How to do marketing for your pizza restaurant in an easy yet highly effective way?
Pizza is one of the most popular and beloved foods worldwide. As we have already pointed out in this blog post about pizza market trends, the US is definitely no exception.
It’s no secret that America has literally a thing for pizza. Regardless how unbelievable – and even outrageous – it might sound to Italians, pizza is so popular in the US that many Americans treat it as a national invention.
Also, stats say that Americans consume a rough 350 pizza slices every second. And 93% of Americans order a pizza at least once a month!
Whether this popularity might be a positive thing for pizza entrepreneurs, this also means that the competition is incredibly high. And as a pizza restaurant owner, you need to stand out to survive the market battle.
Here at MODALiTA, we decided to strive for quality. That’s why we provide our clients only with top-notch equipment that will help them to distinguish themselves among competitors. If you’re among those entrepreneurs that fear not to invest in their business and in their customers’ satisfaction, keep reading!
In this blog post, we’ll be exploring in fact explore 3 useful marketing tips that any pizza restaurant can use to improve their marketing strategy and achieve the market success they deserve.
1) Decide who’s gonna be your target audience
The first marketing tip we want to share with you is the one without which no other marketing action would make sense.
It’s a very basic marketing concept, but still a rather ignored one.
We can synthesize it with a single sentence:
“If you strive to please everyone, you will ultimately fail to earn the love of anyone.”
Any product, service, restaurant or shop must always face this truth. People are different, with different and changing needs and standpoints, and it’s impossible to match all of them with a single offer.
You can’t satisfy at the same time the needs of those who are seeking a 99 cents pizza slice, and of those who are looking to taste a proper, gourmet, Italian neapolitan pizza.
To make your restaurant achieve success, you should instead choose a specific market target and do the best for them. Only this way you can match their needs and make them eager to come back again.
Blue Ocean VS Red Ocean
Focusing on a specific target makes facing the competition in your area easier. You won’t need to be the only one or to be strictly “better” than the others. As long as you’re different from them, you’ll be playing a different sport rather than competing within the same league!
In marketing, we call this a “blue ocean strategy”. It radically differs from a “red ocean strategy”, where the red ocean stands for a sea that’s red for the blood of the sharks fighting among each other.
Therefore, before anything else, decide what kind of pizzeria you’re gonna be, and which kind of customer you will serve.
Ask yourself the right questions.
Who’s your target? What’s their age, their income level, their habits? Are them (THEY) workers looking for a quick treat or people who’re looking for a fancy place to schedule a date?
Once you’ve made up your mind, act accordingly for any choice you’ll have to make.
Will your pizza restaurant serve authentic Napoli style pizza? Then buy a Neapolis, the oven that makes the best Napoli style pizza.
Will instead your pizza restaurant serve a wide range of baked goods, from pizza to bread? Then a top multipurpose SerieS oven will probably be your best option.
Make your plan, then stick to it.
2) Set a marketing strategy to lead customers to your pizza restaurant
“I don’t need marketing: if my product is delicious, people will necessarily come.”
If you’re a customer of ours, or you’re just reading this blog post, you are most likely not the kind of entrepreneur who indulges in this kind of mistake.
But if such a thought ever crossed your mind, immediately stop what you’re doing and get ready to reconsider your position.
Think about it: if a tree falls in a forest and there’s no one around to hear it, how could you tell its sound?
It’s the same thing with your restaurant: you might have the most delicious pizza on earth, but if no one knows that, what’s the difference? Marketing is not something you need to do when your product is poor. By contrast, if your product’s poor you don’t need any marketing because you’ll probably end up failing anyway.
Besides, if your pizza is outstanding, especially at the beginning you just need a gentle push to bring in your first customers. If you do things properly and yours is a quality product, your first customers will start a snowball effect that will make things easier afterwards.
But how to attract your first customers when nobody knows anything about you?
This is a very wide topic, because it’s literally plenty of marketing strategies for your pizza restaurant’s customer acquisition. We’ll surely cover this topic in more depth in the future.
A few marketing tips to lead new customers to your pizza restaurant
Right now, we just mention a few of them:
– Plan some special event to invite all the people in your neighborhood.
– Give some incentive or promotion to drive new traffic in your restaurant.
– Use a well mulled-over outdoor communication campaign in your area.
– Use digital marketing to increase your brand awareness and to drive new customers into your shop.
– Give your actual customers some incentive to spread their word-of-mouth.
However, the most important thing is: marketing is serious work. Don’t underestimate it and always invest in a marketing professional with expertise.
3) Don’t forget to optimize your customer retention!
If you have already followed our previous tips and you have done things properly, the last step comes as the immediate consequence.
You’re unique. You started to attract enough new customers, and you are getting famous for your *insert your own pizza’s feature that makes it unique* product.
At this point, you just need to focus on the final, crucial, task: make your customers come back.
Good marketing always follows the classic Pareto Principle: the 20% of your work (=customers) will provide you with the 80% of the outcomes (revenues!).
In other words, it’s much more important to make your actual customers come back rather than bringing in new ones. That basically depends on two reasons. The first one is that a satisfied customer is most likely more prone to come back, bringing friends or relatives.
The second one is that the acquisition costs to get a new customer are pretty high. Retaining instead a loyal customer is virtually costless, and it dramatically increases the profitability of each sale.
The relationship with your actual customers is invaluable!
Marketing is the best ally for any quality pizza restaurant
As we’ll keep stressing out forever, good marketing always goes hand in hand with quality products. If your pizza is indistinguishable from any other and offers nothing special to any customer, there’s no marketing who can save you in the long run.
Marketing a pizza restaurant is a continuous effort. We definitely know that.
But by understanding your target audience, setting up strategies to acquire new customers and keep existing ones coming back for more, you can really skyrocket your restaurant.
And the best thing is: only a small number of pizza restaurants actually have a great product and also do marketing effectively. Therefore, you can beat them with ease!
The key to a successful marketing strategy is to be professionally creative, consistent, and customer-focused.
If you need any advice to boost your quality and improve your customers’ satisfaction, we’re here for you.
Fill in the contact form and reach out to us to get your free quote or advice!