Startup marketing strategies (pizzalicious)

[NicksPizza]

pizzalicious:

We’ve been open exactly 1 month today, and are averaging about 45% of our breakeven point for daily sales. The first couple of weeks, we did no marketing, just the OPEN sign and an A-Frame with a special on it. Weeks 2-3 we started doorhanging, and today mailed out 1500 full color trifold menus with coupons (only .21 each!!) and will do about 1500 everyweek for the next 3 months just to get to people in our zip code.

Considering all this, what do you say, is it normal to be at about 45% of daily breakeven? Most of our customers have been repeating over and over again and we’ve got excellent reviews so far online. With continued doorhanging, boxtoppers (we’re box topping with full colored trifold menus), facebook impressions, good reviews, and direct mail menus, do you think we’ll be able to hit the daily breakeven point over the next 2 months??

Our daily breakeven point for now includes 22 labor hours & associated taxes etc (2 workers present every hour for 11 hrs), rent, & utilities.

Pizzalicious, The fact that you are marketing regularly is going to be the best decision you’ve made so far. One thing that I have learned in my 7+ years in the business (no grizzled veteran) is that marketing is a process and not an event. What you are doing now will continue to work for you long after you have started . . . .if you keep it up. It’s like working out at the gym . . . you get results by having a consistent work ethic and understanding how the muscles work and need recovery time.

I recommend, if you have not already, laying out a written plan of what you are going to do. Include direct contact stuff like doorhangers and direct mailing, newsworthy events that you can send to the newspaper and maybe get a story written, charitable stuff like donating Habitat for Humanity lunches, and all like that.

When doing the direct doorhanging and mailings, a wise man once suggested to us here that we cut our area into sections and make a rolling plan to hit each section in succession with successive pieces. Like this:

Week 1 doorhang 1 offer
Week 2 Doorhang 2 offer . . . direct mail menu 1
Print ad in newspaper
Week 3 Doorhang 3 offer . . . direct mail menu 2 . . . doorhang 1 frig magnets
Run a food vendor booth at School Fall Festival
Week 4 Doorhang 1 menu . . . direct mail menu 3 . . . doorhang 2 frig magnets
Donate lunch to Red Cross Blood Drive
Week 5 Doorhang 2 menu . . . doorhang 3 frig magnets
Staff volunteer at March of Dimes Telethon
Week 6 Doorhang 3 menu

* * * * everyone gets something four times in 6 weeks.   You get the idea.  Make it work for what you do.  Even just door hanging on a rolling schedule where you hit each area two weeks running then a week off then hit it again.

Remember to include things like Chamber of Commerce, local Schools, and stuff to get your brand out there hammered into people’s brains and memories. Those repetitive exposures are what you are looking for. The more times you get impressions the more they remember you. See if you can have something out there somewhere working for you every month. And then do regular campaigns of concerted marketing efforts.

Also gather names and addresses for you POS so that you can do direct marketing to existing customers to increase ticket values and also frequency of visits. It is easier to up-sell and bring customers back in than to develop one from scratch.