Restaurant Newsletter Ideas: Menus, Events and Hours
A restaurant newsletter reminds your regulars to come back. Seasonal menus, events and holiday hours are usually already on your website. This page shows how to turn those updates into a newsletter you can keep sending.
Why restaurant newsletters stall
Service, prep and staffing take up the day, and writing an email is easy to skip. Social media posts often take whatever time is left.
If you post updates on your website, the newsletter can simply collect them. That removes most of the writing.
Newsletter ideas already on your website
- Seasonal and limited-time menus
- Weekly specials
- Holiday hours and closures
- Reservations opening for holidays or private events
- Takeout and catering offers
- Stories about suppliers and ingredients
- Live music, tastings and other events
How often to send and how to structure an issue
Once or twice a month is enough for most restaurants. Time issues around menu changes and holiday bookings.
A good issue has one or two menu items, an event or reservation note, and your current hours. Keep photos and the full menu on your site and link to them.
Points to watch
- Get permission before using photos that show guests.
- Keep allergen and ingredient notes consistent with your menu, and update posts when recipes change.
- Post urgent changes, like an unplanned closure, on your website too. Do not rely on email alone.
CAN-SPAM basics
In the U.S., the CAN-SPAM Act applies to commercial email, including newsletters. Each message must identify the sender, include a valid physical postal address, and offer a clear way to unsubscribe. Opt-out requests must be honored promptly.
Subject lines must not mislead. You can build a compliant footer with the email footer generator.
How Newsletter Ready helps
Newsletter Ready reads your site's news or blog listing page, or its RSS feed, every hour and picks up to 10 new articles. It drafts an issue from up to 6 of the newest articles you have not used yet.
The draft uses only facts found in your articles and puts a link to the source under each section. Nothing is sent until you approve it.
Sender details and the unsubscribe link are added automatically. Readers can unsubscribe in one click, and addresses that bounce or complain are suppressed. You can record the consent basis for each subscriber.
Paste your site URL on the homepage to get a sample issue in about a minute, with no sign-up. The free plan covers 300 subscribers and 4 issues a month.
Newsletters by industry
Sources
This page is general information, not legal advice.