Newsletters Continue to Be Important In an Age of Technology

A newsletter is designed to help create loyalty from your customers and to give the customer a reason to visit your establishment. You need to keep in mind that your mailings need to be fun, exciting and easy-to-read. Newsletters create loyal, repeat customers.
    A newsletter could have a section called “Meet The Staff” where you would feature one or possibly two of your “superstar” employees. You also could identify the winner(s) of your contests and/or drawings.  Showcase your highly popular/highly profitable menu items, and you should always include a calendar of events and direct your guests to your Web site for additional information.
    Content is everything. You need to create a reading habit for loyal customers. Remember, your newsletter is competing with other direct mail, magazines and who knows how many other publications.  But if you give your guests valuable and interesting information, your newsletter will be an excellent way to keep your nightclub or bar top-of-mind with your guests.

Arirang Samurai Lounge
    Mark Tranchina of Arirang Hibachi Steakhouses and Samurai Lounge sends out newsletters six times a year and takes the time to ensure that they are effective. Many times, guests come to the restaurant just because they received the newsletter.
Tranchina says newsletters are “happy mail” — he gives his customers information they want to receive. Newsletters build relationships with guests second only to face-to-face interactions.
    Tranchina always includes coupons or certificates that the reader can return to him such as a certificate for a free dinner or a discount, a contest entry (either a simple entry or the answer to a trivia contest), a request to add a friend to the mailing list, or a periodical reader survey with a reward attached for an incentive. These printed certificates are important to include so you can see how many people read and reply to your newsletter. 
    Arirang’s Samurai Lounge has done extensive testing on what brings guests into the business. For a while they sent out $10 certificates with their newsletter, but they did not draw very well. So, the lounge went to a $20 certificate, and it brought in about three times the number of people. They then tried a $15 certificate, and it brought in just about the same response as the $20 certificate.
Arirang’s has stayed with the $15 certificate, and it has been very, very effective.
    Please pay attention to how you craft the disclaimers on the certificate. You need to determine the disclaimers for your business. But remember, the fewer the disclaimers, the better the response rate.  Always include an expiration date on all certificates.
    Loyal customers like to be treated like they are part of your business family. You can involve them more by brainstorming with your key employees for ideas to put in your newsletters.
    In one Arirang’s newsletter, emphasis was given to a drawing for a free deluxe vacation for the customer who was the lucky winner in a contest, in which customers became eligible after signing up for the Arirang Preferred Dining Club.

T. J. Finnegan’s
    Ron Doty of T.J. Finnegan’s sends out a monthly newsletter which has special offers and outlines the special events for the month on a monthly calendar. The calendar of events also should be posted on your Web site.
    “I send out full-color postcards to patrons, who are earmarked ‘Comedy’ in our database, two weeks before the event, and I send an e-mail out the day of the event,” Doty says.
    “I do the same thing for the big bands. I send my marketing to people who have shown an interest in what I’m sending.”
Here’s an example of a newsletter listing events:
    “This Week’s Schedule of Activities:
    April 15: We are having Geechy Guy who has performed three times on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and is a regular with The Bob & Tom Show.
    April 19: J. Wendell Walker, the most popular comedian ever to appear at T.J.’s. If you don’t love his act, if he can’t make you laugh out loud, I’ll give you your money back.
    April 21:  The 10-Piece Powerhouse Band will do a special performance you will not want to miss.
For our dance crowd I just had a new video VJ DVD Music System installed with all the hot new videos.”
    Every newsletter needs special offers of some type, like this offer from T.J. Finnegan’s April newsletter:
    “I invite you to come in for some great WoodFired pizza soon. You can cut off and use this portion of the newsletter to get $5 off any tab of $25 or more before taxes. However, if you’re feeling lucky, I’ll do a Tijuana Toss with you for double or nothing for the $5 coupon, making it worth $10. Fabulous pizza and a little suspense, it doesn’t get any better.  This offer is valid for the month of April 2007 only.”
    Another great promotion for Birthdays and Half Birthdays is where management sends you a certificate to be put into a drawing the night the customer celebrates his birthday for a $50 certificate to pay for bar tabs.         NCB


Ron Wilkinson is the founder of NightClubandBarMarketingGroup.org (no relation to Nightclub & Bar magazine), which specializes in maximizing sales and profits for their clients. For more information, call (888) 776-3484 or visit the site.