Email Marketing FAQ

Email Marketing is a fully integrated marketing solution specifically designed for restaurants. Through smart segmentation and automated drip campaigns, it takes the headache out of email marketing by allowing you to quickly and easily send targeted messages to the right guests in order to drive repeat visits, increase revenue, and improve customer loyalty.

Improve marketing outreach and keep guests coming back with integrated email marketing that helps you save time, drive sales, and maximize guest data.

In this Article:

Email Marketing: FAQ

Email Marketing: FAQ

Can I upload a list of emails I have used from another email marketing service?

Yes, you can upload a list of email addresses from a previous service by selecting Subscribers at the top of your Email Marketing dashboard. For more information, see Managing Your Email Marketing Audience.

Why is the number of emails in my Email Marketing dashboard different from my loyalty database?

When you first start with Email Marketing, we import guests who have given their email addresses and visited your restaurant group within the last six months. We limit this initial group to a subset of your guests because older email addresses may be inaccurate or out of use, or guests may even mark your message as spam if they forgot they gave you their email address! After that initial group is imported, all new guest emails will automatically be added to your list going forward.

To grow your Email Marketing audience, consider sharing your marketing signup page link on your personal website or social media accounts. This link can be found under the Settings section of the Subscribers page, as described in this article.

Where can I see the impact my email marketing campaigns had on sales in the restaurant?

At the top of your Email Marketing dashboard, you will be able to see the total number of emails delivered to customers, how many of those emails were opened, and the combined sales of guests who made purchases in your restaurant within fourteen days of receiving a marketing email in their inbox.

To access this information, navigate to the Marketing section in Toast Web and select Email Marketing > Campaigns.

Can I see the impact of a specific email marketing campaign on my restaurant's sales?

Yes, estimated sales per campaign are displayed in the Sales column on your Email marketing dashboard three days after the campaign has been sent to guests. Please note the number of orders placed or the total number of guests attributed to a campaign is not available at this time.

How are estimated sales from email marketing campaigns calculated?

Estimated sales is the total dollar amount attributed to orders placed as a result of your recent marketing campaign(s).

Toast attributes a guest's order to your marketing campaign if the guest places an order within fourteen days of receiving your email, and provides their email address with the order.

The guest may provide their email address in a number of ways:

Requesting a digital receipt
Paying with a credit card linked to their Toast rewards account
Signing up for a Toast rewards account
Placing an online order

A campaign's estimated sales amount first appears on the dashboard at least seventy-two hours after sending the campaign. The amount is then recalculated once a day to capture new revenue.

Not all orders count towards the estimated sales amount, so your exact sales amount is likely higher than the estimate.

An order will not count towards estimated sales if...

The guest placed more than one order after receiving your email. Only the first order placed within fourteen days of receiving your email counts towards estimated sales.
The guest who received your email did not provide their email address with the order.

Note: We do not estimate sales generated by emails before 7/17/2020.

How do I get rid of hard-bounced email addresses and unsubscribed email addresses from my guest list?

Email Marketing will do this for you automatically! To manually unsubscribe email addresses from your Email Marketing database, select Remove Subscribers from the Actions dropdown menu on the Subscribers page. For more information, see Manage Your Email Marketing Audience.

I have multiple restaurant locations in Toast, can I choose the location I'm sending from or the audience I'm sending to?

Yes! For one-time campaigns only, you have the ability to send an email to guests on a custom custom-curated audience list or to guests of specific locations. The one-time email campaign template can be customized to reflect the brand of a single concept and reflect messaging specific to a certain location or audience if needed. Check out this article for more information on sending one-time campaigns.

How do I add Email Marketing to my restaurant?

Email Marketing can be added to your restaurant with your subscription to the Marketing Essential Suite, which is available in Toast Shop. Once subscribed, you can follow the steps in Get Started With Toast Email Marketing.

How do I turn on Email Marketing for another location of my restaurant?

Email Marketing is added to all your restaurant locations at once. Targeted messaging for singular concepts or locations can be done using one-time campaigns. See this article for more information.

