Marketing Ideas for a Local Pizza Company
I had the pleasure of doing some work with a small, local pizza delivery company producing some graphic design and marketing services. Below, I have detailed some of the marketing advice and ideas that I gave them. Hopefully, this can be a benefit to other pizza companies looking for marketing ideas and advice in order to grow their business.
Why Do I Need a Marketing Strategy?
Pizza is big business in the UK. Pizzas have overtaken fish and chips, and the number of pizza orders is rising all the time. There is a lot of business out there for your pizzeria, but there is also a lot of competition. So how do you compete with the other pizzerias in your area and increase your market share? The idea is that the next time someone orders a pizza they come to you because you’re at the forefront of their mind when they want to order.
Stats show that if a customer has a perfect experience in a restaurant, the likelihood of them returning is roughly 40%. If they come back a second time and have a good experience, the likelihood of them returning for a third time is about 42%. Now, this is where it gets interesting, if they come back for a third time the likelihood that they return for a fourth visit is over 70%. So, you have to market to three visits, not just one. Once they have been back a third time… you have a customer for life.
Get Your Brand in Order
The first thing to do is to get your brand in order. A professional logo and a strong story for your business is essential. People don’t buy food just because of taste, they buy because of the story, the brand.
There are many fast-food outlets, but the big ones were not always big. They have created a brand, and people buy into that brand.
Papa John’s story is that he had to sell his cherished car to start his business. He doesn’t make the cheapest pizza, but he uses the freshest ingredients, alongside his homemade pizza sauce recipe.
Your story should encompass what it is that’s important to you. I would base that on strong family values, authentic American-style pizza and American-style food, delivered to your home.
The logo should also encompass this story. It should be strong and relevant and able to stand out amongst the logos below. If it can fit with these logos, you can charge the same and not have to compare with price.
Set Up a Strong Online Presence
You need a strong online presence nowadays — Instagram, Facebook and Twitter are essential, as is your own website, Google Business page, Yelp and TripAdvisor. FreeIndex is also going to help your SEO.
Firstly, your Facebook page needs setting up. I’d recommend getting a professional photographer in to take pics of the food.
Secondly, set up your Instagram page. Again, professional photos need to be up alongside pics from customers.
You also need to set up a Google Business page and Yelp. You can add your menu, photos and other info. Put up photos of the kitchen too; people want to see if the kitchens are clean and what goes on behind the scenes. People buy on relationships and a strong social relationship is key.
Your website should be the same. Online ordering is a must, and this can be easily set up. Either use a professional web designer or get a lower cost company that can set up your site and add a Shopify account to it.
You can also place ads on Facebook and Instagram. Target only your area and this is really cheap (more about this below).
Review Sites
Some of the sites mentioned above like Yelp, TripAdvisor and FreeIndex allow customers to review you.
You will always get negative reviews. There is no need to worry about them, but you shouldn’t ignore them either. There are sites that can monitor any mentions of your business (ReviewTrackers is a good one). If you do get a negative review, the best thing to do is respond quickly. Don’t lose your temper or let emotions take over, try to see your customer’s side, see why they are not happy and respond. A good way to do this is to offer them a coupon for a free meal. Hopefully, you can make them happy on their next visit.
Direct messaging is an important tool. If you get a complaint online saying that food was delivered cold or arrived after 30 minutes when it was promised in 20, a direct message usually works wonders. Offering a free dessert can turn a lost customer into a repeat customer. This kind of personal service can go a long, long way. One golden rule though: only reply three times to a complainer online, after that walk away.
Review sites will also get your site moving up to the top of Google. Many people also use third-party sites like Just Eat. These generate sales but you need to create a brand to work alongside them.
Being reliant on just a third-party website is a dangerous position to be in.
A Google Places page will link to your website, as will TripAdvisor. This will help your SEO.
Hit the Streets
Hitting the streets with flyers does work. Not everyone ordering food has social networks, so printed flyers and good old-fashioned door dropping still does have a place in your marketing plan. It builds your brand alongside online marketing and will get the phone ringing, but it is a full-time job. In affluent areas, it is also very time-consuming as big driveways and gated houses mean it takes longer to deliver a leaflet. Try leaflet dropping in closer communities or new housing estates. New houses are typically going to have younger families in. With a mortgage to pay, both partners are usually working, so chances are there is more disposable income.
Promotions and Talk Triggers
Promotions are a good way to promote your business. These can generate “Talk Triggers” and general word of mouth, both on and offline. I have detailed a few ideas below.
Offline
Every time someone comes in and orders, after the order is placed, pull out a pack of cards. Ask the customer to pick a card — if it’s a joker… it’s free. The whole order, it could be £100 or £2. Either way, it will get everyone talking.
Facebook will go mad. If the customer pulls the joker, get an Instagram board, take a pic and post it there and then and tag them, along with other hashtags.
Free Food Friday
It may sound like you’re buying customers, but what are you doing when you advertise? You’re paying anyway. If you get coupons made up, you can offer a free slice of pizza on Fridays. You will get people in, and if it’s good they will come back; maybe order more on the day. Make sure terms are displayed (only one coupon per customer, whilst stocks last, etc).
