me all the time. It makes sense. A million things can distract guests before they finish ordering—especially on mobile. Later, when they’re free, they might want the exact same order. All it takes is a reminder.

Campaign #2: Welcome email

Set expectations early when a guest shares their email—make it clear why your emails are worth opening.

A welcome email does just that. Rahul at Saffron Indian Kitchen sends a great one: “Hey, I saw you just joined us. Our newsletter gives you access to specials, discounts and more.” Clear benefits mean higher open rates.

He also includes a win-win offer: 20% off the first direct order, plus built-in rewards. It’s no surprise this email alone brings in over $1,000 per month—on autopilot.

Campaign #3: First-time customer campaign

If you look at all your customers today, I bet a majority are single-order customers. As we covered, one-time customers aren’t super profitable.

First-time customer campaigns try to earn that initial reorder. The one that makes customers much more profitable.

These campaigns also have another job: to get feedback. That way, you can fix mistakes for future customers. This almost always improves your reorder rate over the long term.

To start seeing improvements here, focus on these two emails first:

1. First 24 hours: Ask for feedback

Within an hour of delivery, send an email asking guests to rate their experience. If they had a great meal, prompt them to leave a review and offer bonus loyalty points as a thank-you. If they weren’t satisfied, follow up immediately with an apology email and a personal response to resolve the issue. 

This approach not only increases positive reviews but also helps recover unhappy guests and gather valuable feedback.

2. First 7 days: Recommend new dishes 

After addressing any concerns, follow up within the first week with a personalized email recommending other menu items they might enjoy. Highlight dishes based on their first order, including high-quality photos, and make reordering as simple as one click. 

Rahul from Saffron Indian Kitchen used this approach and saw an extra $4,000 in repeat orders within 30 days. A well-timed recommendation can turn a one-time guest into a loyal customer.

Campaign #4: Repeat order emails

We’ve set up emails for new customers. Now it’s time to stay top of mind with guests who’ve ordered multiple times, our regulars. This is the bread and butter of restaurant email marketing. 

Discounts and special offers are a powerful way to do this. But we need to be mindful of profit margins and not train customers to always expect discounts.

I recommend using the discount ladder approach, created by business owner Drew Sanocki. Here’s how it works:‍

• ‍Initial phase: After a short period of no orders (~30 days), the customer receives a small discount (e.g., 5%–10%).‍
• Intermediate phase: If the customer doesn’t bite after the first offer (~60 days), the discount increases (e.g., 10%–20%).‍
• Final phase: As a customer begins slipping away (~90 days), the discount reaches its highest level (e.g., 20%–30%).

Let’s break this down by looking at examples from a single brand: Domino’s. That way, we’ll be able to see the full set of emails they send over time.

My reward points are shown at the top of the emails below. Note how they increase over time. The number of times I’ve ordered affects what emails I receive.

1. Initial discount

Domino’s leads with a $3 off coupon—a good example of the discount ladder in action.

Domino’s leads with a $3 off coupon—a good example of the discount ladder in action.

It takes it further by promoting it in an interesting way: The discount is a reward for your tip. If you tip $3 or more, the initial discount sends it back to you.

This is smart. We don’t want to offer too large of a discount for only a little bit of inactivity. Guests could love your food and just be away on vacation.

2. Loyalty program enrollment

Regulars that join your rewards program order 17% more often on average. If you run a quick-service restaurant, rewards programs are very profitable.

So it’s smart to advertise your rewards program as part of your repeat order emails. Focus on the benefits of joining: the rewards themselves and how guests learn them.

I really like how Domino’s frames things. Every two orders should earn you something free.

That helps make rewards feel concrete and simple. Guests think, “Hey, I get pizza twice a month. So that means I’ll earn rewards fast!”

3. High-margin bonus offer

Discounts work best with menu items that already have high margins. This way, the customer still feels great. But you don’t lose money or eat into the margins for your higher-ticket items—like meat-based dishes.

Here, Domino’s offers a free (high-margin) dessert, but sets a minimum order size. This is to ensure guests at least consider an entree to reach the minimum.

Even if the customer skips the pizza, Domino’s still doesn’t lose much money over the dessert.

4. New rewards unlocked

A guest’s reward progress must be easily visible. In the mobile apps that Owner builds, for example, we display progress right on the homepage.

You can take this even further. Send targeted emails to guests once they unlock the next reward or level in your rewards program. Or right when they’re about to unlock a reward. This ideally happens whether they order in your app or online.

The key with these emails is to visually show guests what rewards they can claim. High-margin sides are best because they get guests to “complete” their order with an entree.

5. Special app offers

Restaurant mobile apps are wildly effective. Owner’s data on apps is clear:

• Restaurants with apps get 85% more return customers than restaurants without an app.
• Regulars who use a restaurant’s app order two times more on average than non-app customers.

Domino’s is willing to offer a generous discount to get guests to use their app. Especially after they’ve seen guests order enough to be considered a regular.

If you have the data, base discounts for first app orders on what app customers are usually worth. It may make sense to break-even on their first order—app customers are that valuable.

6. VIP offers

Your “VIPs” make large or consistent purchases from you. These customers are worth a lot.

I used to think the loyalty program campaign covered it. But I’ve since learned that some restaurants have VIP guests who are in a whole different league. Sometimes, only 2% to 3% of their customers are VIPs.

