A network that has established such a large user base can be leveraged by companies as a marketing platform. Any business that has something visual to share can use Pinterest to promote themselves – and restaurants are a prime example of such a business.

A few companies have been early adopters of the platform. Whole Foods, for example, was one of the first companies to join Pinterest. They have since built a following of over 26,000 people by sharing images that convey the message of their brand.

Pinterest for restaurants is still very new, and joining in now still puts you into the “early adopter” category – giving you a competitive advantage.

But you can’t just jump in without a plan! Let’s delve a little deeper…

Pinterest for Restaurants: What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is essentially a visual online scrapbook, or pin board, where individuals can post (“pin”), browse and share images from across the web.

The visual format of the network has contributed to its explosive growth. While the network is still invite-only, Pinterest is the fastest website in history to reach 10 million monthly unique visitors.

But just having users isn’t enough. If you are going to be using a platform to target customers, you want to be targeting the right customers.

Pinterest’s customer base is skewed heavily towards females. The average age is between 25 and 34, and the average user has at least some college education. Some sources site the average income of users is between 25k and 75k per year; but also estimate that almost a third of the users have annual household incomes of $100,000 or more.

This means that there are plenty of buyers using Pinterest!

Pinterest for Restaurants: Why Pin?

We have already established that there is a consumer base on the network; and that the network is a very visual one. Also, the ability to share pins (“re-pin”) enables content to spread quickly.

Taking these things into account, if you go into Pinterest with a good marketing strategy, you can use it to…

1. Tap Into a New Audience. Because the user base is so large, and content spreads so quickly, there is a very good chance you will get your restaurant’s name in front of new eyeballs on Pinterest. And the best part? It’s free.
2. Create Brand Awareness. With a proper game plan and some consistency, you can establish your brand, and deliver your brand message. Brand awareness builds trust, loyalty and sales.
3. Improve SEO and Web Traffic. Content you post to Pinterest is linked back to the original source. This means that you can improve your search engine rankings through backlinks and drive visitors back to your own website (if that is where the content originated).

Pinterest for Restaurants: What to Pin?

Your pins are the center of your Pinterest marketing universe. What you pin will determine the kind of interactions you will have on the network, and if you will have any interactions at all.

At first glance it seem like restaurants can be a bit restricted as to what they can share on Pinterest. In reality there is a wide range of content a restaurant can pin…

• Images of Food. Did we already mention that Pinterest is a highly visual platform? All of the images you share should be high quality – but especially images of your food! If you are sharing items from your menu you want them to look appetizing – you want people to want to try them. And remember to link the images back to your restaurant’s menu! For an example, check out Arby’s Pinterest boards.

• Images from Events. If you hold events at your restaurant, images from the events are definitely shareable. This allows you to display just how much fun people have at your establishment. You can also share images prior to the event to promote it (i.e. flyers, images from past events, etc).

• Images of the Space. Atmosphere is extremely important in the dining experience. If you have a wonderful space that you want to showcase, show images of it! Mooo Restaurant, for example, displays both images of the dining areas and the private event spaces.

• Ingredients. More than ever, people want to know what their food is made of and where it comes from. Sharing the ingredients you use allows them an inside look and enables you to convey quality.

• Inspirations. If there is an inspiration for a drink or food item on the menu, why not share it? It gives your restaurant a more personal/human touch. This can also spur a conversation – Pinterest is a social network after all.

• Action Shots. You can share images of your servers or bartenders interacting with customers. Again, Mooo Restaurant is a great example. One of their pinboards, “Inside the Pastry Kitchen,” shows their pastry chefs at work.

• Images from External Sources. Got mentioned by a local newspaper or a blog? Pin it!

• Any Brand-Relevant Content. Really, you can pin anything that is in tune with your brand. For example, an Italian restaurant can pin images of Italy. This enforces your Italian brand – especially if it is consistent with the décor of the restaurant. Harry Caray’s in Chicago has a “Things We Love” board where they share images of all things Chicago.

Remember that you shouldn’t have solely promotional pins. Your goal is to spur an interest and create conversations. The more connection you make, the wider you can spread your reach. Some promotional content is certainly OK, but you want to mix in things that are interesting.

Pinterest for Restaurants: What to do After the Pin?

Your job isn’t finished once you pin an image to Pinterest. At least it isn’t if you are doing your job right.

Make sure to leverage other social networks by sharing your pins on Facebook and Twitter. You want to maximize your reach.

When people “like” or “re-pin” your images make sure to thank them. Begin to interact with other users on the network. It is important to remember that this is a social network, and it only works if you are being social.

Don’t stay in the silo of your own pin boards. Browse around and “re-pin” others (if it is appropriate). This is how you can begin to interact with other users. Remember, other users are people too. You can use this to your advantage by re-pinning industry leaders such as restaurant critics, food blogger or foodies with large followings. Maybe they will return the favor…and that spells success!

Alex Pentland, MIT’s director of MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory wrote a great post on his research on what makes great teams and it’s all about how people communicate. His points are summarized below. Useful for any team, including ours!

