New Year! New Pizza Sales!

So how's business? you do ok last year? pies flying out the door right? I get emails from all over the country from Pizzeria owners with a variety of questions but the question I get the most often is "How do I market my business" I need more pizza sales!!!!

So here is a news flash WE ALL NEED MORE SALES!! want more sales and while business may be good, we want it GREAT. I have written about this in previous blogs and have tried almost every form of marketing available to boost sales, and lets face it there are a lot of guys out there that will try and sell you the tools that "they think" you need to boost sales in your town.

I am going to share a few of the marketing Ideas I have used, the success and failure's and you decide if any of them would help you.

1. Great products! are your products outstanding? do your customers refer new customers on there own? if not then its time to hit the books, websites and whatever else you need to do to make your pizza the best in town. I have won over 40 culinary awards with my pizza, sauces, crusts etc you know why? because I enter every contest I can, I participate is fund raisers and I promote myself and my pizzeria's every where I go. This is your first line of attack in the war of Marketing! promote your self, Promote your pizza, and share your products to create a buzz in the community.

2. Make sure you call your local newspaper to let them know you are in business! I know this may sound a little silly but the fact is they may not know you exist, send a pizza over to the editors office and make sure you include a menu and a HAND WRITTEN NOTE asking them if they can do a story on your business, new or not it is something the local papers DO all the time but you have to ask!

3. I have a school program that has made a huge difference in our sales and good will in the community instead of trying to explain it just go to my website and see it for yourself at www.fregenes.com/raise , now heres the kicker, I rarely donate money or pizzas to anyone that comes in and asks, why? glad you asked! let me ask you a question, the last time you donated a pizza to some organization how many sales came in from that donation? did you track them? did it help you boost your business so you could afford to donate next time someone asks? ya I thought that was what you were going to say I dun o? ok here is what I say when someone comes in to asks for a donation.
I tell them about our generous school program "and we do the same for fund raisers"! and then I tell them we would be happy to give them a printed fund raising coupon for there individual event at no cost to them, all they have to do is hand them out! and we will donate a portion of every sale to the cause.
Everyone will ask for something for free for a cause, and while we all want to help we also need to promote our business, so you are accomplishing two things here, the most important is giving back to your community! because they support you right? so its a win win, the coupons do not have to be fancy just make sure your menu is on one side with all your contact info and then make sure you specify that the fund raiser is not valid with any other promotion.

We support a lot of schools and organizations, and they support us it is a great ways to promote and give back at the same time, and here comes the shameless plug, Fregene's uses Revention POS systems and they are great, they track all our coupons easily and lets us know exactly who is buying and who is not. Contact Revention they are a great company "and no they do not pay me or give me stuff to plug them" they are just a great company to work with.

4. Direct mail works, but it is expensive, so make sure you concentrate on the 3 to 5 mile radius around your pizzeria, give your customers a good coupon, include your menu and a little about how great your products are. You also need to make sure your budget is big enough to do direct mail at least a couple of times, before you really start seeing a profit, sure you are going get a response right away and that is exciting, but make sure you are ready for it so your order flow goes well and the NEW customers are happy with the Pizza.

5. The new rage is Post It notes! and from my experience there are a few significant draw backs, now I know I wrote about this in an earlier post and was excited about the potential but the "Post it" campaign ran into major snags, the first was the fact that it was illegal to put them on cars in my area! check with your local police for your area. Then you have to deal with the actual placement make sure you hit the local neighborhoods fast and concentrate on apartments and condos with these post its, I found that that market gave the best response to the campaign.

I have been known to run out to the car are get someone a menu! I carry them all the time, because I talk about my pizza "almost" all the time, you and your product are your most valuable marketing tool you have use them.

If you have any questions that you would like help with just drop me an email at chef@fregenes.com and I will get back to you right away.

my new years resolution is to rock out new blogs twice a week, so keep in touch and if you do not have a subscription to Pizza Today magazine GET ONE there are so many great articles and idea's shared buy the top professionals in the field read them they will help you achieve the success that you want.

Thanks

Chef Glenn

Wingin it!

So what else are you selling at your Pizzeria? breadstix, pasta, garlic bread, salads, just depends on whats on the menu doesn't it,

Everybody loves wings and there are a lot of brands out there, so who's are the best? what flavors should you use? and do you make your own or do you buy them and if so what brand?

good questions all of them so lets get down the nitty gritty

making your own wings is easy, and setting your self apart from any other mass produces brand can be a great way to create a buzz around your pizzeria, the best part about making your own wings is that you can have your customers taste them and give you the feed back you need to before you begin the production.

Hot wings are a favorite where ever you go, making a nice spicy sauce for your wings is ease but make sure its not too spicy, remember that your customer base is diverse and some like it SUPER hot and some mild heres a few tips.
1. make your sauce with a medium heat and you can always bring it up if its not kickin enough for ya.
2. a nice asian sauce is always a favorite and not too many places offer a great one.
3. Italian spices are always a favorite this is a must for your pizzeria.

OK its the Friday morning after Thannksgiving, I hope you all stuffed yourself yesterday and had a great time with the Fam but my kids are out of school and I need to get them out of the house for some play time, but I will come back later and share some easy recipes with you on all the wings I talked about.

I will also have a local restaurant review for you to chew on and yes the column is called "Chew on this" from snap dogs to Michelin rated restaurants I hit them all so stay tuned to here and you can read all about the good eats in the local market!

cheers
Chef Glenn

Here comes the Turkey!