How do the permissions work for multiple locations using Email Marketing?

If you have Marketing Info permission, you will be able to manage contact lists, change sender settings, and send campaigns to guests on behalf of the entire restaurant group. This means, that even though you may have permissions limited to your single location for Toast POS, you will still be able to send campaigns on behalf of other locations within your group.

Can I send an email to only certain groups of guests?

Automated email campaigns will be sent to the right segment of guests based on their visit history.

For example:

The Miss You campaign will automatically send daily to any guest who has not made a purchase in the past 30 days.
The Welcome campaign will automatically send daily to any new guests who provide you with their email addresses in the past day.
The Big Spender campaign will automatically send daily to qualifying guests with a higher-than-average check size. You can set this threshold to a custom value for your business.
The Frequent Guest campaign will automatically send daily to guests on every 5th visit.

Note: Any guest who has received one of the automated campaign emails above in the past 28 days cannot receive another one.

You also have the ability to create a custom list of guest emails to send a one-time campaign to or use an automated ongoing campaign to send emails to the preset segment of guests based on their visit history. For more information, please see Launch Your Toast Email Marketing Campaign.

Note: Use one of our auto-generated segments or create custom segments to target guests based on their previous orders at your restaurant please reference the following article: Manage Your Email Marketing Audience

I don't want to spam my guests. How do I ensure my emails don't send too often?

We don't want your guests to feel spammed, so we have a rule in place that if any guest has gotten an automated marketing campaign from you in the past 28 days, they cannot receive another one. One-time email campaigns do not have this rule.

For example:

1. Say you set up your Welcome and Repeat Guest campaigns.

a. Welcome sends to new guests on your email list.
b. Repeat Guest sends to guest every 5th visit.

2. If you have a new guest that comes in every day starting December 1...

a. On December 2, they should receive the Welcome email because they first entered their address on December 1.
b. On December 6, they qualify for the Repeat Guest email, because December 5 was their 5th visit. However, Toast will stop the Repeat Guest email from sending, because we will see that the guest received an email on December 2.
c. The next time the guest will receive an email is December 31, because they will trigger the Repeat Guest email for their 30th visit and it has been more than 28 days.

3. Since the rule does not apply to One-time campaigns, you could send an email about your holiday hours any time during the month of December and this guest would receive it.

Who makes up the list of guests I can send emails to?

Guest emails are collected automatically through a variety of sources in Toast, including:

Online Ordering
Loyalty
Online Gift Card purchases and eGift Cards
Digital Receipts
Local by Toast app
Toast Tables

For one-time campaigns only, you have the ability to send an email to all guests in your restaurant group's database or to a single restaurant's email marketing audience. The one-time email campaign template can be customized to reflect the brand of a single concept and reflect messaging specific to a certain location if needed. Check out Launch Your Toast Email Marketing Campaign for more information on sending one-time campaigns.

My sender name/street address/logo/restaurant name is incorrect. How can I correct it?

You can change your logo, street address, sender name, and reply-to address from the Settings page or when you customize your email template. If you have more than one location using Email Marketing, be sure to select the correct location from the dropdown before changing any of the information listed above. For more information on updating your sender settings, check out Update Your Restaurant Name.

I haven't received my test email. Where is it?

If you opted to send a test mail under Preview & Test but have not yet received your test mail, be sure to check your spam filter and promotions folder if you use Gmail.

Why does the chosen font change in an email from the campaign?

This occurs if you are using the email from the Gmail app or Outlook app. Toast doesn't control how the apps alter fonts. The font will look incorrect from the chosen one through the apps. However, if viewed on a browser, the font will be the one chosen.

How do I prevent a promo code from being used more than once by the same guest? Or, how can I keep track of who has already redeemed a promotion?

Toast promo codes are multi-use today, so there is no surefire way to prevent a guest from using a promo code multiple times. In the meantime, if you are concerned about limiting your liability, set your Toast promo code to expire on a certain date. See Basic Discount Configuration for more information.

