R/D spent

R

roller24

New member
Im a 7 month old pizza shop, that really needs to get my sales up. I also am strapped for ad capital due to my other financial demands, so I am really curious as to your experiences with marketing and what has given you the best Return per Dollar invested .

Im doing around 3200 a week in a 1400 sq ft spot in an urban setting on a very busy intersection in a lower middle income area. There is virtually a saturation of competition, but I think my sales weakness is due to my parking situation.
Although there is a free public garage almost just across the street, and a big free lot in the rear and sides of the block, people always are complaining that I have no parking :roll:
Anyway I’ll never do the amount of walk in business (29 seats/CO) to support the expenses, so I am concentrating on delivery. I have a driver who works 11-2 5-10, and does door hangers for a few hours every saturday. and I send him out a day or two a week when time and weather allows.
I also just sent out 10,000 menus via a coupon magazine which allows Inserted Media. That goes out next wednesday and I am hoping for a good outcome.
Im really getting tired as I have virtually run the place myself (8%) plus the driver(10%) and need to increase to at least 5K a week to make it worth pursuing further.
What else can I do to increase sales at a high Rate of success, to make this thing work?
My food is awesome and my rate of return on customers is high. I have been in the pizza bussiness for some 34 yrs, and have a concept that I am really happy with and makes people go WOW!, but what I thought was a great locale, is holding my sales down.

ARGGHHH!!

You can check my restaurant out at www.boardwalk-pizza.com There is a menu and photos and some customer feed back.
Any suggestions are appreciated in advance.
 
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If you don’t think you can bring more people in than I guess only option you have is focusing on delivery. If other pizzerias in your area doing well with delivery, (I would find out) than you know you can do much better what you are doing now. Than it is a matter of making them to be your customers.

In order to do that I would adjust my system to become faster delivery pizzeria.

Perhaps buying cheap a computer software with 3 stations will help you to be more efficient and easer for customers to order from you.

You got 15 years more experience than I have so you know the business better than me and I think it is a matter of adjusting your system, getting new customers to try you out and than make them loyal. You got nothing to worry.

You definitely need more people to give good service. Once you are fully ready with your system and stuff than do some direct marketing with your nice looking menu every week to different sections of your area. Than you will get hit guaranteed.

No delivery should be over 45minutes. Although we make 45minutes delivery at least once day but that is our sets of rule.

Nice menus?
http://www.cfmconcepts.com/
www.mypizzapromo.com

Once you got them with your pizza than give them a magnet and your business card….
 
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Nice web site. One thing I really noticed when I looked at it was the headline “Worst Pet Experiences” on the left, and then in the local news:
“Man Shot” and “Couple accused of killing drug dealer”.

A good web site is great, but if I was going to order pizza or register for a free 9 inch pizza these are some headlines that really made me think about your place. I for one sure don’t want to be thinking about a worst pet experience or drug dealers when ordering a pizza.

A more focused central idea would help your web site a ton.

That aside, have you tried direct mail? There is a great thread on it here. One more option is to print out 20-30k 2 color fliers and run a clone of the Domino’s mega-week. One large unlimited topping for a set price (around 33% FC for a 4 topping). Blast these out and get the initial orders, then work your database for repeat business.

How many new customers are you drawing a month?

Do you have any numbers on return customers?

Repeaters will always tell you your pizza was great. That is why they are ordering again. It is the ones who don’t order again who you should be thinking about. Database mailers and call back are great for this, but I would go for getting new customers as your first step in increasing sales.
 
to tag onto Chris’ suggestions…get some pics WITH CUSTOMERS SMILING AND ENJOYING THE FOOD. It’s a great looking store, but the pics do nothing to heighten interest.
 
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roller24:
Im a 7 month old pizza shop, that really needs to get my sales up. I also am strapped for ad capital due to my other financial demands, so I am really curious as to your experiences with marketing and what has given you the best Return per Dollar invested .

