A Fresh Look Just in Time For Summer, and Lunch

Panera has a pretty good gig growing their email marketing subscriber list. I opted-in at the restaurant while I was traveling in St. Charles, Illinois nearly two years ago. An advantage that Panera has over Starbucks is free Wi-Fi. They both serve lattes so take your pick – First thing in the morning, a weary, blackberry-less traveler needs is an espresso-based beverage and a way to check email that doesn’t cost $10.

In the course of getting set up on their system, I saw an opportunity to opt-in to receive email. What a great idea! I was in the restaurant already, so chances are, I'm a fan, what a perfect way to grow their email marketing list.

The newsletter, On the Rise, Get it? Bread? Rise? (Now that’s clever...) is personalized and has a link to the menu, recipes and a link to their catering option, as well as feature items or articles. The template has been recently redesigned and the new name started at the end of April.

Old Template:


New Template:

Before the redesign, messages were somewhat infrequent, although always a pleasure to receive.

I hope that Panera can maintain this monthly schedule. Perhaps developing an editorial calendar can help keep them on track.