Top marketing ideas to have a banging business

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pizzatime

New member
Lets put together a top ten list of marketing ideas to have a banging business.

Let me start by saying that whatever we come up with, it must be implemented on a consistent basis. I say this because I have taken the summer off from my “action plan” that I used to bang out the business and now I see the results of it.

A must is door hanging on a consistant basis. Pick a couple neighborhoods and bang out the homes consistantly.

Another MUST is boxtoppers on every box. Also, if someone only orders hoagies then the bag should have a bounce back in it.

As far as print media( val pak, red plum, local weekly publication) i have to say thumbs down for me. The money spent on bulk mailers is not worth it. For the first time, I am going the route of having a menu sent by itself. For those that mail menus individually, what has been your results?

PT
 
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I am a little biased…lol…

Getting menus out is a must…whether that is door hanging or other distribution methods will have to be determined based on your market…If your market is saturated you will get more attention by door hanging…If there is not so much competition a weekly shopper might work well…Best to test test test and record your data so you can know what is working well…

Now the bias…Fridge magnets…And make sure design has your phone number on it at large as you can…In my mind phone number is more important than www, address, logo, images, etc…
 
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thanks royster.

I have a question for you. How do you recommend getting magnets to homes? If I get a bc style, do I attack to a doorhanger?

Also, do you have any numbers that show the percentage of a magnet going from door to the fridge?

another…do you feel that a customer will call because of that magnet on the fridge?

Any stats will greatly be appreciated

pt
 
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pizzatime:
I have a question for you. How do you recommend getting magnets to homes? If I get a bc style, do I attack to a doorhanger?
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I have used rubber cement to attach magnets to the doorhangers.
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pizzatime:
do you feel that a customer will call because of that magnet on the fridge?
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I have sent out nearly 30,000 magnets in 5 years. I have had many customers that moved into a rental unit call because my magnet was left on the fridge.
 
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I had the rare opportunity to have people send me their fridge magnets from all around the world. I have a customer with Down’s syndrome that loved getting my magnets so I put out the call for operators to send me their magnets. here is a link to my facebook album http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3 … b0c468cf57

The things I learned from this experience is like Royce said, make your phone number as big as you can, make the lettering easy to read by having it contrast with the background, and full color seems to be most atractive.
 
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And don’t forget to have a promotion where customers bring in 3 (or what ever number you choose) different pizza stores fridge magnets and get aFREE pizza in return. Keeps your one up there and removes any competitor ones out of the place.
Fridge magnets are great and we go through heaps in a market where very, very few shops do magnets. We box top the magnets, attach them to our menu when someone askes for a menu, letterbox drop them or just hand them out when we have special marketing days at the shopping centre we are in.
As for marketing ideas to bang business look at FRE pizza give-aways. We did a 150 pizza give-away to combat a chain store oening 100 mts up the road from us. New customers attracted and who returned in the same week more than paid for the promotion. We followed up with 200 unaddressed letters with free pizza offer in the surrounding 5 suburbs every two weeks ( 1 suburb at a time with 200 letters) since the chain store opened which has brought in heaps of new customers and the promotion is self funding. Our observations, and comments by customers, is that the new chain store is struggling and always are empty, even in peak times.
Utilising the local real estate agents works well for attracting new people to the area where we give a free pizza (family size) via an envelope the agent gives the purchaser / renter as they take poscession of the keys. The envelope has our logo and bold writing “Welcome to your new home - Enjoy a Free pizza on us” Inside is a letter with the same as a heading and a brief about us with a tear off redemption slip that they complete with name address etc.
Getting them into the store to try for the first time for free has proven our best marketing bang.

Dave
 
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pizzatime:
do you just have your logo or do you have a special
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You probably don’t want a special on them. Those things will be around for years and years, and you’ll be stuck offering the special!

As for other marketing, Facebook and E-mail have been an absolute game-changer for our business over the past 12 months.
 
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Facebook and E-mail have been an absolute game-changer for our business over the past 12 months.
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I NEED to get on the Facebook and Email bandwagon. Do you care to share your insights…especially on the email side(since Facebook has been talked about many times over on the tt)
 
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I saw a survey by one of my suppliers a few years back that said something like 84% of magnets delivered to a home made it to the fridge…And clients have told me many stay there for years…When I go into local stores and offices I see magnets I distributed years ago…even long expired calendar magnets…

Most of the magnets I do are just the basics, tel # as large as possible, logo and web address…Black background and red number seems to be most popular…Although I have done a few that had way too much on them…

I have a couple clients that had them out at parades and community events and get enough of a spike in business that the magnets are pretty much paid for right away…

I have a few clients that let their clients save so many magnets for a free pizza…

As far as specials on them…Yes they will hang around for years…But if you had them out at an event you can see an immediate spike in business and that spike might outweigh the future hassle…Or you could exchange offer coupon with new regular magnet…

Here are a few pizza magnet samples… http://www.magnetking.ca/images/pizza.png
 
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I have never been able to use the words “doorhangers” and “consistent” in the same sentence in my time in this business. “Sporadic” sometimes, “throw them away, the coupons have expired” more often than not… if you can truly get those things out on a regular basis, you’re way ahead of the game in my book.

I agree with getting menus out - we even stuff one in every pizza box that goes out of the stores. You know you’re on the right track when regular customers pull them out of the box with a disgusted look on their face and say to you “I don’t need this, I have a drawer full of these things.”

