Calling All Marketing Gurus!!!

[system]

I desperately need to increase sales. Here’s my plan:

I have approximately 20 carrier routes (11,000 addresses, businesses included). I’ve broken them down into groups that I’ll be mailing weekly for 7 weeks. I’ll be hitting about 1500 a week.

I’m doing a jumbo postcard from Impact USA with 6 offers on the back.

Week 1-Postcard Group 1
Week 2-Postcard Group 2, Doorhang Group 1
Week 3-Postcard Group 3, Doorhang Group 2, Postcard Group 1
Week 4-Postcard Group 4, Doorhang Group 3, Postcard Group 2

You get the idea. Each route will be hit 3 times within 3 weeks.

I’m going to do a Customer Appreciation Day ($4.99 Large 1 top) 6 weeks in.

Will also start boxtopping, handing menus out with every order, and purchasing car-top signs.

My questions are-

What else would you guys do?
How many customers can I expect to gain? (Shooting for 1000)

I’m a regular poster, but in case anyone’s watching…

 

[fastbreakrob]

There are way too many variables to judge how many new customers you can expect to bring in from this advertising.

You could try to send a test batch of the postcard and see what type of response you get. Then you might be able to “predict” what your response rate is going to be.

In order to get 1000 new orders for the month. Theoretically, if you had a postcard that pulled at 10% response and you sent out 10k of these, you could potentially get 1000 new orders for your business.

That is… If your not marketing to your existing customers already.

But once those 1000 new customers have ordered from you… How many are really going to stay loyal to your business? What are your customer retention numbers like? What is your percentage of active customers compared to inactive customers in your database?

It might be smarter to go after a smaller crowd, work them nicely, and retain them as a lifetime customer.

 

[j_r0kk]

I swear that’s not me that made the original post but I’m a little surprised at your marketing plan as it’s almost identical to my plan for April/May… right down to the $4.99 customer appreciation day. The only difference is that I’m hitting my addresses twice in a two month period with postcards and the doorhanging will be focused only on apartments in my area.

I haven’t officially come up with a date for customer appreciation but I’m thinking May 5th. I don’t have any big chain restaurants in my town to worry about Cinco De Mayo celebrations so I think I can generate substantial sales on that day.

Just remember the average returns on your direct mails are going to be in the 4%-5% range and doorhangers in the 6%-8% range, half of which will probably be new customers with aggressive price point advertising. With that being said:

Direct Mail

11,000 (over 7 weeks) x 5% = 550 orders generated
550 x $16 ticket avg. = $8,800 increase
$8,800 / 7 weeks = $1,257/week increase in sales

550 x .5 = 275 new customers

Doorhanging

4,500 (over 3 weeks) x 8% = 360 orders generated
360 x $16 ticket avg. = $5,760 increase
$5,760 / 3 weeks = $1,920/week increase in sales

360 x .5 = 180 new customers

Customer Appreciation Day

The big generator in new customers will be your customer appreciation day… as long as you hit it correctly. I’ll advise the following:

1. print 1,000 flyers the week prior and pass them out
2. advertise this day on your reader board the Monday before
3. get a banner printed so you can banner shake
4. get streamers to make your place stand out

You do these and you can possibly add $2,000 worth of sales onto your normal Saturday delivery business.

$2000 / $4.99 = 400 customers

These customers are hard to track but if I were to guess I’d say at least 50% would be customers that have never tried you before.

400 x .5 = 200 new customers

In Summary:

Activity…Sales Generated…New Customers
Direct Mail…$8,800…275
Doorhanging…$5,760…180
Cust. Apprec…$2,000…200

Totals…$16,560…655

7 week avg…$2365.71/week

It’s not the 1,000 new customers you were looking for according to these stats but I’m sure you wouldn’t be disappointed. -J_r0kk

 

[Scott_Hack]

You plan to deliver the 4.99 pizzas? What is your minimum for delivery? Will you enforce it?

 

[Registered_Guest]

Every time we have a “Customer Appreciation Day” it is 90% non-customers that buy the special.

Thus, I never understood why it is called “Customer Appreciation Day” - we haven’t done anything for our real customers.

