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!