Increase lunch sales

L

Lee_Kim

New member
I bought my pizzeria exactly a year ago. Previous owner didn’t invest into marketing at all. We started Mail Shark in October and since then our sales have doubled. But lunch is still slow. We created a lunch special and hung a large vinyl banner advertising it, but the increase has been incremental. We don’t have large office buildings anywhere nearby. I thought at first that maybe it’s just not that kind of an area, but then I’ve learned that a sandwich place five blocks away is killing it. They’ve been around for 40 years, so I guess that helps:) Any ideas on how to create lunch traffic will be greatly appreciated! Thank you guys in advance!
 
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Box toppers would help, but the reason i would guess the sandwich shop is killing it is because they are “fast” food. Pizza is not considered fast food (even tho more then half the time around here i can get a pizza out of the oven before BK can even make my sandwich).

It also depends on what you offer during lunch. If you have anything that is hot and ready to go, it could take off. Or a buffet (lots of work). What ever you decide to do, will take time to build sales. Just stick with it and if done correctly will make you money in the long run.
 
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I bought my pizzeria exactly a year ago. Previous owner didn’t invest into marketing at all. We started Mail Shark in October and since then our sales have doubled. But lunch is still slow. We created a lunch special and hung a large vinyl banner advertising it, but the increase has been incremental. We don’t have large office buildings anywhere nearby. I thought at first that maybe it’s just not that kind of an area, but then I’ve learned that a sandwich place five blocks away is killing it. They’ve been around for 40 years, so I guess that helps:) Any ideas on how to create lunch traffic will be greatly appreciated! Thank you guys in advance!
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We were struggling with this at our second location, lots of competition outside of the pizza shops. We had mailshark put out lunch specials on the coupon flap that you would see as soon as you open the menu. On the back are our everyday specials. We don’t collect most of coupons, just simply ask them to mention when ordering. Our lunch business is picking up, I’d say partly because of the visibility in the coupons, and then just our quality and ability to serve customers rather fast for their lunch time. We don’t get many walk-ins at that location, nor a lot of pick-ups so it’s a lot of delivery coordinating. This might be completely different that the kinds of sales you get, so just keep that in mind.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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First off, to have ongoing growing lunch sales, you have to have great service. If you offer delivery, make sure you are on time, every time. People only have a small window to eat lunch and if you show up 15 minutes late, they hardly have time to eat and get back to work on time. Secondly, make sure you are marketing to those who order for lunch. Mailshark has an option to not mail to businesses within a carrier route. Are you sure you are getting your menus to the businesses in your area? Car dealerships, medical buildings, and industrial areas are all great for lunch business.
 
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Steve said:
We were struggling with this at our second location, lots of competition outside of the pizza shops. We had mailshark put out lunch specials on the coupon flap that you would see as soon as you open the menu. On the back are our everyday specials. We don’t collect most of coupons, just simply ask them to mention when ordering. Our lunch business is picking up, I’d say partly because of the visibility in the coupons, and then just our quality and ability to serve customers rather fast for their lunch time. We don’t get many walk-ins at that location, nor a lot of pick-ups so it’s a lot of delivery coordinating. This might be completely different that the kinds of sales you get, so just keep that in mind.

If you want to check out what we have for lunch specials, feel free to, www.supremospizzeria.com

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Steve said:
We were struggling with this at our second location, lots of competition outside of the pizza shops. We had mailshark put out lunch specials on the coupon flap that you would see as soon as you open the menu. On the back are our everyday specials. We don’t collect most of coupons, just simply ask them to mention when ordering. Our lunch business is picking up, I’d say partly because of the visibility in the coupons, and then just our quality and ability to serve customers rather fast for their lunch time. We don’t get many walk-ins at that location, nor a lot of pick-ups so it’s a lot of delivery coordinating. This might be completely different that the kinds of sales you get, so just keep that in mind.

If you want to check out what we have for lunch specials, feel free to, www.supremospizzeria.com

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
This is very helpful. Thank you so much!
 
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paul7979 said:
First off, to have ongoing growing lunch sales, you have to have great service. If you offer delivery, make sure you are on time, every time. People only have a small window to eat lunch and if you show up 15 minutes late, they hardly have time to eat and get back to work on time. Secondly, make sure you are marketing to those who order for lunch. Mailshark has an option to not mail to businesses within a carrier route. Are you sure you are getting your menus to the businesses in your area? Car dealerships, medical buildings, and industrial areas are all great for lunch business.
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Yes, I asked specifically not to exclude businesses. Perhaps I have to include more lunch-specific coupons…
 
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I do this with great results for my clients. Here’s a high level overview of the process. Get an account over at referenceusa.com and do a business search for a 3 to 5 mile radius from your shop. Download these contacts. Have one of your employees or yourself call these businesses and ask for permission to either fax them or email them your daily lunch specials.

Once you get their permissions, note down their email or fax number and create a list of about 100 businesses. Once you get the list done. Make sure to email every day around 9:15AM and fax at around 8:45AM. You can use services like simplycast for the broadcast faxing and mailchimp for the email blasts.

Also, if you have a website with online ordering make sure you have these specials updated daily on the website. Don’t forget to also add an opt in form in the lunch specials page that will add the users to that specific list that goes out on a daily basis.

Make sure to have different dishes each day otherwise you’ll just have a few sales in the first week or two and then it will die out. You can even use the same dishes you have in your menu, but just call them differently. You can also get dish ideas from spoonacular.com and other places on the net. Make sure to save these into a database so you could rotate them every other month.

