ok so here is the skinny. I have been open a tad over 3 months now delivery carry out only. In a 3 mile radius there is about 20,000 housholds and 3 other pizzerias and in a 5 mile radius there is about 50,000 households and about 13 pizzerias. My weeks are just absolutely terrible. I have now mailed out about 30,000 direct mailers (full color with nice pizza pictures) and have seen almost no response to them. My most recent one was about 5,000 mailers and in about 3 days I have only gotten back about 20 of them. I did a 30 day lazy customer postcard offering free cheesebread and out of 200 only got 1 back in about 2 weeks now. I am totally confused and utterly frustrated. This is my second store and my first one does fantastic in a town of only 5,000 households (about $7500 a week) and direct marketing works unbelievably good at that one. I just don’t get why this 2nd one is not getting basically ANY response from advertising (doing about $2,000 a week on a mailer week ) The only thing I can think of is that since I started it in the summer (summer is slow for me) that I havent been able to really gain the customers like I want? Any ideas?
You’re sending out the mailers and not getting any response. make it an offer that WILL get a response. You have pis*ed away 300 mailers per week to do $2000 a week. Try doing this: Type up a letter offering a FREE PIZZA no strings attached. Be happy to deliver this free pizza at no cost to the customer. Print this letter on company letterhead(professionally printed letterhead, not something off your computer, unless you are a graphic designer.) Word the letter well, offering reasons to choose your shop over others including your quality of ingredients and your commitment to service. Include a fridge magnet with your letter if you ever hope that customer will find your phone # a second time. (now heres the kicker) HANDWRITE your envelopes with no return address as NOBODY opens junk mail anymore. This is a slow process, but will increase your response rate and your customer base greatly. Each one of these steps is important, if you skip one, the rest will not work near as well. Spend a bit more in time and money for smart marketing and it will pay off big time. Send 300 of these out a week and you WILL see your sales increase. Anyone that would like to see an example of my letter(new movers, soon to do the general mailer with this) email me your address and I will send it exactly as I send it to my customers. IT WORKS
and get away from full color–$$ cha CHING!!!
I payed 3.2 cents a piece for my flyers in full color. I think its a pretty good price.
Thanks paul I have thought of doing something like that and it is good to hear it works. Be on the lookout for an e-mail from me.
Maybe it’s the fact you don’t deliver? People in small towns with no options are used to pickup (I live in such a town). If the other location is heavily delivered maybe that is hurting you? Just an idea.
I offer delivery at both my locations.