PAI Reaches and Communicates More Effectively with Their Audience Thanks to Brevo

Becoming one of Toronto’s most influential Thai chefs

On a mission to share her passion and life experiences through family recipes, street market dishes, and creative collaborations, chef Nuit Regular left her career in nursing back in Thailand to become one of Toronto’s most influential chefs. Together with her husband and team, chef Nuit welcomes diners from all over Canada in her four restaurants PAI, Kiin, Sabai Sabai, and Sukhothai. Her undeniable talent is backed up by multiple recognitions, including several from the Thai government for the authenticity of her cooking.

Through By Chef Nuit, the restaurant group’s catering and events brand, customers can book their catering and events services. Their website also hosts an online marketplace for fresh Thai produce and pantry staples. The chef is the author of a cookbook about recipes from Northern Thailand called Kiin: Recipes and Stories from Northern Thailand, which is available for purchase on the platform as well.

On the look for a solution to diversify their channels and maintain communication with customers

The growing popularity of the restaurants across Toronto had secured a loyal customer base for the team at the PAI restaurant group. In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, the team had the pressing need to diversify their online channels to maintain communication with their existing customers. Additionally, the group launched an e-commerce vertical on the site in response to the crisis, so they needed to promote the services and products that clients could purchase online. 

Marketing & Communications Manager, Bonita Mok, was interested in a tool that was user-friendly and allowed them to build well-designed templates quickly, all at a competitive price. “I was looking for an email platform that looked good and was easy to use. It also needed to be fairly priced, so it was important to find one that charged us by emails sent, and not by contacts.”

The team’s initial interest was in sending monthly campaigns to their customers with updates, event announcements, new openings, and the latest news from the restaurants and the chef herself. The objective also involved having an organized database to segment users and send communications strategically. 

Enjoying a user-friendly interface and a gallery of well-designed templates

While looking for an email platform that checked all their boxes, Bonita came across Brevo and felt compelled to try it out because of its user-friendly interface and the gallery of well-designed templates. The manager also appreciated that the templates were easy to customize according to their own branding.

Shortly after getting started with Brevo, the team began building and sending campaigns to their customers right away. “We have been using the platform to keep our clients updated regarding Covid guidelines and restrictions. For example, which locations are open or closed, or which areas of the restaurants we have reopened for customers,” explains Bonita. 

In addition, the reporting capabilities of the platform were part of the reason why PAI selected Brevo as their email provider. “The reporting is great! The data is fun to see and all the information I need is there in the dashboard. Seeing the results is key for us since it can help us improve and adapt our communications. For example, I can analyze what worked in a campaign for one audience in particular, and use this to improve the next one for another subscriber list.” 

By using Brevo, the team has also been able to manage their database more efficiently. After implementing the tool, they cleaned their existing email lists, a healthy practice to help them drive better results on their campaigns. 

Reaping the benefits of a 40% open rate thanks to a clean database

The team at PAI is very satisfied with the results they have been able to achieve so far with the platform. “Our experience with Brevo has been great so far. We are very happy to be able to reach our customers and maintain a close relationship with them, especially in light of the pandemic.”

Bonita also explains how having a tool to efficiently manage their lists has helped their marketing strategy. “Initially we were seeing an open rate of 25% percent on our campaigns. After cleaning our database, we now normally have a 30 to 40% open rate which is great engagement!” 

The team at PAI is eager to continue exploring the platform and other features. The manager is particularly excited to discover updates on the drag-and-drop editor to keep creating beautiful email campaigns that keep customers engaged.