Hope that helps. Any questions or concerns let me know. More than glad to help

-Jaime
 
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MPS said:
I do this with great results for my clients. Here’s a high level overview of the process. Get an account over at referenceusa.com and do a business search for a 3 to 5 mile radius from your shop. Download these contacts. Have one of your employees or yourself call these businesses and ask for permission to either fax them or email them your daily lunch specials.

Once you get their permissions, note down their email or fax number and create a list of about 100 businesses. Once you get the list done. Make sure to email every day around 9:15AM and fax at around 8:45AM. You can use services like simplycast for the broadcast faxing and mailchimp for the email blasts.

Also, if you have a website with online ordering make sure you have these specials updated daily on the website. Don’t forget to also add an opt in form in the lunch specials page that will add the users to that specific list that goes out on a daily basis.

Make sure to have different dishes each day otherwise you’ll just have a few sales in the first week or two and then it will die out. You can even use the same dishes you have in your menu, but just call them differently. You can also get dish ideas from spoonacular.com and other places on the net. Make sure to save these into a database so you could rotate them every other month.

Hope that helps. Any questions or concerns let me know. More than glad to help

-Jaime
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Just on this site now, this is great! Plus, my library has all consumer reports articles too 😉
 
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reference usa is amaz-ballz!!! If your local library is worth anything you can usually create an account for FREE.99 through them and access it from anywere…I also get new move in lists from reference usa…like i said…AMAZ-BALLZ
 
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MPS said:
I do this with great results for my clients. Here’s a high level overview of the process. Get an account over at referenceusa.com and do a business search for a 3 to 5 mile radius from your shop. Download these contacts. Have one of your employees or yourself call these businesses and ask for permission to either fax them or email them your daily lunch specials.

Once you get their permissions, note down their email or fax number and create a list of about 100 businesses. Once you get the list done. Make sure to email every day around 9:15AM and fax at around 8:45AM. You can use services like simplycast for the broadcast faxing and mailchimp for the email blasts.

Also, if you have a website with online ordering make sure you have these specials updated daily on the website. Don’t forget to also add an opt in form in the lunch specials page that will add the users to that specific list that goes out on a daily basis.

Make sure to have different dishes each day otherwise you’ll just have a few sales in the first week or two and then it will die out. You can even use the same dishes you have in your menu, but just call them differently. You can also get dish ideas from spoonacular.com and other places on the net. Make sure to save these into a database so you could rotate them every other month.

Hope that helps. Any questions or concerns let me know. More than glad to help

-Jaime
Click to expand...
Wow, this is great! Thanks!
 
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I bought my pizzeria exactly a year ago. Previous owner didn’t invest into marketing at all. We started Mail Shark in October and since then our sales have doubled. But lunch is still slow. We created a lunch special and hung a large vinyl banner advertising it, but the increase has been incremental. We don’t have large office buildings anywhere nearby. I thought at first that maybe it’s just not that kind of an area, but then I’ve learned that a sandwich place five blocks away is killing it. They’ve been around for 40 years, so I guess that helps:) Any ideas on how to create lunch traffic will be greatly appreciated! Thank you guys in advance!
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the tips. I am a newbusiness owner and am really trying to do what it takes to be successful. There is just so much information out there to try to digest though, that I spend most of my time just looking at various suggestions and ideas!
 
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MPS said:
I do this with great results for my clients. Here’s a high level overview of the process. Get an account over at referenceusa.com and do a business search for a 3 to 5 mile radius from your shop. Download these contacts. Have one of your employees or yourself call these businesses and ask for permission to either fax them or email them your daily lunch specials.

Once you get their permissions, note down their email or fax number and create a list of about 100 businesses. Once you get the list done. Make sure to email every day around 9:15AM and fax at around 8:45AM. You can use services like simplycast for the broadcast faxing and mailchimp for the email blasts.

Also, if you have a website with online ordering make sure you have these specials updated daily on the website. Don’t forget to also add an opt in form in the lunch specials page that will add the users to that specific list that goes out on a daily basis.

Make sure to have different dishes each day otherwise you’ll just have a few sales in the first week or two and then it will die out. You can even use the same dishes you have in your menu, but just call them differently. You can also get dish ideas from spoonacular.com and other places on the net. Make sure to save these into a database so you could rotate them every other month.

Hope that helps. Any questions or concerns let me know. More than glad to help

-Jaime
Click to expand...
This is awesome. I’m gonna try it! Thanks J.
 
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tguag said:
reference usa is amaz-ballz!!! If your local library is worth anything you can usually create an account for FREE.99 through them and access it from anywere…I also get new move in lists from reference usa…like i said…AMAZ-BALLZ
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I’m gonna go to the library tomorrow and get those new move-in lists! Hope it’s as AMAZ-BALLZ as you say it is, tguag!

I have all these sales people walking into my store asking me to sign up and spend a couple hundred dollars a month so they can get my menu to the people moving into my area. Wait till I tell them I’m getting that info from reference usa myself…
 
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WPI said:
I’m gonna go to the library tomorrow and get those new move-in lists! Hope it’s as AMAZ-BALLZ as you say it is, tguag!

I have all these sales people walking into my store asking me to sign up and spend a couple hundred dollars a month so they can get my menu to the people moving into my area. Wait till I tell them I’m getting that info from reference usa myself…
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lol it is! it is also kinda a pain cuz you can only select like 20 names at a time to download. But, if you have the time its worth not paying someone per name.
 
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