Nine email marketing mistakes restaurants make

The email went out at noon. By one o'clock, a guest had replied to say the booking button led nowhere. By two, another had pointed out that the address in the footer belonged to the group's other restaurant, across town. By three, the unsubscribes had doubled, because it was the third email that week. Nothing about it was unusual. These are among the most common email marketing mistakes restaurants make, and each one is easy to prevent with a few minutes of checking.

Email is one of the cheapest and most effective ways for a restaurant to bring guests back, which is exactly why mistakes are costly. A broken link wastes the interest the email created. A bought list damages the reputation that decides whether future emails reach the inbox. Too many sends teach guests to ignore you. Most mistakes come not from bad intentions but from haste.

This guide covers nine mistakes restaurants make with email, why each happens and the check that prevents it, plus how to fix a mistake once an email has gone out. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

A mistake in an email rarely costs only that email. A broken booking link loses the bookings the email would have brought. A batch of spam complaints can push the next several emails into the spam folder. A run of unsubscribes shrinks the list permanently. Guests remember a sloppy email, and read the next one with less trust.

That is why a few minutes of checking before each send is worth more than almost anything else in email marketing. Most of the mistakes below can be caught by a short, routine check that takes less time than writing the email.

The first and most damaging mistake is emailing people who never agreed to hear from you: a bought list, a list borrowed from a partner, contacts imported from an old system without checking their consent, or everyone who has ever booked. It is tempting, because it makes the list bigger overnight.

It backfires. People who did not choose to hear from you ignore the emails, unsubscribe and report them as email spam. Email providers notice, and start filtering your emails, including those to guests who did want them. In many places, it also breaks the rules on marketing consent.

The check is simple: only email guests who opted in, clearly and recently enough to remember. Build the list slowly from your own guests. Our guide to email opt in that guests do not regret covers how to collect consent that holds up.

The second mistake is an email with no clear way to book. It describes the new menu beautifully, mentions the Thursday supper and then ends, with no button, or with a link to the home page from which the guest has to find the booking page themselves. Interested guests give up.

It happens because the email was written as news rather than as an invitation. The writer knew how to book, so forgot that the guest needed showing. Sometimes the button is there but broken, pointing to an old page or to nothing at all.

The check: every email has one clear button that goes straight to the booking page, and you have clicked it yourself in a test before sending. Our guide to email copy: eighty words and one link covers how to build the email around that link.

The third mistake is attaching a PDF of the menu. On a phone, a PDF is slow to open, hard to read and impossible to search, and attachments make emails more likely to be filtered as suspicious. Many guests never open it.

It happens because the PDF already exists, and attaching it feels helpful. But guests do not want the whole menu in an email; they want to know what is new and why they should come.

The check: no attachments. Describe two or three dishes in the email itself, with a photo, and link to the menu on your website, where it can be read properly on any screen. Our guide to the menu on your website, not in a PDF covers why the web page beats the file.

The fourth mistake is common in groups: an email that goes out with another venue's address, phone number, opening hours or booking link. It usually happens when an email is copied from a sister venue's template and not every detail is changed. A guest who books through it ends up at the wrong restaurant, or rings a number that is not yours.

Even single venues make a version of this mistake: last season's opening hours, an old phone number, a booking link to a page that no longer exists. Any detail that was right when the template was made can be wrong by the time it is reused.

The check: before every send, read the footer and every link as if you were a guest. Is this the right venue, the right address, the right phone number, the right booking page? In a group, make the venue's name part of the checklist, and have someone who did not write the email check it.

The fifth mistake is getting the rhythm wrong. Too often, and guests tire of you: unsubscribes rise, clicks fall and some guests mark the emails as spam. Too rarely, and guests forget you: when an email finally arrives, it feels like it came from a stranger.

It happens because emails are sent when someone has time or a quiet week looms, rather than to a plan. A busy month produces four emails; a busy season produces none.

