So they didn't rush in when you opened huh?

I know I have heard it before, " I have the best pizza ever"! ya me too, so where are all the customer's?

A new mexican restaurant just opened in downtown Petaluma "where I live" and I talked to the owner who has two other locations, both in VERY high traffic college towns, and asked him about how much demographics he did before deciding to open, he said " uh none" now this guy also said he needs to do 200k per month to be profitable? good luck! Petaluma is a high rent tough town to open a fancy Mexi place in.

my point? you better know your demographic market if you expect to survive and thrive in this business

there is a lot of great material out there my favorite is Kameron Karrington's Conquer the Competition the Black Book pizza marketing book, and if your going to buy anything to help in marketing BUY THIS COURSE but first make sure you need it! what I mean is, there are so many people telling you what you should buy and what they will do for you and your business that the only thing you really should know is to trust your own instinct on what to do.

I have learned that gorilla marketing is the best marketing that you can do, here are few tips.

1. start a school program, check out my website Fregenes and look at our school program it really works, find a charity whether it is your local schools or not, giving back to the community is key in making your company successful.

2. sticky notes are a great way to blanket your local area with great promo info for your pizzeria, here are a few tips, you can order 5000 4x6 sticky notes for about $300 bucks they work great for front doors, cars, and school dorms, make sure you put them on the drivers side window "ever get in the car just to find out some buffoon put a flyer on your windshield" the driver grabs the note and jumps in the car with your info in there hand, I am getting a new batch of notes from a company in Washington "state" I will report on the success next week.

3. Mid week specials are always great, Sun -Thur its is always great to give incentives to yoru regular customers, Sunday free delivery with every order over 20 bucks, Monday package a pizza salad, breadstix, wings, soda "whatever" combo and price accordingly, Tuesday? two pizzas for the price of one? you get the point right, send each pizza that goes out your door with a coupon or some message encouraging your customers to BUY MORE MORE OFTEN!

4. gift cards are a great way to get sales rolling especially if you market them as a fund raiser. First off these cards are cheap to buy! and they work great in getting new customers, here are a few tips.
1. If you have a POS system check with your company to see if they recommend a company that has a tight interface and works with your POS this makes to entire process relatively simple.
2. I highly discourage any internet based gift cards, I chose one last year and it cost me thousands in fees and having to log onto a website and input info while the customer stands there is painful and time consuming, don't be fooled into buying a program like this.
3. Get your schools involved they love these kind of fund raisers heres a example, you order 1000 20 dollar gift cards, the cost vary but you can get them for as little as .25 each, you go to a local school and pitch them to teh school for 15 bucks each, the school gets the other five bucks and you are giving a 25% discount, but here is the real money maker, call your local paper and let them know what your doing chances are they will run a little story, and lets face it, with all teh repeat business you get "because your pizza is soooo great" ! you will make up that 25% in no time flat.

Be creative, and think outside the box, don't just settle for the Money mailers, and val paks, mix it up a bit and you will see more and more new customers coming in your store, and here is the last tip DONT JUST LISTEN TO ME , if you have a tip I can post, let me have it, I will plug your company and it always feel great to share.

send me an email at chef@fregenes.com

I hope this helps, talk to you soon

Chef Glenn