Here’s an article from Pizza Marketplace.
They make very good points about the restaurant marketing services that we provide.
They’re talking about the pizza industry and how selling pizza-by-the-slice has its challenges in marketing and ROI.
These same marketing practices go for other non-pizza restaurants as well.
Best practices for marketing pizza-by-the-slice to customers
The strategy behind marketing pizza-by-the-slice comes down to grasping one big-picture perspective (true for marketing any item with a low price point and high level of customization): Every tactic used to market pizza-by-the-slice should focus on increasing customer visit frequency.
Big picture, getting a customer to buy just one slice of pizza will not get you anywhere. Sure, aggressive acquisition marketing will drive more foot traffic, but if none of those individuals comes back, you can’t break even — new customer acquisition is too expensive to cover the cost of a pizza slice. Moreover, a focus on increasing average check size won’t work — by definition, you’re marketing an item attractive because of its low price.
Instead, focus on increasing visit frequency to find success. Every incremental customer visit you add counts as a huge win.
Here are four strong starting points for effective, frequency-focused marketing campaigns:
Incentivize existing customers to visit at different times
Send an incentive to current weekend customers to stop by during off-peak weekday hours (and vice versa for weekday customers coming in during off-peak weekend hours). Inform frequent dinner customers about lunch specials (and again, vice versa). In addition to filling your restaurant during off peak hours, which drives passerby traffic, you’ll also work toward establishing a different (and additional) type of habitual behavior from your loyalists.
SLGD: With our online ordering services, we can track their ordering habits and steer them to continue to order at that same time by offering discounts via email or txt.
Deliver bounce-back promotions to earn immediate repeat business
Oftentimes, pizza operators mistake a single sale as a job well done. In fact, the work has just begun. The day a customer makes a purchase, send them an email or push notification not only thanking them for coming by, but inviting them to come back in the future. Add an incentive to this “bounce-back” promotion if you want to sweeten the deal, as customers who feel appreciated inevitably visit more often.
SLGD: With our online ordering services, we can automatically send email and or txt messages to customers anytime after they make a purchase for a bounce back deal.
Use location and time-based marketing to grab spur-of-the-moment traffic
Location and time-aware promotions are ideal for increasing visit frequency. Notify loyal customers via social or mobile (email is not preferred given longer response time), about last-minute or flash deals at their favorite locations. Geo-fencing is no longer the “Big Foot” of marketing (i.e. often-talked about, seldom seen), as beacons have made geo fencing a reality. Simply install beacons in your store and use them to trigger mobile notifications to passersby about daily specials or bring-a-friend promotions.
SLGD: We are currently researching beacon companies as an add-on service to our current online ordering services.
Launch a VIP program for highest frequency customers
Rather than establish a VIP program for your highest monthly spenders, provide VIP benefits according to frequency. Deliver unique incentives and treatment for your top 15 to 25 percent of customers according to monthly visits. By rewarding frequency as your desired behavior, you align incentives — a hallmark of any effective marketing campaign.
SLGD: With our online ordering services, we have a loyalty program that rewards our highest monthly spenders to encourage frequent visits and a higher ROI.
So here it is from 2 professionals. Our online ordering services for restaurants is the new age of food purchases.
Contact us today for an in-person demo if you are in the Richmond metro area otherwise we may be ready to travel if you sign on more than 1 restaurant for our services.
Give Samuel a call today – 804-601-0545.
Article resource from Kane Russell is the head of marketing at Thanx, a technology company based in San Francisco that makes customer marketing easier for multi-unit pizza brands.