The check: a simple email calendar, a rhythm you can keep and a habit of watching unsubscribes after each send. Our guide to email frequency: how often is too often covers how to find yours.

The sixth mistake is the monthly newsletter that tries to say everything: the new menu, three events, gift cards, a staff profile, the opening hours and a link to every social media account. It is long, the important part is buried and guests on phones read the first few lines and stop.

It happens because a monthly newsletter feels efficient: one email, everything covered. But email copy works best when each email does one job.

The check: one idea per email. If you have three things to say, send three short emails over the month, or choose the one that matters most. A short email about one thing is read; a long email about everything is skimmed and forgotten.

The seventh mistake is making unsubscribes difficult: a tiny link hidden in grey text, a page that asks guests to log in, a form that asks why they are leaving before it lets them go, or an unsubscribe that takes days to work.

It happens because unsubscribes feel like losses, and making them harder seems to protect the list. In practice, guests who cannot leave easily click "report spam" instead, which does far more harm than an unsubscribe.

The check: a clear unsubscribe link in every marketing email, one click to leave, and no further emails to anyone who has left. Unsubscribes are a normal part of a healthy list. Treat a rise in them as information about what you sent, not as something to block.

The eighth mistake is sending without testing. Typos, wrong dates, broken images, a button that does not work on a phone, a subject line cut off halfway, a preview that shows "View in browser": all of these are visible in a test email and invisible in the editor.

It happens because the email looks fine on the screen where it was written, and there is pressure to send it before lunch. But most guests will read it on a phone, in an email app, possibly with images off.

The check: send a test to yourself, open it on your phone, read every word, check every date and price and tap every button. If you can, ask a colleague to read it too. A wrong date in a restaurant email is especially costly, because guests act on it.

The ninth mistake is judging emails by open rates. Opens have become unreliable, because some email apps register an open automatically, whether or not anyone reads the email, while others hide real opens. A venue that chooses subject lines, send times or content on open rates is choosing on noise.

It happens because the open rate is the first number most email tools show, and it often looks flattering. But it says little about whether the email brought guests.

The check: judge emails by clicks on the booking link, by the bookings and covers that followed and by unsubscribes. Our guide to email open rates and the numbers that matter more covers what to measure instead.

Several of these mistakes, bought lists, too many sends, hard-to-find unsubscribes and attachments, also damage email deliverability: whether your emails reach the inbox at all. Email providers watch how recipients respond. Emails that are ignored, deleted unread or reported as spam teach them that your messages are unwanted.

The damage builds slowly and lasts. A venue that bought a list a year ago may still be fighting the spam folder today. Our guide to email deliverability: why your mail goes to spam covers how to protect and repair it.

Most of these mistakes can be caught with a short check before every send:

It takes five minutes. Make it a habit, and most of the mistakes in this guide stop happening.

Sometimes a mistake gets through. If it is small, such as a typo, let it go. If it matters, such as a wrong date, a broken booking link or the wrong venue's details, send a short correction to the same guests: one or two sentences, saying what was wrong and giving the right information.

Keep the correction brief, and do not resend the whole email. "A correction: the wine evening is on the twelfth, not the eleventh. Sorry for the confusion. Book here." Guests appreciate honesty, and a quick correction prevents guests turning up on the wrong night.

Automated emails, such as a monthly regulars' note or a message to newly lapsed guests, carry a special risk: a mistake in them repeats every time they run. An old menu, last year's prices or a dead link in an automated email can reach guests for months before anyone notices.

Review automated emails regularly, at least every season. Read them as a guest would, click every link and update anything that has changed. An automation that was perfect when it was set up can quietly become wrong.

Keep a short note of every mistake that gets through: what went wrong, how it was caught and what check would have prevented it. Add that check to the list. Over time, the list grows to cover the mistakes your venue is prone to.

Share the notes with whoever writes and sends emails. Most email mistakes are not about skill but about routine. A team with a good routine makes very few, and catches the rest before guests do.

