Marketing

How to drive pizza sales with fool-proof marketing tactics

The pizza industry is a competitive one, but the right marketing tactics can give your business a bigger slice of the pie. How well prepared is your pizzeria to attract new customers and create raving fans?

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December 8, 2021 by Jessica Bryant — Vice President and Restaurants Head of Operations, NCR Voyix

The pizza business is competitive, but the right marketing tactics can give your business a bigger piece of the pie. Let's look at some ways to attract new customers and create raving fans.

Tap into your tech tools

The right tools might just be under your nose in the existing solutions you use to run your business. The best point-of-sale solutions, for example, tackle more than simply transactions. They allow you to identify, understand and engage your most valuable customers.

Take stock of your tech stack and ensure you have a Swiss army knife POS that can serve traditional functions along with data management, loyalty and consumer marketing needs.

Go digital with your loyalty program

With a fully-integrated, digital loyalty program, customer purchases can be tracked through their profile, which allows you to review customers' preferences and buying habits. Do they like extra garlic sauce? Pepperonis on the side? Crispy crust? This kind of data forms the foundation for customized offers.

For example, Roots Pizza leverages its mobile app to seamlessly sign-up users for its loyalty program as well as building push messaging into a communications channel to reach customers with promotions or other notices.

You can also use this information for a more targeted approach to your mailing list. Your POS gives you the tools you need to identify frequent customers and their contact information. This data can be used to distribute marketing information about your pizzeria, special offers or new menu items.

Text offers and other messages

Businesses are increasingly texting customers and enjoying a high engagement success rate, why not try it at your pizzeria? When emails are sent, about 20% of them are read. In contrast, 83% of millennials in a customer experience-focused survey read their text messages within 90 seconds.

Texting offers your brand a simple, inexpensive option to increase awareness and loyalty. Just don't overdo it.

Consider limiting your messages to once a week. You'll be more likely to see your business' customer retention rate increase. During slower hours, sending out a quick message with a discount code can help generate business when you need it most. You can also request feedback on their experience by sending a quick survey to understand what needs improving and what works well.

Embrace the power of a digital community

There is nothing more powerful than referrals and recommendations. This can be obtained traditionally but building a digital presence and leveraging the power of social media will help reach an even broader audience.

According to Datareportal, there are 4.48 billion social media users worldwide, which is almost 57% of the population. Of these users, 3 in 4 have used Facebook to make restaurant-related decisions, based on comments and images that have been shared by other users. Food and drink brands also dominate Twitter with a 32% share of tweets.

And with the most Instagrammed food being pizza, you have the opportunity to build a solid list of followers and create a strong, virtual connection – any way you slice it.

Increasing your brand awareness and customer loyalty through social media doesn't have to be a challenging process. After defining your goals and social channels, investing in social media management software tools will help manage the campaign. Additionally, productivity is increased in four key areas: content creation, content sharing, social media management and social media analytics. Further, incorporating a social media calendar and scheduling apps will help your team stay organized and track the best times to post for optimal engagement.

Now you're prepped for success

Promoting your restaurant doesn't need to be expensive to be successful. Chances are you already own most of the tools you need to get up and running. Using the customer data collected by your restaurant's POS system and having an active and engaging presence on social media are simple ways to raise awareness about your business and keep customers coming back for more.

About Jessica Bryant

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Jessica Bryant is Vice President and Restaurants Head of Operations, NCR Voyix. Jessica leads NCR Voyix's restaurant technology portfolio, including building a deep understanding of customer needs and requirements.

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