Don’t forget to do New Mover mailings. I prefer to turn the responsibility for getting them out over to a “fire-and-forget” company like Moving Targets or a mailing house. I’ve always thought these are a wonderful way to counteract the slow erosion that happens as regular customers move away.
 
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I want to add banners…I have a few clients that make their own banners…For a few hundred $$s it is possible to buy a small plotter and some supplies and make your own banners…Lots of videos on Youtube to show you how…For 10.00 or 15.00 you can make up a banner to promote all sorts of offers and events…

http://www.imprintables.com/index.c...ction=dspItem&itemID=1457&catID=10&subCatID=0

http://stores.ebay.com/BANNERS-AND-MORE

http://www.uscutter.com/Sign-Shop-In-a-Box-Vinyl-and-WeedingApplication-Tools_p_1002.html

http://www.signsupply.com/Accessories/banners.asp

 
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Great tips from Royster - I’d agree with everything he said. Magnets are amazingly effective (so are calendars) to generate repeat business.

Here’s my experience on the “right way to market” to new customers. Keep in mind there are 3 critical things you need to accomplish: Target New Customers, Get Them to Order, Get Them to Come Back.

Step #1: Mail full-color Pizza Menu Mailers directly to every home, apartment, and business within your service area (try a one, two, or three mile radius around your pizzeria). This menu has to be more than just a list of items and prices - it has to give your customers a reason to call.

Consider this situation: If your menu and a Domino’s/Pizza Hut/Papa Johns flyer are in their kitchen cabinet, why should the customer call you (assume quality is a non-factor). Your menu is an advertisement, not a price list. Obviously, I recommend using Taradel for all of your menu printing and direct mail needs (we have an all-inclusive design+print+mail service that takes all the stress out of the process). I also offer a free “marketing review” for PMQ TT members before their menus get printed so that we can maximize your response rates.

Step #2: Get them to order. Buy One, Get One Free coupons work well, $5 off any $15 order, Free Side with any Large Pizza, Family Deals, etc. Whatever you offer, make sure it is compelling.

Step #3: Get them to come back when they pick up or receive their first order. As Royster wisely stated, GIVE THEM A MAGNET! Magnets work very well and “stick around” the house for long periods of time. When they think pizza, they’ll look at the fridge and call your number. If you provide them with a box topper full of coupons, your chances to generate a followup order go through the roof. Remember, the first time you get a new customer, it costs you some money. The second time (and 3rd, 4th, 5th…) you are making big profits.

Hope this help, all the best TT!
 
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With all due respect (to everyone who has posted and who’s thinking about posting):

In my view, there are FOUR distinct Pizza markets:
  1. Residential - Community
  2. Business district - Down Town
  3. School district (colleges too)
    4)) Resort
Each of these markets demands a different point of view for marketing/advertising. In some areas you cannot door-hang. In other areas, the turn-over is too high, suggesting some type of flyers. We are in the age of the internet, social marketing is the go-to segment.

You’ve got to know your market area and not rely on some blanket approach used for another area. Taylor it to your unique market segment and be successful.
 
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pizza2007:
With all due respect (to everyone who has posted and who’s thinking about posting):

In my view, there are FOUR distinct Pizza markets:
  1. Residential - Community
  2. Business district - Down Town
  3. School district (colleges too)
    4)) Resort
Each of these markets demands a different point of view for marketing/advertising. In some areas you cannot door-hang. In other areas, the turn-over is too high, suggesting some type of flyers. We are in the age of the internet, social marketing is the go-to segment.

You’ve got to know your market area and not rely on some blanket approach used for another area. Taylor it to your unique market segment and be successful.
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Very well said. there is definitely a different marketing strategy for each segment. I am wondering where you would put the hotel/motel in your four. In some respects it is business yet could be resort in a different view.
 
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Daddio,

I’d look at the numbers: the ratio of rooms to business addresses versus surrounding residential addresses. I’d then look at the ratio of sales. I think you’d nail it to one of the four areas I suggested above.

KEY: You’ve got to know your market. Most often I read here about folks trying a blanket approach, when the real problem is that they have no idea of their market area. You’ve got to know your market! You can spend thousands on direct mailers and nearly zero response if you’re in the wrong market.
 
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And often times you will not know what works until you try a variety of things, record the results and see what works…
 
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It seems like most of the suggestions are geared toward del/co operations.

I wonder how effective magnets and mailing menus to homes are for a sit down restaurant with no delivery? I would think, not very.
 
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Freddy_Krugerrand:
I wonder how effective magnets and mailing menus to homes are for a sit down restaurant with no delivery?
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I think magnets and menus would be quite effective for a sit down restaurant with no delivery. I have to go menus from quite a few sit down restaurants in a folder with menus from delivery places. If I had a magnet for a place that I grab take out from once in a while, I would certainly put it on my fridge. Not only is it an easy way for me to find the number when looking to order takeout, but as an added benefit to the business, it is a constant reminder of that business every time I open my fridge. I have magnets from my veterinarians office as well as my dentist, and I do not use these numbers nearly as often as the numbers for my favorite restaurants that I order take out from. If you count on someone to find your number online or in the phone book when they want to order takeout, you risk losing them to the “noise” of the other ads they will run across.
 
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Freddy_Krugerrand:
It seems like most of the suggestions are geared toward del/co operations.

I wonder how effective magnets and mailing menus to homes are for a sit down restaurant with no delivery? I would think, not very.
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It has been very effective for me. In my market I use mailers exclusively because it reminds them that we are here and how much they enjoyed our food the last time. I have increased my sales by using direct mail exclusively. 35% increase in less than three years.
 
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