Its coming, Thanksgiving is just a couple of weeks away and it is another great time to boost sales in your pizzeria.

I don't know about your town but in mine is booming the night before Thanksgiving with kids back form college and familys getting together for Turkey Day, so I will be sending out a lot of box toppers for the next two weeks promoting the day before and the weekend after Thanksgiving and that will definitely boost sales---try it

Now on the Post-it notes that I talked about in an earlier post, we are starting to see them coming in so they definitely are working and we are designing a new set of them for distribution in two weeks. Take a look at that post and call Liz, she will get you all set up and then hit the streets and let the sales increase!

Oh and for all you budding Chefs out there that are thinking about a turkey pizza? don't waste your time, everybody's going to be sick and tired of turkey and will be looking for a great Pizza to munch on :)

Its the Holiday season, enjoy it, savor your family and friends and above all thank whatever "god" you thank for being in the best business in the world! Pizza baby!

Cheers

Chef Glenn

BOO !

are you scared yet? Halloween is tomorrow are you ready for it?

this is probably one of the biggest days in the pizza industry so we all need to make the best of it and get those customers in the door or at least get your pizza in there house.

if you have not already been advertising to your customer base do it NOW

any time is a good time to go to Kinkos and print up a few hundred flyers, get out in the neighbor hood and pass them out, it works!

As I wrote in an earlier post I am trying out the Post It note 4x6 size sticky pads, so far we are still handing them out "or sticking them on the window" and that is what is cool about these, they print your ad for you, and you can use these for cars windows, front doors and basically anywhere you can get your message out. 5000 for about 300.00 not bad you jsut need to get them out

Super Sticky Post It Notes 1-800-309-7502 talk to Liz

anyway I will let ya know how tomorrow goes and I hope you all have record nights!

Chef Glenn

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

To Take N Bake or not, good question huh?

Ok pizza people lets get down to the business of making pizz------I mean MONEY! reading some of the posts today was a little like taking a trip back in time, some of you are not having fun yet, right? so here are a few answers for all you post-ers

First off, Papa Murphys is alive and well last count over 1000 stores with gross revenue tipping 500M last year sooooo is this the "hot new trend"? well the best way for all the small guys to profit from the success of the is to definitely add this segment to your menu, especially if you are already a full service store or a TOAD "Take Out And Delivery"

The start up cost are minimal and I will list them at the end of the blog, the most important part of this set up is making sure your dough is formulated so that it is easy to place on the tray, not only for your employees but also so it is easy to bake and remove for your customers.

As I stated in my post on PizzaToday I formulated the crust recipe for PM's Thin Crust Delight pizza, the most important part of any formula for TB is the hydration of your flour, you do not want to make a separate dough for your TB but it cannot be too sticky!

I have tested very thin crust pizza's and thick crust and they both work equally well as long as the dough is not too wet.

Now you may feel like you need to lower your cost on TB pizza compared to your baked pie's but do not be fooled into thinking this will increase your local market share! YOU CANNOT COMPETE AGAINST PAPA MURPHY'S lets face it they own the market on low cost value added TB pizza, but hey so what? your pizza is better than theres right!----RIGHT! ok I am just trying to make a point after all we ALL think our pizza is great and that is why we are in the business. The bottom line is that in my experience your customers love your pizza, don't change your price! for TB and they will not ask you too either.

Fregene's was fortunate enough to have won the Revention POS system last March in at the International Pizza Expo in Vegas, and if you do not have a POS system GET ONE they will help you track your sales and see exactly what I see and that is where my sales are the strongest, TB is a big part of our sales and I cannot wait for Halloween :)

It will take about $500.00 to get you started with TB. Wisco Industries has the Deli Wrap machine and the cellophane and Pac Tiv has the baking trays and your local distributor can get you everything.

I am going to talk about marketing in my next blog so listen up! this is where it gets fun.


Cheers!

Chef Glenn is the founder and Executive Chef of Fregene's Pizza with four locations in Northern California and has won over forty different Culinary awards along with being featured on ABC The View From The Bay and local radio talk shows, and is a Member of the World Pizza Champions.

OH ya and I don't get paid by any of theses linked folks, I just happen to think they are the best in the business SO THERE :)

Whats "Love" got to do with it?

Sorry for stealing your song Tina, but the title really fits my tag "Taste the Love" and yes it really does matter, how? glad you asked ;)

As we move into the Holiday season, do you ever wonder why all those special meals taste so good? is it because they are prepared by professional Chefs? no! is it because all the ingredients are the best that money can buy? nope! then why

LOVE, there have been scientific tests done on the "love" factor that goes into cooking and what it does to the taste of the food, and yes it matters a lot

“Cooking is at once one of the simplest and most gratifying of the arts, but to cook well one must love and respect food.”
Craig Claiborne

you can research all you want on how love affects food, and it is fun, but all you really have to do is walk into the house on Thanksgiving, savor the aroma in the air, enjoy the laughter of your family and enjoy the best meal you have ever had! because it was prepared with Love, a lot of Love

I don't use our tag line lightly, all of Fregene's home made recipes are prepared with Love, just ask any of the hundreds of people that tasted our award winning pizza and sauces at this years Harvest Fair, again we had the longest line and did not come up for air for two straight hours.

thanks to everyone that I saw at the Harvest Fair this year, to all the Chef's, vintners and friends that I only get to see a few times a year, and to Arturo and Angelo Ibleto "The Pasta King" and "Angelos's Meats" you both are an incredible inspiration to me,

Thank you,

Come to Fregene's and Taste the Love for your self