Great teams … “groups blazing away with new ideas in a way that makes it seem they can read each others’ minds” …

• Communicate frequently. In a typical project team a dozen or so communication exchanges per working hour may turn out to be optimum; but more or less than that and team performance can decline.
• Talk and listen in equal measure, equally among members. Lower performing teams have dominant members, teams within teams, and members who talk or listen but don’t do both.
• Engage in frequent informal communication. The best teams spend about half their time communicating outside of formal meetings or as “asides” during team meetings, and increasing opportunities for informal communication tends to increase team performance.
• Explore for ideas and information outside the group. The best teams periodically connect with many different outside sources and bring what they learn back to the team.

In data collected by wearable electronic sensors that capture people’s tone of voice and body language, Pentland observed highly consistent patterns of communication that are associated with productive teams, regardless of what kind of work they do. The data do not take into account the substance of communication, only the patterns, but they show that those patterns are what matter most—more than skill, intelligence, and all other factors that go into building a team combined. The data also reveal, at a higher level, that successful teams share several defining characteristics:

• Everyone on the team talks and listens in roughly equal measure, keeping contributions short and sweet.
• Members face one another, and their conversations and gestures are energetic.
• Members connect directly with one another—not just with the team leader.
• Members carry on back-channel or side conversations within the team.
• Members periodically break, go exploring outside the team, and bring information back.

The data also establish another surprising fact: Individual reasoning and talent contribute far less to team success than one might expect. The best way to build a great team is not to select individuals for their smarts or accomplishments but to learn how they communicate and to shape and guide the team so that it follows successful communication patterns.

Read the full article here

Here are ten reasons why email marketing is something you should pursue immediately!

1. Email Marketing Helps With Customer Retention

Would you rather find new customers or keep the ones you already have coming back? The answer, of course, is you want both. But many businesses forget to take care of the customers they already have in pursuit of new ones.

This can be a horrible mistake. Some economists estimate the cost of obtaining a new customer as five times higher than that of retaining an existing one. There are even estimates as high as twelve times.

Of course the real number varies from industry to industry, and even company to company, but the fact remains that retaining existing companies is cheaper. And that makes sense. They are already there!

Email marketing allows you to build loyalty and keep existing customers coming back. And the loyal customers are the ones you want! These are the ones that will keep buying, and also the ones that will tell others to buy from you as well.

2. Email Marketing Is Cost Effective

Still sending out direct mailings to your customers?

You can save on printing costs by emailing rather than sending out printed materials. No ink, no paper, no postage. The savings can be immense. But there is another level of cost-cutting in this equation: transitioning from variable cost to fixed cost.

With traditional print marketing you pay more as your print and send more. But with QuickSendIt, TVI’s preferred email marketing service partner, you can buy unlimited monthly packages – essentially turning your variable mailing cost into a predictable, fixed cost.

And if you don’t plan on sending too many email campaigns, QuickSendIt has a pay-as-you-go option where you only pay when you send.

3. Email Marketing Works

People wouldn’t be raving about email marketing if it wasn’t effective, right?

The Direct Marketing Association has estimated that, on average, for each $1 companies spend on email marketing they see a return of approximately $40. While, again, this number varies by industry (and by company), the verdict is in: email marketing works!

4. Email Marketing Is Immediate

On top of being more costly, traditional forms of marketing are also more time consuming.

With email marketing, you don’t have to wait to promote your next campaign. An email can be created quickly and delivered immediately.

5. Email Marketing Is Measurable

Wouldn’t it be great if you could actually see the results of each marketing campaign? With email marketing you can!

Email marketing metrics can be easily measured because it is all done electronically. With QuickSendIt, for example, you will have built-in analytics to show you anything you could possibly want to see about your campaigns. You can see how many people opened the email how many people clicked on the links, who those people were, and even what device they used to view the email.

6. Email Marketing Allows You To Interact

With email, you can actively speak to your audience. This helps in converting leads into customers, and building report and loyalty with existing ones.

Had a special event and want to know what people thought about it? Email them! You can simply ask them to reply directly to the email with their thoughts or set up a free survey through a service like SurveyMonkey.

This allows you to see the good and the bad of what you are doing, to see what your customers think; empowering you to make constant improvement. And improvement means more sales!

7. Email Marketing Safeguards Against Customer Movement

Businesses focusing on a local market can prevent wasting money by using email marketing. Restaurants that send direct mail are a prime example of this. 

What happens when your customer moves? Their address changes. And even if they are staying within the same community, your mailing will not reach them. But your emails will! When someone moves their home address may change, but their email address will stay the same.

8. Email Marketing Allows You To Get Personal

Email marketing tools like QuickSendIt allow you to personalize each email to the recipient. This makes your interactions with customers more, well, personal. People love to be addressed by name, and email marketing allows you to send out campaigns that look like they were written specifically for each recipient.

