Marketing to Customers Outside your Store's Delivery Zone

[fastbreakrob]

Has anybody tried direct mail to areas outside of their delivery zone, to draw in carry-out or dine-in traffic for their restaurant and to what success did it work if you have and what did you mail to them to get them to come to your store?

I really need more dine-in traffic at our store but I do not want to take away from our delivery or carry-out business. So I’m thinking a great option would be to market to individuals farther away from the store that can’t benefit from our delivery service in the first place.

Or maybe I could try sending dine-in specials to those in the area, that are not responding to the delivery specials. ?

What does everyone think?

Thanks

 

[j_r0kk]

Re: Marketing to Customers Outside your Store’s Delivery Zon

Rob,

Way, way, wayyyy back in the day when I was just starting with Domino’s I can remember a marketing technique we used to generate c/o sales with the people outside the delivery area:

We got a magnet w/ phone number, the advertisement (I think it was large one topping $5.99), and stuffed them into plastic cups with our logo. We put the lid on and threw the stuffed cup into a box. After doing this with about 500 cups we cruised the country in the back of a pick-up throwing cups into the driveways of these “out of area” customers.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure what kind of return we had because frankly, I was still learning how to slap pizzas at the time. But, it was definitely fun and I do remember people coming into the store to redeem them.

Logo cup… 15 cents
cup lid… 2 cents
magnet… 8 cents
advetisement… 4 cents

Total… 29 cents per home

-J_r0kk

 

[GT1]

Re: Marketing to Customers Outside your Store’s Delivery Zon

honestly i think advertising $ is best spent in a tight circle to your store. i think i read some where that 80% of business comes from about a 10 block radius. not that people won’t come from beyond that, its just that the areas closer to you should have a greater awareness already and may be more easily pursuaded to come in than someone who lives farther away and may not have heard of you. plus … when you advertise within your delivery area, your ads are doing double duty because it may further grow your delivery business as well.

 

[system]

Re: Marketing to Customers Outside your Store’s Delivery Zon

I have to agree with GT. Unless you’re dining room, service, product, etc. makes you a destination place (and be honest with yourself about whether you are or not, because I bet less than 1% of pizzerias actually are) there’s not much point in advertising outside of your delivery zone. I think that’s throwing good money after bad.

 

[fastbreakrob]

Re: Marketing to Customers Outside your Store’s Delivery Zon

j_r0kk:

Rob,

Way, way, wayyyy back in the day when I was just starting with Domino’s I can remember a marketing technique we used to generate c/o sales with the people outside the delivery area:

We got a magnet w/ phone number, the advertisement (I think it was large one topping $5.99), and stuffed them into plastic cups with our logo. We put the lid on and threw the stuffed cup into a box. After doing this with about 500 cups we cruised the country in the back of a pick-up throwing cups into the driveways of these “out of area” customers.

Unfortunately, I’m not sure what kind of return we had because frankly, I was still learning how to slap pizzas at the time. But, it was definitely fun and I do remember people coming into the store to redeem them.

Logo cup… 15 cents
cup lid… 2 cents
magnet… 8 cents
advetisement… 4 cents

Total… 29 cents per home

-J_r0kk

Thats funny you should say that. We were out doorhanging last week and stumbled upon a Papa Johns Cup stuffed with the same pieces you listed.

The coupons were riduculous tho. 2 Mediums for 8.99. 1 Large for $5. I didn’t realize they even sold pizza that cheap. lol. First time I’v seen a PJ’s ad for that low of price.

I’d try it but I think I’d be worried about getting in trouble for littering, if I was throwing stuff out of my window or out of the back of a pickup truck. Man that sounds nice… Just driving around and tossing stuff in driveways … Do you remember if there was ever any problems with people complaining about throwing stuff in their yard?

 

[fastbreakrob]

Re: Marketing to Customers Outside your Store’s Delivery Zon
GT:

honestly i think advertising $ is best spent in a tight circle to your store. i think i read some where that 80% of business comes from about a 10 block radius. not that people won’t come from beyond that, its just that the areas closer to you should have a greater awareness already and may be more easily pursuaded to come in than someone who lives farther away and may not have heard of you. plus … when you advertise within your delivery area, your ads are doing double duty because it may further grow your delivery business as well.

Well I would continue advertising around my store as well… If I spend money to market to customers outside my delivery area and I get enough of a return to pay for the associated costs then I’m not loosing any money by marketing to them. However if the marketing didn’t pan out and pay for itself, then obviously I’d be loosing on the deal.

So I could offer 1/2 price pizza to people outside of my area as an incentive to drive out and get a carry-out. These aren’t my prime customers paying the bills but making a couple of bucks from them will definately add to the bottom line.

I guess it will just take some experimenting to see if people are actually willing to drive 10 miles to get a discounted pizza or even full price