Can I create a single-use promo code for each email recipient?

Yes, single-use promotion codes can be created. For more information on single-use promotions, see Using Single-Use Promotion Codes.

How do I know my email campaign is performing?

After you've sent your campaign, we recommend waiting at least 24 hours before starting to look at metrics. For automated campaigns, it's better to wait at least three to four days depending on your number of contacts to see how it's performing.

From the Email marketing dashboard in Toast, you can select Details within any campaign to see the email marketing metrics like open rate, click rate, and unsubscribe rate. Learn more about those metrics here.

If you added a promo code to your email, you can view its performance in the sales discount summary report.

What does a successful email marketing campaign look like?

Success for email marketing campaigns can vary, but here are some hospitality industry benchmarks that demonstrate a good response to your campaign. These were compiled from analyzing reports produced by third-party email service providers.

Metric	Description	Avg. Benchmark	Med. Benchmark
Open Rate	Measure the effectiveness of your subject line by dividing the number of emails opened by the total number of emails delivered and multiplying by 100.	21.7%	17.9%
Click-to-open-rate (CTOR)	Measure the effectiveness of your email content by dividing the number of clicks by the number of opens and multiplying by 100.	8.5%	8.0%
Click-through-rate (CTR)	Measure the effectiveness of your call-to-action buttons by dividing the number of clicks by the number of emails delivered.	2.1%	1.4%

How do I export my customer contact information?

All of your customer information is at your fingertips! Utilize the information to send out email campaigns on your own, through a third-party vendor, or through Email Marketing.

To access and download customer information from toasttab.com, navigate to Guests > Guestbook . Select the arrow to export to Excel. This will download customer information into a usable file.

See Manage Your Email Marketing Audience in Toast Central to learn more about downloading your Email Marketing Audience lists.

Can I change the sender's email address on my email campaigns?

No, the option to change the sender's email address is not available at this time.

How do I upload a high-resolution logo for my email marketing?

The minimum required size for the restaurant logo is 180px by 180px square as a .PNG file. This image is uploaded through the Restaurant Info page on Toast Web. This is the image used for the email marketing campaigns. If your logo appears blurry, you'll need a higher-resolution email.

I'm trying to add content. Why is the Save button missing?

Make sure your employee profile has permission 6.4 Publishing.

Does Toast Email Marketing support DKIM signing?

No, at this time DKIM signing is not supported for Toast Email Marketing.

How do I duplicate an email campaign?

To duplicate an email campaign, please follow these steps:

In Toast Web, navigate to Marketing > Email Marketing > Campaigns.
From the Email Campaigns section, find the campaign that you wish to duplicate and select the three dots next to it.
Next, select Duplicate. On the New email campaign page, you will have the option to select your campaign audience, add additional subscribers, and preview your email campaign.
Select the "Continue" button.
Complete your campaign details, and/or edit its content. Save your changes as needed.
Once completed, you can choose to send a test email, schedule your email campaign, or send the email campaign immediately.

What user permission is needed for a user of a multi-unit operator group to update Toast Marketing settings and send email campaigns?

A restaurant employee will need permission 4.7 (4. Restaurant Admin > 4.7 Marketing Info) to configure Toast marketing settings and send email campaigns.

Unlike other location-specific access permissions in the Toast POS system, if an employee of a restaurant location that is part of a multi-location group was assigned the 4.7 Marketing Info permission at their location, they can access and manage Toast Marketing features for all restaurant locations in the group.

Example:

A multi-location group has three restaurant locations - locations A, B, and C.
- An employee at location B is assigned the Restaurant Admin > 4.7 Marketing Info access permission at location B itself
- This allows the user to access the Marketing > Email marketing page in Toast Web for location B as well as locations A and C.
- The user can change the marketing settings, manage contact lists, and send marketing emails to guests of any or all locations, and these changes can affect all locations.

We consider it best practice to limit the number of users with this permission to ensure that single locations do not affect the entire group's information.