Most email mistakes happen in a hurry. The email is written on a busy afternoon, checked quickly and sent before service, because there will be no time later. The wrong date, the broken link and the old address all slip through when there is no time to look properly.

Separate writing from sending. Write the email one day, check it the next and schedule it to go at the right time, rather than pressing send the moment it is finished. A day's distance makes mistakes far easier to see, and a scheduled send takes the pressure off.

The person who wrote an email is the worst person to check it, because they read what they meant rather than what is there. A colleague reading it fresh spots the wrong price, the confusing sentence and the button that says "Book now" but links to the menu.

Ask someone else to read every email before it goes, with a short list of what to look for: the venue, the dates, the prices, the link and the unsubscribe. It takes them two minutes, and it catches most of the mistakes the writer cannot see.

Some email mistakes are really decisions made by default. Sending every email to the whole list, because choosing an audience takes effort. Putting an offer in every email, because it seems to work. Sending whenever there is time, because nobody planned a rhythm. Each feels like a small shortcut, and each adds up to a list that tires of the venue.

Make these decisions on purpose instead. Decide who each email is for, which emails carry offers and how often you write. A short email plan, agreed once, prevents a whole category of mistakes that no checklist can catch.

Templates are where many mistakes begin. A template made last year still carries last year's opening hours, an old photo, a phone number that has changed or a footer from a sister venue. Every email built from it inherits the problem.

Review your templates each season. Update the details, remove anything out of date and check every link. When a detail changes, such as a new phone number, change it in the templates the same day, so the next email cannot carry the old one.

An invented restaurant group sends a summer menu email from one of its three venues, using a template copied from another. It goes out with the other venue's address in the footer and a booking button that leads to the other venue's page. A dozen guests book at the wrong restaurant before anyone notices.

The group sends a short correction within the hour, apologising and giving the right link, and calls the guests who booked at the wrong venue. It then adds three checks to every send: the venue's name, address and booking link read aloud by someone who did not write the email, a test sent to a phone and every button tapped. The mistake has not happened again.

In servearound, campaigns go only to confirmed subscribers who opted in on the booking page or at the table, guests imported from a spreadsheet are not signed up, and every campaign carries an unsubscribe link, so the first and seventh mistakes are hard to make. Each email can be previewed on a desktop and a phone and sent as a test to any address, and the send checklist shows the audience and its count, the subject and preview text, when the last test went, when this list was last emailed and that a campaign cannot be unsent.

Buttons can link to the venue's own booking page and menu through the booking and menu links, which point to the right pages for the venue that sends, and the sender guests see is chosen from those set in the network's Campaigns tab. Campaign analytics show deliveries, bounces, clicks and unsubscribes for every send, with no open rates, and list health shows sends this week against the guide that a list sustains about one to three a week. See Campaigns.

Emailing people who never opted in. It harms the emails that reach everyone else.

No. Describe a few dishes in the email and link to the menu on your website.

Read the footer and every link before sending, ideally with someone who did not write the email.

When unsubscribes rise with each send. Most venues do well between twice a month and once a week.

No. Guests who cannot leave easily report emails as spam instead.

Yes. Read it on a phone, check every date and tap every button.

Send a short correction to the same guests for anything that matters, such as a wrong date or link.

No. Use clicks, bookings and unsubscribes.

The most common email marketing mistakes restaurants make are easy to prevent: bought or borrowed lists, no booking link, a PDF menu attached, another venue's details left in a template, the wrong rhythm, one long newsletter about everything, unsubscribes made hard, sending without a test and judging by opens. Each costs more than one send, because several also damage deliverability.

Prevent them with a five-minute check before every send: the audience, the subject line, one idea, the right details, one tested button, a clear unsubscribe link, the rhythm and a test read on a phone. Correct anything important quickly if it gets through, review automated emails every season and add a check to the list each time a mistake teaches you something.