Whilst there are many initiatives which will radically improve your email marketing, waiting for inspiration before embarking on a campaign is probably a bad idea. So look for what works for others as these systems will probably work for you.

You might think that an article in the International Journal of Hospitality Management dealing with research on menus will be of little relevance to email marketing but a menu is email marketing on card.

A less than surprising conclusion was that how the price is shown plays an important part in the choice customers make. Displaying it as £14 rather that £14.00 gave the impression that it was more affordable. If the £ sign was left off altogether, as 14, people accepted it more readily.

Bright, cheerful menus with images of well prepared food helped sales as did using rather startling names are certain dishes. There is also a distinct advantage to be had in the use of phrases like ‘chef’s recommendation’ and ‘traditional favourite’, the research showing an increase of 28% in sales. On the other hand ‘healthy option’ was a real turnoff for customers.

Distributing various options around the card, so customers had to search for them, seems counter-intuitive. However, it worked for them. It might for you.

The conclusion is that psychology plays an important part in how customers read menus, so nothing new there in reality. For instance, if the most expensive option on the menu is highlighted in red while the rest is in black on a white background people tended to choose the more expensive item more frequently. After all, people do not want to seem cheap.

Returning to fancy names, it would appear that customers were more inclined to sample chips if they were called Leicester chips. Only previous visitors to the restaurant which names its chips would know how these taste yet it seemed to imbue an attractive quality to them. Yet we all know chips are chips.

What works in a restaurant may or may not work for you. Certainly we cannot depend on the 28% increase in sales that renaming items tends to bring. However we can learn from the experience of other businesses. Email marketing does not stand alone.