Write a Restaurant Newsletter in 4 Steps
Your e-mail list is the only channel you actually own: no algorithm in between, no reach that halves next month. And it is the one that never gets used, because nobody knows how to start. Say in one sentence what you have to announce and you get a sendable mail — three subject lines, the reason every paragraph is in there, and one click to Gmail or Outlook.
The four moves of a mail that gets read
A newsletter that works is not a nice story. It is four decisions your reader makes in a row: do I open this, do I keep reading, does this interest me, do I do something. Drop one and the rest stop mattering.
-
1
The subject line
The only sentence everyone sees
Say concretely what is happening, in about forty characters, with the most important word first. Put the rest of the promise in the preheader — the grey line the inbox shows next to the subject.
Ninety percent of your work is judged on this one line, and on a phone you only see part of it. 'March newsletter' says nothing; 'New menu from Thursday' says everything.
-
2
The opening
Why you are writing today
One or two sentences that get straight to the point: what is new and why you are telling them now. No three-line greeting, no 'we hope this finds you well'.
Your reader opened the mail with one question in mind: what is this about? Every sentence that delays the answer costs readers — and the first paragraph is exactly what the preview pane shows.
-
3
The news itself
Concrete, with a date and a detail
What there is, when it is, what it costs and why it is worth it. Two or three dishes by name do more than ten adjectives.
Details make it true. 'A surprising seasonal menu' could be anyone; 'four courses around salsify and game, 58 euros, every Thursday in November' could only be you.
-
4
One ask
Exactly one thing to do
Close with one clear action — book, reply to the mail, keep the date free — in one place, with the link if you have one.
Two asks side by side is the same as none: the reader does not choose, they close. Someone who should book and follow you on Instagram ends up doing neither.
Why a list of addresses beats a list of followers
E-mail is the dullest channel you have, and has been the most profitable one for twenty years. Four numbers worth remembering.
-
€36 per €1
Industry estimates put the return on e-mail marketing at around thirty-six euros for every euro spent — more than any other channel, precisely because you pay nothing to reach your own guests.
-
1 in 20
About one in twenty of your social followers sees an ordinary post. A quarter to a half of your e-mail list opens your mail. That difference is not marketing, it is ownership.
-
±40 characters
More than half of all mail is opened on a phone, where you often see no more than about forty characters of the subject line. Whatever comes after that does not exist for most readers.
-
1 to 2 times
One to two mails a month is the point where people remember a restaurant without getting annoyed. Go quiet and you are forgotten; send weekly with no news and you get unsubscribed.
Five mails a restaurant actually sends
You do not need an editorial calendar. Almost everything you will ever send falls into five kinds — and the tool writes all five differently.
-
News or a new menu
The classic: something has changed and your guests get to hear it first.
Send it when the menu turns, when the terrace opens, when there is a new chef or a refit.
-
An event or special evening
One date, a limited number of seats, and therefore a real reason to book now.
Send two to three weeks ahead, with one reminder four or five days before the date.
-
Filling a quiet night
Short, honest and without a discount: one concrete reason to come on that Tuesday or Wednesday.
Send it two to four days before the night you want to fill, not three weeks ahead.
-
Season or reopening
The moment you exist again: first asparagus, game season, terrace open, back after the break.
A week before the start, so people can book that first week.
-
Winning guests back
To everyone who has not been in for six months. No guilt, no pity: simply what has changed since.
Twice a year is plenty, and it almost always returns more than anything else you send.
Six rules for a subject line
A subject line is not a title, it is a promise. These six rules do most of the work — the checker further down this page tests your own line against them.
-
Put the key word first
On a phone you read the beginning, not the end. 'Game menu from 6 November' beats 'It's that time again: our game menu' every time.
-
Keep it around forty characters
Short enough to be fully visible, long enough to say something. Past sixty it gets cut off, usually exactly where the point was.
-
Be concrete, not clever
A date, a dish, a price, a number of seats. Wordplay scores well with you and badly in an inbox.
-
Write the preheader yourself
Leave it empty and the inbox shows the first words of your mail — usually 'View this e-mail in your browser'. That is free space you gave away.
-
Do not shout
CAPITALS, three exclamation marks and 'FREE' are read the same way by a spam filter and by a human: as something they did not ask for.
-
No restaurant name up front
Your name is already in the sender field. Putting it there twice costs you half the visible space without adding one word of news.
Six mistakes that make your mail unreadable
Most restaurant newsletters are not badly written. They are too full.
-
Three subjects in one mail
New menu, Christmas menu and a job opening: the reader remembers none of them. One mail, one subject — the rest keeps for next time.
-
Starting with yourself
'Dear guest, how quickly the year has gone…' Every sentence before the news is a sentence someone drops out on. Start with what there is.
-
No date
'Soon', 'from next month' and 'in the coming weeks' are not dates. Without a date there is nothing to put in a diary.
-
Only mailing when you need something
A list that only hears from you when the restaurant is quiet can feel it. Send something when things are going well too.
-
Using addresses you were never given
A booking is not permission to send marketing. Ask separately, and record when and where someone said yes.
-
Hiding the unsubscribe link
Someone who cannot get out clicks 'spam' — and that costs you the delivery of every mail after it. Put the link visibly at the bottom.
Consent, briefly and correctly
A newsletter to guests falls under the European privacy and e-privacy rules. It comes down to four things, and all four take ten minutes to sort out.
- Ask for consent separately, with an unticked box or a sign-up field of its own. A booking or a wifi log-in is not consent by itself.
- Record when, where and what for someone signed up. That is the only proof you have if anyone ever asks.
- Put a visible unsubscribe link in every mail and act on an unsubscribe immediately — not 'within thirty days'.
- Say at the bottom who you are: the name of the business, the address and an e-mail address you actually answer.
When to send
There is no magic hour, but there is a wrong moment. Four rules of thumb that hold up in hospitality.
- Tuesday to ThursdayMonday drowns in the weekend backlog and Friday evening is rarely read. Pick one fixed day and keep it.
- Near the moment of decidingPeople usually choose their weekend restaurant on a Wednesday or Thursday. A mail that lands just before that beats the same mail on a Sunday night.
- Far enough ahead for a bookingAn event needs two to three weeks, a quiet Tuesday two to four days. The other way round works for neither.
- One reminder, not threeFor a date with limited seats, send one short reminder four or five days ahead to everyone who did not open the first mail. More than that is pushing.
Frequently asked questions
Is this tool free?
Yes. You need no account and install nothing. You get five newsletters a day; that is what generating costs and it is plenty for a month of mailing.
Can I send the mail straight away?
You can copy it or open it in Gmail or Outlook in one click, with the subject and the text already filled in. Read it once, check the dates and send.
Does this work with Mailchimp or my own system?
Yes — copy the text and paste it into any mail program. The tool writes plain text with no formatting code, so it fits any template.
Is my text stored anywhere?
What you type goes once to the language module to write your mail and is not stored anywhere else. What you see on this page stays in your own browser.
How often should I send?
Once or twice a month is right for most restaurants. Ten mails a year with something in them beat one a week with nothing.
How do I build a list?
Ask at booking as a separate tick box, put a card on the table, ask when people pay and put a sign-up field on your website. A hundred real addresses beat a thousand bought ones.
What language does the tool write in?
The language of this page. If you write to your guests in another language, pick that language in the switcher at the top.
Why is there a security check?
Every newsletter costs a real request to the language model. An invisible check runs alongside to stop bots, so the tool can stay free. You do not have to tick anything.