Hot Off Twitter: Top Email Marketing Examples from Chipotle

What’s in this article:

• Chipotle reported 133.9% growth in digital sales in Q1 2021 and it only spends 3.3% of its revenue on marketing
• The Newport Beach-based fast-casual restaurant chain’s email marketing is spot on in a number of ways – other brands can take example

This article is basded on a Twitter thread by Alex Garcia, (who’s doing Social for TheHustle – acquired by @hubspot.)

After reporting its financial results for the first quarter, it’s clear that the Mexican Grill chain is off to a great start this 2021. Its digital sales soared 133.9 percent YoY to $869 million and account for 50.1% of overall sales – that’s definitely impressive!

Become the best CRMer you can:
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“As vaccines roll out and we get closer to moving past this pandemic, I believe Chipotle is well-positioned for growth. I’m excited about our future as we remain focused on innovating in culinary, leading in food with integrity and providing convenient access inside our restaurants and through our expanding digital ecosystem,” said Brian Niccol, Chairman and CEO of Chipotle.

So, let’s take a look at six of Chipotle’s emails to see how they do it – as it was broken down and posted to Twitter by Mr. Garcia.

#1 – Educating

Through their email marketing initiatives, Chipotle aims to inform their eco-conscious customers – primarily Millennials and Gen Zers – what they’re doing to make the world a better place.

Global Leadership Bulletin describes this idea as corporate social responsibility (CSR), or “an ethical management concept where companies aim to integrate social, economic and environmental concerns along with the consideration of human rights into their business operations.”

#2 – Choosing Wisely

Though there are always tons of general trends and upcoming events to choose from – like National Wine Day, National Pet Day, National Sleep Day, etc. – Chipotle’s rule of thumb is only to mention those relevant to your brand.

And so, on National Guac Day, Chipotle sent this to customers:

Super cute and relevant!

#3 – Incentivizing/Rewarding

Providing customers with promotional offers that make sense is the perfect CRM tool that never gets old. To make Monday’s better – Chipotle provides customers with free delivery and rewards them with points automatically for ordering.

And they send out the email to customers on a recurring basis to keep their mouths watering, every Monday:

#4 – Top-Notch Creativity

It never hurts to have a killer design team that nails every ad. Art encourages users to interact with your email and read the copy. Chipotle is revolutionizing emails with its state-of-the-art imagery:

#5 – The Trend is Your Friend

When it comes to social media, it’s clear that TikTok is the platform that’s shaking up all the latest trends. Chipotle knows how to conquer the platform by creating and sharing the right kind of videos.

One of its latest TikToks, a promo about a food hack definitely got the attention it deserves:

And they also made sure to announce it to customers via email.

#6 – Relevancy/Timeliness

Acknowledging National Burrito Day held annually on the first Thursday of April makes sense for the brand, right?

This month, though, it happened to fall on the same day as April Fool’s, and Coinbase was set to go public on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

So, Chipotle took it a step further by turning it all into a fun crypto game with their emails:

Once you’re feeling inspired and ready to boost your email marketing efforts – take these six emails and apply them to your brand. It might just do the trick.

Follow @alexgarcia_atx  for more marketing breakdowns, copywriting tips, how-tos, campaign dissection, etc.