It's around 11:30 am and the stomach is starting to grumble. If you're like me, you don't have a ton of time for lunch and you don't want to spend any mental capacity deciding on it. So, getting something quick and simple is paramount to making sure you're on time for that oh-so-wonderful sales meeting without staining your new shirt.

The fast stuff is usually the best bet, but with so many options out there, what's going to sway your opinion in one direction or another? In doing a market evaluation for prospects in both the pizza and sub sandwich industries lately, I found that no one is truly taking advantage of going after the office worker sheep like you and I. In fact, the restaurant industry is so poor in email marketing that I think we are a couple closed deals away from revolutionizing the approach marketers take. Hopefully, that'll be a good story for another time...

Let's take a look at some examples of what's being cranked out there, specifically focusing on Pizza Hut. In 2006 alone, the Hut brought in over $9.3 billion in sales, almost doubling the second-place finisher, Domino's. You see their TV ads and you see their flyers in your mailbox every few months. They spend a lot of money in branding themselves a certain way and take great care in their image.

So why isn't their email given the proper care? Here are two recent examples. (Just click the image here for a bigger shot in a pop-up window. Click the image in that popup for a full screen look.)

The Creative: the look here is almost a checkerboard effect, but with distinct offers (Free 2-Liter of Pepsi, $2 Off Large Pizza) across each line. It's a good mix of images and text, but not overwhelming. I would probably reduce the amount of times the logo appears (seven) and make the text more consistent across the board.

The Sender/Subject Line: I gotta be honest here. The subject line (Great Deals From Pizza Hut...Order Now!) doesn't do much for me. How about 'Crazy 2's' or 'Youpr Pick: a free Pepsi 2-Liter or $2 Off'? That might not make the offer sounds as sexy, but it's direct and to the point. If the offer is the issue, then obviously change it up. What it comes down to is that every restaurant has specials, so what's so special about this one? Make me want to open this email and take action! Also, the sender names appears as specials@cphut-specials.com and not Pizza Hut. That's a pet peeve of mine.

Time/Date: Where were you sitting on Friday at 6 pm? In front of a computer, hanging with your family, having a cocktail at a bar or better yet, already at a restaurant? I guess my question here is what's the desired result from this email? Awareness? Direct buy on the spot? I assume that the Hut caters to families and most families probably have made a dinner decision by 6 pm on a Friday. Rear this back by two hours, make it a direct call to action and make it worth their while.

One more for you, again from Pizza Hut. Again, you can click the thumbnail to open a bigger file.

The Creative: Definitely a more fun-looking piece that fits Pizza Hut's profile a bit more. (Side note: every time I look at this email, that stupid Smashmouth song they use is stuck in my head for an hour.) It's colorful and has a pretty direct message. However, it's very heavy on images with some of the main text being HTML. As a developer said here, "It's not terrible by any means....but it's not ideal." I like the addition of 'Don't Forget The Sides!' as a potential hook for some additional buys on top of the pizza.

The Sender/Subject Line: This is strange. This is an offer or a special, yet the address is not the same as our first example. This email sender is news@getmore.emailpizzahut.com. Huh? This is news? I thought it was a special offer? Simplicity...simplicity...simplicity. The subject line isn't too bad ("Pizza Mia Pizzas -- $5 Every Day"), but when you open it up, it has the dreaded "...when you buy three or more medium pizzas'. Why not say "Pizza Mia - 3 Pizzas, Just $5 Each!"? Sometimes, marketers get so laser-focused on a tagline or marketing campaign that they assume it fits across all major mediums. This is not the case.

Time/Date: For some reason, this showed up as military time (13:42), which would equate to 1:42 pm on Thursday. Again, what's the target? Lunch? Families? For either, it missed by a few hours. If you're planning for a family night, most likely you'll forget this offer by the time 5 pm rolls around. If it's lunch, you've already missed 98% of your main audience.

Sometimes a strong brand can make mistakes and the Hut definitely needs to make some adjustments with deployment times, messaging and best practices. As always, I'm here to help and I always guarantee delivery in 30 minutes or less.