Love him or hate him, Gordon Ramsey sure knows how to run a restaurant, a kitchen, and manage his ample staff with the best of them. Just like any other businessperson, Chef Ramsey made (many!) mistakes, including several public failures.
And, what makes him so successful now is that he learned from his mistakes, and understood that learning from the best minds and talent, ensures success.
So, as an avid watcher of the sometimes train wreck of a show, "Kitchen Nightmares," there are a lot of email marketing campaign into a thriving sales mechanism.
Tacky Promotions Never Work
Chef Ramsey often destroys garish promotional signs and replaces them…with nothing. For him, the product speaks for itself, and the only promotion a restaurant needs is the daily specials. By advertising your products in a tacky manner shows that your company is desperate and that other strategies are failing
Real Life Email Marketing Application
Don't give anything away. It automatically devalues you, your products and your reputation. If you feel as though you have to offer drastic promotions in your email marketing campaign to draw sales, stop. Your customers can see right through it.
Information Overload is Scary
One of Chef Ramsey's biggest pet peeves is that when restaurants provide excessively much information on their menus for their customers. From too many daily specials to fifty dessert options, these restaurateurs function under the assumption that more is better. Where, in fact, information overload renders customers unable to make a reasonable choice.
Usually Chef Ramsey tackles the overcrowded menu first by slimming it down which not only ensures the kitchen's success, but that of the entire restaurant staff.
Real Life Email Marketing Application
Just like in a restaurant, your "menu" is your content: whatever product or service you're highlighting is on the menu. Keep your content uncluttered, easy to read and don't promote everything that you offer.
Select the very best for your content, and allow your customers to make the right choice.
Customer Service is Everything
The second that a customer sets foot into a restaurant, it's all about making them feel warm, welcome and taken care of. Crappy service is never an option. On Chef Ramsey's show, we've seen managers and maitre d's being rude, dismissive and downright aggressive with customers. Sure, these examples are extreme, but it still points to the importance of treating your customers with respect.
Real Life Email Marketing Application
So, how does this apply to your email marketing strategy? Ensure that you have many opportunities for your customers to contact you if there is ever a problem or a complaint. This includes links to your customer service landing page on your website, hyperlinking a customer service representative's email in the content and ensuring that you're providing every means for your customers to contact you (instant messaging, toll-free phone numbers and physical addresses).
Never forget to include a statement in your email that speaks to your customer service policy.
We will have more email marketing tips you can learn from Gordon Ramsey's "Kitchen Nightmares" very soon. See, just like the show, we leave you wanting to come back for more.
Read Part 2 - More Expert Email Marketing Campaign Tips From Gordon Ramsey's "Kitchen Nightmares".