Im doing around 3200 a week in a 1400 sq ft spot in an urban setting on a very busy intersection in a lower middle income area. There is virtually a saturation of competition, but I think my sales weakness is due to my parking situation.
Although there is a free public garage almost just across the street, and a big free lot in the rear and sides of the block, people always are complaining that I have no parking :roll:
Anyway I’ll never do the amount of walk in business (29 seats/CO) to support the expenses, so I am concentrating on delivery. I have a driver who works 11-2 5-10, and does door hangers for a few hours every saturday. and I send him out a day or two a week when time and weather allows.
I also just sent out 10,000 menus via a coupon magazine which allows Inserted Media. That goes out next wednesday and I am hoping for a good outcome.
Im really getting tired as I have virtually run the place myself (8%) plus the driver(10%) and need to increase to at least 5K a week to make it worth pursuing further.
What else can I do to increase sales at a high Rate of success, to make this thing work?
My food is awesome and my rate of return on customers is high. I have been in the pizza bussiness for some 34 yrs, and have a concept that I am really happy with and makes people go WOW!, but what I thought was a great locale, is holding my sales down.

ARGGHHH!!

You can check my restaurant out at www.boardwalk-pizza.com There is a menu and photos and some customer feed back.
Any suggestions are appreciated in advance.
Click to expand...
roller 24,
Looks like you gave an attractive pizzeria. The food photos were effective to me. Your dining area is clean and neat, the photo did not want to make me come get a pizza though. It could have been in a hospital, it was so sterile looking, which is a good thing, but I do not think to get people to come buy your pizza. All the news ads, I endned up reading one of them instead of about your pizza.
Find a web person who is good at web sites and pizza, they are around, sometimes called consultants or marketing gurus. Best place to find them is at pizza conventions and meetings.
In the meantime, look at other pizzeria web sites, there are a bunch available under the member list at PMQ Think Tank. See what appeals to you, that is the most important thing. Team that up with being effective, and you’ll have a winner, that is an expression of you.
Mine is linked below. It is by no means a good one for pizza marketing, just one I put together with my Apple Mac account at no extra charge. It is very elementary, simple information and photos only. I did the best I thought I could do within the parameters. Any crticism is appreciated.
I would like to have a better one in the future, probably with a different format.

thanks for sending us yours,
good luck,
Otis
Code: 
[http://homepage.mac.com/otisgunn/PhotoAlbum27.html](http://homepage.mac.com/otisgunn/PhotoAlbum27.html)
 
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roller24:
Im a 7 month old pizza shop, that really needs to get my sales up. I also am strapped for ad capital due to my other financial demands, so I am really curious as to your experiences with marketing and what has given you the best Return per Dollar invested .
Click to expand...
Publicity.
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roller24:
My food is awesome and my rate of return on customers is high. I have been in the pizza bussiness for some 34 yrs, and have a concept that I am really happy with and makes people go WOW!, but what I thought was a great locale, is holding my sales down.
Click to expand...
Endeavor to get your local media outlets to tell your story. Write up and send out a press release. Are you “living the American dream?” Let the world know how you’ve thumbed your nose at ‘the man’ and set out to do things your way! Or whatever the story is that sets you and/or your business apart from the crowd.

Otherwise, it will take time and lots of repetition to get your message out. I’ve been told it takes 9 exposures to your message before people even start to notice it and I’m really starting to believe it to be true. Building sales via advertising tends to be a slow/boring/expensive process.
 
Nice websites guys, and Ive already taken some advice and made some changes on my page.
Brad, thanks for that post, I didnt even know that I could send a press release. My biggest week ever was when the local rag put my picture in the business section.
I’ll have to look into that more.[/url]
 
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Although there is a free public garage almost just across the street, and a big free lot in the rear and sides of the block, people always are complaining that I have no parking Rolling Eyes
Anyway I’ll never do the amount of walk in business (29 seats/CO) to support the expenses, so I am concentrating on delivery.
Click to expand...
One of the comments on your website was about people being towed from your back lot. Is that still a problem?
 
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No, not really, I have posted very clear warnings on each entrance as to where customers should park. Nobody has been towed since.
 
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