email marketing for independent restaurant owners · 3. youtube, instagram and twitter are the most...
TRANSCRIPT
Email Marketing for Independent Restaurant
Owners
February 12, 2019
Your speakers for today’s
webinar
Kim Pitsko – Digital Marketing
Manager at Dinova
Trae Jackson – Marketing Automation
Analyst at Dinova
Hi, we’re Dinova!
We nourish connections between restaurants and
expense account diners nationwide to help
everyone’s bottom line.
We like to think of ourselves as THE total business dining solution!
Our Agenda
• Today’s training is for independent
restaurant owners and novices in email
marketing
• We’ll review the dynamics of an email, best
practices and examples of good and not-so-
good email
• At the end of the 30 minutes you’ll know
how to build better email and have a
checklist for a quick and easy email
marketing campaign
• Questions
Targeting Business Diners – A True Competitive Edge
Dinova + Penton: 2017 Restaurant Owner/Operators Business Dining Survey
of restaurateurs
believe that repeat
corporate customers
are “extremely
valuable” to their
business
66%
a surprisingly low number of
restaurateurs actively market to business
customers
Only 1 in 4
• Traditional marketing won’t attract
business diners at scale
• Dinova’s business-dining focused
marketplace connects restaurants
with valuable expense account diners
nationwide
• Dinova drives business diners into
restaurants from 3 Channels:
Out of all the marketing channels, Email Marketing generates the highest ROI.
$38 in ROI for every $1 spent in email marketing!
Source: Campaign Monitor – The New Rules of Email Marketing
Benefits of Email
Marketing
• Easy to use
• Generally cheap
• Grows brand awareness
• Increases customer loyalty
• Easy to track and measure
The Case for Email Marketing
Email V. Social Media
Email is
40xmore effective at
acquiring new customers than
Facebook or Twitter
3xthe value of an order placed
through social media
72%of people prefer
receiving promotions through email,
compared to 17% who prefer social
media
Campaign Monitor: The Complete Email Marketing Guide for Beginners
An email order has
The Case for Email Marketing
Email + Social Media
71%of consumers
check email first when getting
“online,” followed by 13% who check
Facebook first
3xmore likely to share
your content via social media than visitors from other
sources
158%Amount that
click-through rates increase when
social sharing is included in emails
Campaign Monitor: The Complete Email Marketing Guide for Beginners
Email subscribers are
Basic Email Structure
Header
• Subject line
• Pre-header
• From
• Reply-to address
Body
• Be direct
• Personalize
• Imagery
• Keep it simple
• Call to action
Footer• Contact information
• Social sharing
• Unsubscribe links
How do I get started?
• Things to keep in mind when researching services:
✓ Simplicity
✓ Scalability
✓ Price
• Industry
• Sender reputation
• Website is essential
Send Grid -- 5 Ways to Check Your Sending Reputation: Will Boyd
https://sendgrid.com/blog/5-ways-check-
sending-reputation/
• Highly user friendly
• Tons of easy-to-customize
templates
• Large, robust campaigns
• Social media integration
• Deliverability: Spam detective
• Starting at $20/month
• User friendly
• Customization
• Mobile distribution
• Facebook integration
• A/B testing
• Free plans available with
additional services starting
at $10/month
Email is an extension of what you want your customers to experience while dining at your restaurant.
Content Ideas:
• In-house promos
• New menu items
• Press coverage
• Events
• Get to know your staff
• Appreciation of your guests’ patronage
Make sure your emails include content that highlights your restaurant’s business-grade appeal.
What Business Diners Want To Know:
• Private and Group Dining Accommodations
• Catering and Online Ordering
• Shareable Plates
• Unique Menu Items
• Team-Building Activities
Dinova secret: Flavorful, unique menu items
with authentic imagery have the best click-throughs
in emails we send to diners when we talk about food.
We did a research study with the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) last summer that may give you some cool content ideas.
Business diners told us that when they’re on the road, they:
• Seek out restaurants that are local favorites
• Increasingly tend to order food to go, which they take back to their hotel rooms
• View breakfast meetings as a way to jump-start their productivity
Get the full study at www.dinova.com/bite
Building an Email
• Consumer engagement moving away from imagery-heavy emails.
✓ When you do use imagery be sure to make it look authentic
• Short subject lines
• Be sure to utilize personalization
• Mobile compatibility
✓46% of all email is opened on mobile devices
• Always test before sending
• Always have your logo on the top and social links on the bottom
Dinova secret: Our open rate improves by 2% when we
keep subject lines FEWER THAN EIGHT WORDS!
Dinova secret: Our subscribers click the most to our
YouTube, followed by Instagram, then Twitter.
Image-heavy vs. Alternating b/t text and imagery
All of the information about
the webinar is in the
beginning of the email,
superimposed over the
imagery, and it can all be
seen on the phone.
The image is so big
with no text that the
recipient doesn’t know
what the email is
about until they scroll
to the very end.
Short vs. Long Subject Lines
This subject line is short
and sweet and fits on a
phone screen.
This subject line can’t
fully be seen on a phone,
so you’re not sure what
the email is about.
Authentic vs. Inauthentic Imagery
This is clearly a stock photo, so the person
reading the email probably won’t picture
themselves or their own breakfast meals.
This photo quality isn’t as nice, but it’s a real Dinova
person showcasing a restaurant at an event, so you
get a better understanding of what we’re all about!
Dinova secret: Pictures taken by our employees always
outperform other imagery by at least 3% in click-throughs
When do I send
emails?
• Your subscribers expect to hear from you
• Send regularly, but don’t flood.✓Finding the right frequency is key
• Take time to outline your email calendar
• Utilize A/B testing
• For Consumers: Send right before meal time (when they’re hungry)
• For Business Diners: Stay away from times of the day when emails get cluttered✓Before 9 or after 5 is bad timing!
Dinova secret: Our emails work best 3–4:30pm
Here are some sample restaurant emails!
Private Dining Email
Logo at top, social links at bottom
Keywords: Private Dining, Host, Entertainment
Include # people you can accommodate
Show a photo of your space empty so they can visualize their event
This email took seven minutes to build.
Personalization
Now, let’s do one about your catering offers!
CateringEmail
Logo at top, social links at bottom
Authentic photo of your catered platter
Times you start delivering
This email took 12 minutes to build.
Link to menu and pricing
Photos of the people delivering the food
Finally, let’s show how you wine and dine!
Wine/DineEmail
Logo at top, social links at bottom
Highlight business traveler preferences, like local flavors
Use a review
This email took four minutes to build.
Highlight quiet atmospheres and customer service
Authentic group photos in your restaurant
Building Your
Subscriber Base
• Start with what you’ve already got – current customers, staff, friends and family, etc.
• Provide incentives
• Business card drawings are an easy way to collect customers’ info for building a business diner-specific list
• Website
• Involve your whole staff
Security, Security, Security!
• CAN-SPAMhttps://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/guidance/can-spam-act-compliance-
guide-business
• GDPR Compliant (basically, make sure people
understand you’re going to email them)
https://eugdpr.org/
• Most email platforms have sender
precautions – be sure to follow them
• Don’t buy lists!
Email Sending
ChecklistAttached to
Training
Recap of our top five Dinova
secrets!
1. When showcasing your food, use flavorful and authenticimages.
2. Subject lines with fewer than eight words have the best open rates.
3. YouTube, Instagram and Twitter are the most popular social links.
4. Pictures taken by employees outperform pictures taken professionally.
5. Emails to business diners perform best when sent in the 3–4:30pm timeframe.
Questions
Email Marketing for Indies
Thanks for being here!