We have a number of new houses going up in a new estate in the next suburb to our shop, about 1 mile away.
I printed some business size envelopes (DL) with our logo, a banner with “Welcome to Burns Beach” and wording of “Please enjoy a free large pizza with our compliments”
Inside was our menu, fridge magnet and a letter telling them of the free offer and a brief on our attributes. At the bottom was a tear off for their details which needed to be redeemed for the free pizza (instant data base). The free pizza is retail valued at $15.50.
I dropped at 95 houses on Wednesday and till Sunday have got 9 redeemed, another who ordered but lost their letter and 2 deliveries to addresses not delivered to before. All in all around 11% redemption after only 5 days.
With this level of redemption our next drop will be similar but with the banner saying “New Customer or Not?” then the free pizza scribe. The letter inside will say “If you are a current customer than this is thanks for your custom. If you are anewcustomer then this is a free pizza because we know once you try you will then buy … enjoy”. Hopefully we can get a similar % redemption for new customers.
This next drop will be in random streets in a suburb by week coverage. We are not going all out for free pizzas by dropping every house in our area because there are around 15,000, but we will do more of a blanket coverage in the areas we know where we are lacking sales - a more target market approach rather than a shotgun one.
Could be some interesting times ahead of us because this type of promotion is not used here in Australia, or more specifically where we are based.
I think you’ll tick off your current customers if you send them a note about getting a free pizza, and then take it away!
Either don’t mail it to them, or honor the deal for them.
Maybe make it a BOGO offer, then if someone NEW calls in and orders, at that time you can inform them that the pizza is free… that might help with the buzz.
Scott
I think what Dave is saying is his own way, existing customes get a free pizza as a thank you for being a customer. The new customer gets the pizza as a hook.
I think it is a great idea. The only thing I would change is maybe make it a small or medium pizza…that way they are more likely than not to order something in addition. Great idea though. Sure is nice when an idea works.
You got it right. Yes old customers get one as a thanks and new ones as the hook. Maybe just my bad typing after a long hot slow night at the coalface full of easter eggs :lol:
Kris. Our large is 13" which most customers oredr in two’s or three’s. We go small 10", large 13", family 15" and jumbo 18". Yeah it is a good feeling when you see instant results.
As I have mentioned earlier, I am focusing on mailing my database and not putting in as much effort, as I use to, with shared mailings.
A lesson I learned just a few months ago went like this.
I sent a letter to my existing customers in March. It was to everyone who ordered since the beginning of the year at least once. The letter just stated that we appreciate their business and we will not be raising prices. I included a business size card, made out of cardstock, that was good for $5 off. I sent 2 of them in each letter and gave them 2 weeks to redeem. Well…my redemption was 36%. I was shocked.
Then I sent the same letter, with a little different wording, to my customers who had ordered once from Oct to Dec but not since. I did not give them the same card…instead I just said mention this letter and receive $5 off your next purchase. My redemption was around 11%. I realize that I focused on 2 separate folks but the redemption rate was a lot different. I attributed the big difference to the $5 card.
My lesson is include something in a mailout. It creates a tangible item to hold on to and remember to use.
I will be making more of these cards and sending them out on all future mailings.
I do a similar promotion and send out about 100 cards per store per week for a medium 2 topping pizza for free. We put them out on a Monday with a 3 day validity. We typically get around 15% redemption and a reasonable repeat business rate. We target specific streets having looked on our POS to see identify streets with poor customer uptake. It seems to have worked pretty well so far.
I wouldn’t spend space on the letter trying to differentiate between current customers and those that have not tried your product. That doesn’t make much sense to the recipients, as they think you should know if they are your customer or not. Just make it a neighborly gesture that you are offering them a free pizza and explain why your product is far superior to the others. I have a pretty good letter that I will get to you if it helps. I mailed out over 10,000 of these letters over the coarse of a year and saw over 35% get redeemed. Sales are now up 300K from before I started.
Just pasted the wording from the letter for the next drop - Customer or Not?
Are you a customer of us? Great, then you get a LARGE pizza ABSOULTELY FREE on us because we appreciate your custom
If you haven’t tried us before now you can try before you buy - ABSOULTELY FREE - no gimmicks and NO COST what so ever. Why FREE ? Because once you taste our pizzas we know you will come back for more
Just phone through your order on 9305 3411 and come in and pick it up
ABOUT US:
• Conveniently located at Currambine Marketplace shopping centre
• Recognised for the best tasting, healthiest pizzas
• Only the best quality and freshest ingredients used
• Not mass produced, dripping in oil or tasting like cardboard
• An independent local family owned business - not a multi-national group or franchise
Check out our menu and place your order for your FREE PIZZA from the “Favourites†range (excludes Premiums and Gourmets)
We look forward to becoming your local favourite pizzeria, as we have done with countless other satisfied customers. Enjoy!
David & Lynda Waterman and staff.
[b]Similar wording to the original letter I dropped last week. In the letter words in CAPS are in larger font size and in bold red type toaccentuate the FREE, plus phone number is huge within a bright yellow box so they cant miss it.
Nice! And it is clearly working. May have to try something like that in the future! I really like that you send a magnet and menu along with the mailing.