You’ll have to define when a guest reaches VIP status based on your numbers. Maybe it’s five times the average number of orders. Whatever you use, create discounts that appeal to these valuable guests:

• Special combo offers: VIPs order a lot of food. So they’re the most likely to order a large combo. Send them an offer that discounts a group of items with a high check size.
• Rewards for feedback: How can you get more VIP customers? Ask them! VIPs are so valuable it’s worth sending them a discount in exchange for feedback.

Campaign #5: Win-back emails

Sometimes, customers stop ordering from you just because they get busy. This is actually good news in disguise: these “inactive” regulars are a goldmine. Inactive regulars already enjoy your food. You just need to give them a reason to return.

Phillip Hang, founder of Sushi Me Roll'n, runs a super profitable win-back campaign. He uses Owner to automatically message regulars who are starting to slip away.

Every customer receives an email sequence after reaching these milestones:

• Once the customer has placed an order at least 3 times
• Once the customer hasn’t ordered in the past 45 days

These guests are sent an email that shares their past orders and a special discount to reorder. That helps Philip ensure that he’s reaching regulars who already enjoy his menu. And he emails them just as they’re beginning to lose interest.

This email brings a lot of regulars back in. Phillip increased repeat orders by more than $1,500/month just a few weeks after setting it live.

Send these 3 email campaigns to boost orders

Not every email fits neatly into the customer journey. Some work best as one-time promotions or seasonal campaigns.

I call these promotional emails—they shouldn’t be fully automated because they perform best with your personal touch.

The key? Only send them to active guests (those who’ve ordered in the past 90 days). Sending them to inactive guests hurts open rates and wastes money.

With that in mind, here are the most profitable promotional emails I’ve seen:

Campaign #1: Weekly/monthly specials

Promotional emails work because they’re tied to your actions.

Take Timirie Shibley of Doo-Dah Diner—she and her husband, Chef Patrick, wanted to bring regulars back more often. Their solution? Emailing a weekly specials menu.

Each email is simple:

📸 A crisp photo of the dish

📝 A rich description of ingredients and prep

🔗 A button to order for dine-in or takeout

This one email drives $500 in extra sales weekly—that’s at least $24,000 a year. And sometimes, it’s much more.

To save time, Timirie rotates between 20-30 proven specials, reusing photos and descriptions. Guests respond because the specials have scarcity, urgency and consistency—once the week is up, they’re gone!

Campaign #2: New menu items (or changes)

New menu items are a magnet for regulars and new customers alike. It also takes a lot of effort to introduce a new menu item, so you should always promote them.

There are a lot of approaches you can take. Let’s run through what that might look like if we added “birria tacos” to our menu:

• Exclusive preview: A pre-launch for a new menu item? You bet! Imagine an email that says, “🔥 Coming Friday: New birria tacos.” You can then share how guests have been asking for this dish, why you’re excited about the recipe and so on. Then, the next step …
• Limited-time offer: We’ll give reward members double points for ordering birria tacos in the first week. Maybe we’ll also offer a discount for first-time customers. I’ve seen the normal discounts work twice as well when they’re tied to a new menu time.

All that is to say, new menu items give you lots of options to send promotions over email. You just have to get creative.

Campaign #3: Restaurant promotions

Two types of restaurant promotions work well over email: recurring promotions you run on a schedule and seasonal promotions that appear during events. Let’s cover both now: 

Recurring promotions: 

You don’t need new menu items every week—just highlight a fan favorite. Mo and Omar from Talkin’ Tacos do this brilliantly with Taco Tuesday, emailing guests every Tuesday afternoon about their 20% off tacos deal. 

The email lists all eligible dishes and reminds guests that they must order through the website or app to get the discount. This simple, recurring strategy brings in $500+ every week while driving direct orders, keeping guests engaged and building local buzz.

Seasonal promotions:

Seasonal events bring people out, and well-timed emails can drive them to your restaurant. Instead of a one-off promo, try a three-part campaign: before, day-of and follow-up. 

Use event-specific dishes, discounts or contests to stand out, like a Super Bowl score prediction for a free meal. Reward regulars with double points or run last-minute deals to capture shifting plans.

How to measure the impact of your restaurant’s email marketing

Once you’ve set up even basic marketing automation for your restaurant, you’ll send many dozens of emails per day. So, how do you know if they’re working?

You’ll hopefully see sales and revenue climb. But we need to go deeper to determine if that’s due to your emails or something else.

Once again, there are a million things you can track. But if you want a clear view into what’s driving sales, here are the metrics I recommend:

• Revenue from email: Measure both total revenue from email and its percentage of your restaurant’s overall sales. Successful restaurants often see 10%-20% of revenue from email.
• Email list growth: A growing list means a growing business. If revenue isn’t keeping pace, step up your campaigns.
• Engagement metrics: Aim for a 35% open rate, 1.2% click-through rate and 0.2% hard bounce rate as healthy benchmarks.
• Repeat order rate: Track how many customers reorder within a set period; good benchmarks range from 20%-40% depending on your restaurant type.‍
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): Calculate (Average order value × Order frequency × Customer lifespan) to ensure your acquisition costs stay lower than long-term revenue.

Escape the new customer treadmill with email marketing

A restaurant owner once told me, “Adam, I’m hoping email helps me off the new customer treadmill.” We’ve all felt that—constantly chasing new customers with no breathing room.

Restaurant email marketing is the fix. It keeps one-time guests from slipping away, turns them into regulars and gives you a direct line to customers—no middleman.

I’ve shared the best email tactics I know. Now, it’s about putting those marketing tools into action. If you're ready, schedule a demo with Owner, and we’ll help you set up these automatic campaigns in just a few clicks.

{{cta-1}}