9. Email Marketing Has A Faster Response Rate

If you are looking for a response from your customers, there is no better medium than email to ask for one. Emails asking for a response have been shown to get one within the first three days after sending.

A response from direct mailing, on the other hand, can take anywhere from a week to twelve days on average.

10. Email Marketing Enables You To Test

Want to test and optimize your campaigns so you can get better and better each time? Email marketing lets you do that!

With a quality email marketing service provider like QuickSendIt, you have the ability to test out several versions of the same email to see what your customers prefer and respond to better. For example, you can test two different subject lines to see which one gets a better open rate. This allows you to optimize future campaigns. And marketing optimization means more sales!

Bonus: Email Marketing Drives Offline Decisions

While you may be doing your marketing online, you may be doing your business offline. Again, restaurants are a great example of this – you’re not going to feed people over the internet.

Email marketing allows you to collect customer information online and help them make offline purchasing decisions.

So are you ready to jump in and take your marketing to the next level? If so, check out QuickSendIt or Contact Us to learn more!

9. You didn’t follow simple instructions in the job posting. We assess candidates with simple preliminary tests. Fail that and we don’t even look at your resume or cover letter. Was there a request in the job posting to maybe fill out a questionnaire, design a quick mockup or perhaps produce some quick code?

8. You did not meet the requirements in the job posting and were instead hoping that by some miracle we would hire you because you’re interested or really passionate about the job. It’s not just about passion and interest as much as we do look for that and it can take you a long way. Like any relationship you have to offer what we’re SPECIFICALLY looking for (per the job posting) and we obviously have to offer what you’re looking for. It has to be a win-win.

7. You didn’t get creative. Huh? We’re a creative agency! It’s what we do! We should see that all the way through the application process with you. Especially if you’re applying for a creative position! If you’re applying for something more analytical or more on the business side, you can still tell us what you do creatively on the side or why you think you’d fit in with our creative team and culture.

6. Presentation and attention to detail. If you can’t take the time to prepare well formatted resumes, online portfolios and cover letters, you won’t make the cut. Sorry

5. You didn’t do your homework. Don’t approach us like we’re some 10,000 person corporate giant, resulting in you writing to the “Human Resources Director”. We’re a small team. Get to know us before you apply and connect with us.  We don’t bite.

4. Sometimes great candidates just don’t feel right. We know it’s always hard to get to the final round and not land the job. But fitting in with our culture is important for you and us. Sometimes we just go with our gut. These decisions are tough for us and you can’t do too much about it.

3. You’re telling us how much you want to get paid before we even meet you. Discussions about salary are best suited for when we give you an offer. We always make it clear in job postings what the salary range will be. If you’re not comfortable with that range please don’t start off by telling us you need to get paid more.

2. Typos! Did we say this already? Yes we did. It’s that important. Maybe 1 typo or malformed sentence we’ll let slip. We’re all human after all. But 2 or 3 in your resume or cover and it ends up in the trash, marked “doesn’t care enough”. Get someone to proofread your application before submitting it. Take your time.

1. You didn’t go out of your way … to SHOW US HOW YOU’RE DIFFERENT! Remember that for every position we get dozens, sometimes hundreds of applications even. We need to notice your application right from the start. Stand out and stand out smart!

Just Do Things
We have a deep spirit for experimentation and learning. You won’t hear “No that won’t work”. You’ll hear “Hey that sounds fun! Do it!” Want to come up with new processes, take the lead on one of our experiments, or tackle a new idea on the side that has potential? Just do it. We love new perspectives and positive change.

We Get Shit Done
We manage over 200 accounts as a small team because we know how to work smart, not just hard. Do you talk and distract or produce and react? You’d be amazed how good you feel when you get so much done instead of sitting in an office waiting for work.

Pretend You’re 5 Years Old
Write on the walls, color things and we’ll clap for you. Maybe even give you 3 stars. Even when you fail you’ll probably hear “Good job. You’ve learned a lesson. Just don’t do it again ”

Make an Impact
Put your mark on the company. We’re small. Your impact WILL … BE … BIG.

No Suits
Wear PJs for all we care. Maybe one day you want to wear a manbra. That’s cool too. Builds character. As long as you are yourself, do what you do amazingly well, and get along with the team (meaning you’re not an asshole, or egomaniac), your diversity builds our culture.

Because Business Isn’t Everything
We care about our local communities and our world. You don’t need to be a venture backed company to improve the world and to change lives. Maybe you can help us build the social side of our business more and come up with other ways we can help improve the world?

Flexibility
Looking for something normal and structured? Shut your computer down and quietly walk away now. As long as you produce, communicate, and manage your work you can do it from a beach in Hawaii for all we care. Though we do initially prefer the team being around each other and physical interaction over purely digital.

You Will Laugh Like This
We admit. Sometimes you simply won’t be able to concentrate at the office. Sorry. Hopefully with your contribution we’ll grow and find a bigger office!

On any day your boss may look like this …

The right time … is now.
This is how most breakthrough companies grow. But it takes awesome people to row up the curve together! If you are awesome, we will all row.