? for operators in high population areas

[canukfanlady]

I just had an epiphany (is that how you spell it?) Anyway. I think I know what I have been doing wrong…
Ok, so mostly I hear back from guys who are saying, hit your market 3 times in 2 weeks, etc.
The problem with this (in my mind) was, HOW THE HELL DO I DO THAT? I have a population within 10 blocks of me each way of 40,000 people I dont have the resources, the time, etc to hit that many people constantly. It would cost me a fortune. Which frankly I dont have. I frankly dont have much of anything at all.
BUT…I came to realize I have to big a focus. If I want to hit up people on a regular basis. I need to be cutting down my focus to a smaller group. I just sent out my menu’s to another 5,000 homes. So in two weeks I will have sent out 10,000. Now, if I just stay in this group, for the next two weeks and market to them ONLY, I WILL be able to market to them consistantly for a couple of weeks more, then I can move on, with more sparatic marketing to them while focusing on my new area. Does this all make sense?
What I was having trouble wrapping my brain around, was how does an operator, living in a small community of only 5,000 kick my rear in sales ALL THE TIME??? Duh, he can market them constantly. It’s a small group. Easy to market regularly. So, I have created for myself, small towns within a city…
Do I finally have it right do you think?
Is there something else I am missing?
Please help me. I will honestly drown soon if I dont get this right.

 

[brad_randall]

Do a survey of your customers and figure out who makes up your customer base - what type of person (income, lifestyle, interests, etc…) orders your product. Then buy a mailing list comprised of people with these same characteristics and repeatedly hammer your “niche.” This will take some effort/expense up front, but I would believe the response would be better than hitting 5,000 people chosen at random… with 40K people that close, you can be choosy!

 

[snowman]

Make it as easy on you as possible. You can either draw quadrants (or break up further) or you can use circles. You may want to go 2 blocks each way, target them hard, then go for block 3 each way, etc.

The thing you MUST remember is that you’re trying to OWN an area. If you don’t keep marketing to them, you will lose their business.

 

[Wizzle_Wassell]

brad randall:

Do a survey of your customers and figure out who makes up your customer base - what type of person (income, lifestyle, interests, etc…) orders your product. Then buy a mailing list comprised of people with these same characteristics and repeatedly hammer your “niche.” This will take some effort/expense up front, but I would believe the response would be better than hitting 5,000 people chosen at random… with 40K people that close, you can be choosy!

Brad

Doing a survey isn’t really that easy - how many customers are likely to tell their local pizza shop details of income, lifestyle, interests, etc… and even if they did depending on where the shop is you are likely to have such a broad range of answers it would be of little use.

When I opened my store I had access (via my previous career) to a professional marketing team who profiled the addresses in my area. They segmented the area into clusters of different household types (I think 8 types in total - for example retired, young professional, blue collar etc - I can’t recall the exact names but you get the gist). People steered me away from marketing to the ‘bottom’ segments/customer types - which I initially did.

Funnily enough though when I ran the process again about 18 months later this time profiling actual customer addresses from my POS I found I had a really broad customer base with no one segment/customer type being far ahead of any others. One of the most surprising things was the number of customers who are in the areas which I avoided marketing because they were not my ‘ideal’ customers i.e. low income levels etc. I am an expensive brand in my area.

What I can assume from this is that different customer use you in different ways - the higher income earners ordering from me because I am better quality and better than the cheap brands. The low income earners save up and order from me as a treat because I’m better quality and the ones in between well they have lots of reasons

So my advice - it is a numbers game - new customers (I’m told) need to see you name/menu six times before they really recognise it. If you can’t market all of your area regularly then stick to the closest you can and hit it a reasonable number of times but on a regular basis (at least once a month). I think the approach you outline would work - but as you build sales don’t miss a previous area - just don’t hit it as much and remember that as sales grow then so should your marketing spend.

Oh yes and make sure you have a good clear message about your product - why take and bake?

 

[Napoli_Pizza]

Maybe you can also reach your market multiple times, but with different vehicles.

Currently you are door hanging. But could you also hit them with a local coupon book? or flyer that gets mailed to their house? In my area, you can usually get in one for $300 to $400 to hit 25000 houses. I bet one goes out every month, so you could do that right away. Individually it may not be the most successful promotion you run, but if your goal is repeated exposure, then it may fit.

We’ve had a great deal of success with email. If you can collect those email addresses, that vehicle is usually free. Just set up another email account with the restaurants name. It doesn’t need to be fancy in the beginning. Just a quick message to remind them of the current special until such-and-such a date, or an email only special, maybe a new item, and a link to your website. if you can also collect birthday months, later on thats a sure fire success. I bet you could have that up and running in a month!