Advertising and promotion
Now we need to talk about the progress of delivery. Since the opening of my first establishment, I have tried a large number of different channels to attract customers and now I can not only list them, but also detail how effective each of them is.
When I opened the delivery, I expected that my main clients would be residents of the nearby housing and utility complex, which at that time numbered approximately 3500 residents. The main route to the city center was right next to my delivery. At the time, I thought it would be very convenient for the residents to make an order on their way home and pick it up on the spot. So I didn't do a big advertising campaign to attract people from the neighborhood, thinking they would see my sign and banner by the road. At first it was...
Shortly after the opening, the flow of clients decreased, and I had to find new ways to advertise all over the neighborhood, which was made up of garden associations and cottage villages.
The first thing that comes to mind is the flyers. It's pretty easy to print a thousand pieces and put them in the mailboxes. But in practice, it turned out to be much more complicated...
Day in and day out, we walked through the gardens and each time we encountered the same picture. In our delivery area, only every seventh or eighth house had a mailbox. In other words, the flyers could only receive 10% of the residents of the SNT. That wasn't enough to keep the pizza place afloat.
Of course, a flyer could be attached to the door handle or placed in the gaps between the gates, or at least on scotch. But it wasn't effective enough. It was autumn, it rained, the flyers soaked quickly... Believe me, a man who takes rain soaked advertising from the handle of his door, there'll be a negative image of the pizza place that set it all up. Therefore, there is little chance that he will order anything from you at least once.
So we gradually began to "reinvent the bike" and try different channels to promote our pizzeria. I will tell you about some of the most interesting ways that eventually turned out to be quite effective, as well as those that are better not to resort to.
The main thing that should be understood when opening your delivery - nothing will bring you income, except advertising. The content of your own business - this is, in fact, a solid cost: the purchase of products, staff, rent, etc. Only by systematically investing in advertising, you will be able to attract new customers and stimulate the old ones, which in the end will bring profit.
Flyers. No matter how we talk about them, with the right design and stable distribution, they were quite effective for apartment buildings. The task was slightly complicated by the fact that almost everywhere there are intercoms. However, there are universal codes for postmen, which can get into the house without calling the residents. Try asking your neighbours or finding them online. To start receiving orders, each resident of the house should receive a flyer on average twice a month. Don't bother potential customers with leaflets, otherwise you may get the opposite effect.
Radio. On the one hand, a good variant of targeting, designed for people with a car, who can come to you and pick up their own order. On the other hand - the scale of advertising and inconvenience of ordering online from the car. Upon hearing the advertising, the driver will not be able to go to the site or make a phone call without distraction from the road (unless at the time he will not be alone in the car). Moreover, the order can come from the other side of the city, which will surely bring difficulties with delivery. However, if you live in a small town, you can take a risk.
Banners. A large banner above the entrance or on the building where your pizzeria is located is a good idea. You can also install small A0 size banners near the road so that they are visible to passing cars. Printing in A0 format will cost you about 500 rubles, if not less. A larger banner will cost between 1500 and 2000 rubles. I do not mean huge formats with backlighting, volume letters and a running line, but a simple dense canvas that will also be clearly visible.
Social networks. All possibilities of advertising in ВК I will not describe for the reason that in a network and so much information on how to adjust the campaign and to make a correct targeting. I will only say that you should look for small groups of the area where the delivery is located, check them for activity and agree with the administrator of the group to place in it advertising. This way you can not only talk about yourself, but also recruit the first subscribers to your group.
Instagram. To my surprise, this social network was good for attracting customers and receiving orders. I can say that it is possible to recruit the first subscribers using popular services. Many of them provide free trial period from 3 to 14 days. Moving from one service to another, you gradually recruit people.