Pizzeria Marketing Tips For Independent Pizza Parlors

It’s not easy for any business to compete with the big franchises, and pizzeria’s have an even more difficult time when going against the likes of larger dominating franchises like Little Casers Pizza and Domino’s Pizza. Pizzeria’s like Bella Pizza Allen Park MI have taken on the challenge and survived 19 years against the powerhouse pizza kings.

No fancy 30 second TV commercials or Radio spots every hour of every day are necessary to make your pizzeria stand out and be successful.  You do not need a large marketing budget nor do you need to hire a fancy marketing agency to handle your marketing campaigns.  Smaller single show pizzeria’s are making it happen all across the united states on shoe string advertising budgets along with ground-breaking ideas that get and keep the attention of loyal customers.  Oh and it does help if you pizza actually tastes good.

Word-of-Mouth Marketing is one of the most powerful tools at your disposal, but many do not even use or consider this method of marketing.  You don’t need to spend millions getting Tiger Woods to endorse your tasty pie, you simply need to build trust and credibility throughout your community.  You must ask your current customers to help spread the word and reward them for doing so.  You should also get other local merchants to endorse your product buy putting special coupons and offers in their store fronts.  Yes, you may have to entice them a bit with a few free pizzas every now and then but the value of Word of Mouth Marketing is worth it.
 
Give-A-Way Free Pizza – what better way to advertise your product then to let people try it for free.  Contact your local schools, churches, charities, clubs and larger businesses and offer to supply them with pizza for their next event.  Be sure to give them plenty of flyers, menus, coupons and even consider a special just for the particular school or church.  You might think this will be expensive, but the return (if your pizza is good) will be far greater than any paid display advertisement you put in the local paper or direct mail piece.

Social Media Marketing – you must have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube at the very least.  These outlets are free and should be taken full advantage of.  You must go into these marketing channels with a well thought out plan of attack.  You want to offer information and education first and foremost, while hitting them softly with your marketing message.  You should also offer specials to those that follow you and encourage everyone to follow you to take advantage of the exclusive specials available.

Specialty Advertising – Print ads are often forgotten after the reader has finished reading the paper or magazine.  But putting your pizzeria’s name and logo on a custom printed promotional product is one of the most powerful ways to keep your name in front of your clients.  Whether it’s a key chain, a magnet, a pen, a coffee mug or a t-shirt these types of items should be part of your arsenal of marketing and advertising tools.  When you give a patron an item with your logo printed on it, the are not thinking of it as an advertisement, they are grateful the lovely gift you gave them.  The key is to give away items that are useful and get used often, daily if possible.  One of the most popular and cost effective pizza promotional items is the Magnet.  People love them because they are useful and when they are ready to order pizza they don’t have to look very far to find your phone number.
 
Tim Somers is owner of Bizarre Promotions, Inc. a promotional products distributor that has been helping businesses grow for over 20 years. View a new video produced for Bella Pizza Allen Park MI YouTube is a powerful medium that every business should be using.