E-mail marketing for restaurants

List strategy

Lists are the foundation of your email marketing program. Each list that you set up can have its own set of subscribers. Each list can also have up to 15 segments defined. Once you define the segments for your list you will be able to assign each of your subscribers to any segment(s) you choose. This creates a sort of "sub-list" functionality that allows you to send campaigns to certain segments of your list.

The wrong way

Campaign Snap allows for a lot of flexibility in the way you set up your lists. Unfortunately that flexibility has led to some misunderstandings about the best way to set up your lists.

One mistake that I have seen is the creation of separate lists for each segment. So instead of creating a "Tropical Smoothie Cafe - Flint" list with "Catering", "Sales Reps" and "Office Managers" segments our users were creating separate lists called "Catering", "Sales Reps" and "Office Managers".

While this will technically work to achieve the list segmentation you are trying to achieve, this is exactly the opposite of the intended usage. We feel this approach to list set up is a mistake beacause it will cause the following problems:

1. You risk sending duplicate campaigns to the same subscribers
   Each list that you set up will not have any duplicate email addresses in it. This is enforced for you automatically by Campaign Snap. By setting up lists in the manner described above (as a replacement for segments) you are introducing the possibility of having the same email in multiple lists. This makes it extremely likely that sending a campaign to your "Catering" and "Sales Reps" lists will result in the same subscriber receiving both campaigns. (Nobody likes this and they will likely unsubscribe from your list)
2. You are making more work for yourself
   In order to reach multiple segments you will need to send the same campaign to multiple lists. This means creating a campaign, sending it to one list, then sending the same campaign to another list, and repeating this process until you've sent the campaign to every segment that you want to reach. This is tedious and creates the situation described above where you send the same campaign to the same subscriber over and over.
3. You are using up lists that you don't need to use
   Your account is allowed to create a certain number of lists (the base account allows 5 lists). By setting up a list for each segment you are basically wasting a list because the same functionality can be accomplished by using segments.

The bottom line is this.... since each subscriber in each list can belong to one, some or all of the segments for that list; using segments instead of separate lists is a better approach. If you have set up your lists incorrectly it is possible for us to switch your account to using segments instead. If you would like to switch to the segments method, please contact support so we can update your account.

The right way

The best use of multiple lists is to create one list for each restaurant location that you own and set up your segments within those lists. As an example, consider the following list setups:

• List 1: Tropical Smoothie Cafe - Flint
  Segments: Catering, Newsletter, Specials
• List 2: Tropical Smoothie Cafe - Grand Blanc
  Segments: Catering, Sales Reps, Office Managers

Since each location may have its own unique segments that are relevant, you can see how this is the best and most flexible approach. Setting up your lists this way avoids the problems above and offers the following benefits:

1. Avoid sending duplicate campaigns to the same subscribers
   The only way the same subscriber would receive the same campaign from you is if they subscribed to the list for both locations and you in turn sent the same campaign to both lists. This is a highly unlikely scenario.
2. Reach multiple segments in a single campaign
   During campaign setup all you have to do is check the appropriate boxes to limit your campaign to the segments you want. No need to send the same campaign to multiple lists.
3. Save your lists for when you need them
   If you open another restaurant but you've already used up your lists with an incorrect setup you'll need to upgrade your account, which is an unnecessary expense.