 

[pizzatime]

Registered Guest:

Every time we have a “Customer Appreciation Day” it is 90% non-customers that buy the special.

Thus, I never understood why it is called “Customer Appreciation Day” - we haven’t done anything for our real customers.

Good one!

 

[fastbreakrob]

What are you defining as a customer? When you say 275 new customers, are you calculating that 50% of the customers who ordered from the direct mail piece, will continue to order from here on out?

And what do you define as a regular ordering customer?

Customer = Anybody who has ordered once.
Regular Customer = Orders more then 1x per month

Is this your definition also?

Just because you get 550 responses and 550 new people have tried you out, you don’t gain 550 new REGULAR customers. You get 550 orders.
With only a portion becoming actual regular customers.

j_r0kk:

Just remember the average returns on your direct mails are going to be in the 4%-5% range and doorhangers in the 6%-8% range, half of which will probably be new customers with aggressive price point advertising. With that being said:

Direct Mail

11,000 (over 7 weeks) x 5% = 550 orders generated
550 x $16 ticket avg. = $8,800 increase
$8,800 / 7 weeks = $1,257/week increase in sales

550 x .5 = 275 new customers

Doorhanging

4,500 (over 3 weeks) x 8% = 360 orders generated
360 x $16 ticket avg. = $5,760 increase
$5,760 / 3 weeks = $1,920/week increase in sales

360 x .5 = 180 new customers

Customer Appreciation Day

The big generator in new customers will be your customer appreciation day… as long as you hit it correctly. I’ll advise the following:

1. print 1,000 flyers the week prior and pass them out
2. advertise this day on your reader board the Monday before
3. get a banner printed so you can banner shake
4. get streamers to make your place stand out

You do these and you can possibly add $2,000 worth of sales onto your normal Saturday delivery business.

$2000 / $4.99 = 400 customers

These customers are hard to track but if I were to guess I’d say at least 50% would be customers that have never tried you before.

400 x .5 = 200 new customers

In Summary:

Activity…Sales Generated…New Customers
Direct Mail…$8,800…275
Doorhanging…$5,760…180
Cust. Apprec…$2,000…200

Totals…$16,560…655

7 week avg…$2365.71/week

It’s not the 1,000 new customers you were looking for according to these stats but I’m sure you wouldn’t be disappointed. -J_r0kk

 

[j_r0kk]

fastbreakrob writes:

What are you defining as a customer? When you say 275 new customers, are you calculating that 50% of the customers who ordered from the direct mail piece, will continue to order from here on out?

And what do you define as a regular ordering customer?

Customer = Anybody who has ordered once.
Regular Customer = Orders more then 1x per month

Is this your definition also?

Just because you get 550 responses and 550 new people have tried you out, you don’t gain 550 new REGULAR customers. You get 550 orders.
With only a portion becoming actual regular customers.

Rob,

My definition of a “NEW” customer is one who’s never tried my product before. The original poster was asking:

How many customers can I expect to gain? (Shooting for 1000)

With that generalized question I would imagine he was asking how many “NEW” customers would he expect to GAIN, and not how many “NEW” customers he would expect to KEEP.

We all know that you will not keep 100% of the people who try your product as regular customers. If you have a formula that accomplishes this I would love to talk to you. Of the people that try my place, the percentage of customers that continue to frequent are in the 30%-40% range, which is actually on the GOOD side where averages should be around 25%.

Now, before other posters jump in and say they’re return rate is 60%… I do understand that some markets are different and some are kicking more booty than others. This is an average.

Rob, I hope this clears things up for you.

-J_r0kk

 

[NicksPizza]

Registered Guest:

Every time we have a “Customer Appreciation Day” it is 90% non-customers that buy the special.

Thus, I never understood why it is called “Customer Appreciation Day” - we haven’t done anything for our real customers.

I truly and sincerely appreciate ANY customer who comes in to spend their hard-earned money at my shop. If it is their 1st time or their 200th time . . . their money is still good, they still work hard to earn that money, and they are still trusting me to give them a good value for their dollar.

My regular, weekly customers are invited to take advantage of my special . . . it is not my fault if more brand new people try me out than regulars taking me up on a deal.