Rainy summer days: plan a relevant restaurant campaign with AI

A rain forecast can change plans for a restaurant with a large terrace. Before attracting more guests, establish what is already booked and which groups need to move indoors.

Base the campaign on the capacity that remains. This lets you offer a useful suggestion without promising tables needed by existing bookings.

Start with the dining room and kitchen

Review indoor seating, bookings and staffing. Check which dishes the kitchen can serve and whether opening hours change. If you offer takeaway, collection capacity needs to work alongside a busy dining room.

Choose one purpose for the campaign: perhaps early-evening reservations or takeaway orders. A specific task makes both the message and the review easier.

Give AI accurate information

Vendion Marketing and AI can help prepare campaign drafts. Supply available times, the current menu, tone and desired length. Explicitly tell AI not to invent prices, availability or special benefits.

A fictional message example, to adapt to actual availability:

Rain tonight? We’re serving the summer menu indoors, with tables available before 18:00. View the menu and book through the link. We look forward to seeing you.

The message needs no discount. It gives guests useful information for planning the evening. Verify every detail and the link before publishing. You decide when to send the campaign based on the forecast and conditions in the restaurant.

Choose the channel responsibly

An update on the restaurant’s own social channels may be sufficient. SMS or email also requires permission to contact the recipient that way. A telephone number supplied for a booking is not itself permission to send advertising.

Swedish rules normally require prior consent for electronic direct marketing to individuals. A limited exception covers the business’s own similar products when the address was obtained during a sale, the recipient has not objected and an easy, free opt-out was offered at collection and in every message. See sections 19–20 of the Marketing Act.

The GDPR legal basis is a separate assessment. Recipients always have the right to object to direct marketing. IMY explains that right.

Track bookings rather than assumed open rates

Record the time, audience, cost and bookings or orders that can be connected to the campaign. Include cancellations and unsubscribes. Not every booking after a message was necessarily caused by it.

Keep useful material as a draft for another similar day, always updating times and availability before reuse. See Vendion live to explore marketing and booking in the same system.