People get addicted to discounts, not to free
Text
Save up a list of clients’ phone numbers. You can download inexpensive software that will let you send out a group text for virtually nothing. You will need to send out text promotions and an offer regularly and timing is critical. So, for example, 4:30 pm on a Friday night, people are generally at work and getting ready for the weekend. So, a text along the lines of, “Treat the kids this Friday night with a family meal deal from Bobby’s Pizza and grab yourself a free slice of our new cheesecake,” will go down well. Or “Washing up on a Friday night? Not our idea of fun! Call Bobby’s for your pizza, hot and fresh and delivered to your door”.
There are also lots of weeknights that can bring in customers. Love Island was a big hit in the summer and ratings were through the roof. So, a text during the ad break offering the “Love Island Pizza Deal” will tempt people to order a pizza. This can also coincide with a tweet, Facebook post, etc. When the adverts are on and a larger company has paid thousands of pounds for a TV commercial, people are picking up their phones. That’s where the attention is, that’s where you want to be. Not on the TV.
The thing is, even if you are not hungry, a text or a photo on Instagram or Facebook will always get you thinking. Your texts should go out before big sporting events too — Champions League football, Monday Night Football — then you also have X-Factor, Strictly… and, in November, I’m a Celebrity… If you are able to split your clients into demographics like age and gender, you can be really specific. The more info at your disposal, the more you can have fun. So, a text to a Liverpool fan saying, “What’s better than Salah scoring in the second half? Watching Salah score in the second half while eating Bobby’s Famous Pepperoni Pizza”, or something specific to reality TV, like, “What better way to watch Dani square up to Mark in Love Island over his flirting, than with Bobby’s Mozzarella Sticks and new Tzatziki dip?”.
We all know this is a monster, but I don’t understand why it is so underused. It won’t be soon though. Again, you can schedule posts to go out either before an event or at half-time/ during TV ad breaks to hit certain demographics. So, 15–25-year-olds with Love Island, 25–50-year-olds with X-Factor and maybe 35–60-year-olds with Strictly… You can get all the info regarding the biggest age groups for TV programmes online. It’s not hard at all. Facebook allows you to hit male, female, certain areas, etc.
You can use memes like a pic of an American film personality (Eddie Murphy screaming) with a headline: When your mum comes home with pizza and it’s not Bobby’s Pizza!
Or a pic of a football player walking off and kicking the water bottles over with the tag line: When Ronaldo knows the shakes aren’t from Bobby’s!
That kind of stuff gets retweeted and reposted.
This is currently massively underpriced and relatively ignored by a lot of companies. It won’t be for long though, so I’d recommend building an audience now… while you can. If you really want to go all out though you’ll have to hustle and put in the work. That means four posts a day. Instagram is photo-based so get close up pics of your food — it needs to look good and it needs to look fresh.
Videos of pizza being made, a chef spinning dough — the posting possibilities are endless.
Make sure you use hashtags too, so people searching will find you. I’d recommend about 12–13 hashtags on each post, including a location.
I’d also type in your area and look at the most popular posts. Click on someone local with a lot of followers. In the right corner, there will be three dots, click here and send a direct message: free pizza for you, my friend. Do this to the top people on Instagram and the chances are they will post a pic and say thanks. You have just increased your following and they have advertised your pizza to all of their followers, all for the price of a free pizza!
Twitter is also a powerful tool. Building up followers is really easy; it takes time, but it is easy. Follow the same kind of promotions above. Regular small tweets with photos will generate sales and help to promote your band.
Seven tweets a day is what is going to build your brand quickest. You can use the same photos as Instagram and Facebook and, again, use hashtags and hit your local area. You can also be relevant. So, a tweet sent as something is happening in real-time makes an impact, and if it’s funny people will retweet. A dubious decision in a football match, for example, will create a reaction. The tweets don’t have to be constantly promoting your brand either, just seeing your logo is enough. People will know what you do. The advantage that you have as a smaller company is that you can see something and post straight away, whereas a larger company will have to have a tweet approved and messed about with. My advice is, get it out there. One great example of this came during a power-cut in a US city in the middle of the Superbowl. Oreo put up a post with a black background and an Oreo cookie. The words? You can still Dunk in The Dark.
This was an amazingly powerful tweet, it was shared thousands of times, and it cost Oreo……… nothing.
YouTube
YouTube is big. You’re probably thinking that you have to do a professional advert, but you can do a whole host of videos on your YouTube channel. So I have listed a few videos below to get your website up the Google ladder, engage with your audience and get a loyal fanbase.
How to make the perfect pepperoni pizza
How to make pizza dough
How to clean a pizza oven
The best mozzarella for pizzas
How to make low-fat pizza
The origins of pizza
New York or Italian pizza… what’s the best?
A day in the life of a pizzeria
Feedback
The best way to make your business great is to collect feedback. If people don’t like something 80% of them won’t tell you, they just won’t come back. You need to get as much feedback as possible, and it’s more important to get negative feedback. If you can get a whole pile of bad feedback, then you can analyse it and make changes. If everything you hear is good, then you can’t improve. One way to collect feedback is with a simple postcard asking for feedback and offering a free side for every feedback card received for the month.
Hopefully, you find these ideas helpful. If you have any feedback for me leave it in the comments below. If you want any more info or want to discuss anything, please feel free to e-mail me directly or contact me through my social channels below.
You are also welcome to visit my sites www.printroom.co.uk and my new site www.morethanjustprint.co.uk