your marketing recommendations ?

[Bechara Aoun]

Based in London.
Type of business: pizzeria

Any marketing companies recommendations ?

 

[Fagin2021]

Based in London.
Type of business: pizzeria

Any marketing companies recommendations ?

Refreshingly succinct. Possibly an opener for another new member?

 

[fisicx]

Not anywhere near enough information to make a sensible recommendation.

Is this a new business? Is it a upmarket restaurant? Where are you based? Have you done any market research? Do you have a website/GBP? Are you on just eat and other delivery platforms?

 

[Bechara Aoun]

Not anywhere near enough information to make a sensible recommendation.

Is this a new business? Is it a upmarket restaurant? Where are you based? Have you done any market research? Do you have a website/GBP? Are you on just eat and other delivery platforms?

It will be an upmarket wood fired oven pizzeria. Looking to open in two months. Based in SW10 London. We will not be doing delivery. Only eat in. No website yet

 

[fisicx]

Find a local marketing company. There are loads of them.

Get a website built. Get a Google Business Profile set up. Get leafleting. Get on social media and start promoting.

Are you planning a big launch? Have you got the A-boards outside the door offering discounts to people signing up to your mailing list?

Have you got lots of mouthwatering pictures of the pizzas? Have you got the menu printed up? Do you have posters in the windows?

Are you inviting local food bloggers to the opening?

Two months isn't long. You need to have a website/GBP/socials up and running this week.

 

[Mark T Jones]

What he says! ^^^

Get people talking.

Opening/launch party (including Oscar press)

On-street sampling

Make noise on local community pages

Show the press your amazing oven/recipes/heritage

 

[WaveJumper]

All of the above but it could be a big mistake not looking at the delivery option its a major part of a lot of restaurants turnover these days

 

[Mark T Jones]

All of the above but it could be a big mistake not looking at the delivery option its a major part of a lot of restaurants turnover these days

I wouldn't take a that as a given. Whilst it will undoubtedly drive turnover, it can actually have a negative impact on business, particularly in a high end environment.

Plus, after Just Eat fees, that turnover is often less profitable than eat in.

 

[fantheflames]

Nothing wrong with not having delivery options.

Although would advise that you focus on building an appealing eat-in menu or collection offer against competitors and big chains in the local SW10 area and nearby postcodes.

Perhaps create a loyalty incentive to keep customers coming back for those repeat visits after your introductory offers. 2 months isn't a long time with everything you need to get started for online and offline.

I'd suggest creating your Google Business Profile as soon as you can and get photos, menu, and a relevant website together, so you can put together promotional material and market it 2 weeks before launch.

 

[fisicx]

I'd suggest creating your Google Business Profile as soon as you can and get photos, menu, and a relevant website together, so you can put together promotional material and market it 2 weeks before launch.

I'd start the marketing now. Get people signing up for the launch party.

 

[Sean Lee-Amies]

@Bechara Aoun I eat out semi regularly. My biggest gripes that SO MANY restaurants just don't seem to understand:

1. Your website is important, not an after-thought, it should focus exclusively on
   
   1. Showing off the space and the "vibe" you're trying to achieve
      (avoid: lots of badly taken photos that show small parts and struggle to help people build a mental image of where they're going)
      
      
   2. Presenting an up-to-date food and drinks menu.
      (people want to know what quality of food you're putting out - images not on the menu don't have to be what's on the menu right now; this requires an intelligent approach to set the right expectations)
      
      
   3. Making it very easy for those with allergies and dietary requirements to understand whether you cater for them fully or if you're going to treat them like an afterthought; filterable menus are ideal
      (the worst experience: you give a dietary 1-2 options, you're out of stock with one (inevitably it'll be their first choice) - guaranteed negative review or bad word of mouth)
      (not always an issue, but likely will be in central London depending on the type of clientele you're wanting to attract)
      
      
   4. Make it easy to book online - please do not force people to phone - and please do not use a clunky, old fashioned, difficult to use booking system with terrible UI/UX
      (side note: a pre-order system would be awesome, not all of us like waiting ages for wait staff to decide when we're ready to order; I've already scanned your menu 10 times before arrival)
      
2. Don't just be "yet another pizza place". Wood fired is a nice addition but it's not unique and without more "oomph" into genuinely trying to create something different, something new, something that stands out, your marketing efforts will struggle no matter what you do.
   
   
3. Find ways to keep people coming back over and over again. It only takes one strong voice in a group to say "Nah, I've tried everything on their menu already, there are more interesting places we can go" for the entire group to pass on your restaurant in favour of a competitors.
   
   
4. I'd echo comments about focusing on visual content - but - look at your nearest competitors and see what they're doing. Whatever they're doing is what everyone considers "the norm". How can you create better, more interesting, more exciting, more "wow" content than all of them?

If you're wanting advice on which marketing companies to use, just know that London companies are some of the most expensive in the world.

Other than taking photos of food in-person - which you could easily do to very high standards with remote guidance from the marketing experts - I can't think of many reasons you "absolutely should" use someone local.

You can get just as good results, if not better (London doesn't always = better) and spend a lot less by shopping around outside of London.

Happy to answer any questions you have. I know that chefs-turned-owner and, in general, restaurant owners, struggle to tell the good from the bad in the land of marketing.

Ultimately it depends if you want to create "yet another generic restaurant" that'll probably close down in 1-3 years or if you want to be more ambitious and build something that can grow without becoming a chaos factory for everyone involved.

Good luck

 

[cjd]

The very best marketing is free and it's word of mouth recommendation.

Just be very, very good at what you do.

Make really good pizzas consistently, using good ingredients presented simply and quickly. Have properly trained staff and a manager to keep on top of it. Don't try to be cheap.

There are several hundred restaurants in the city where I live - we only go to a handful of them, the reason is that almost all aren't very good. The ones we go to get it all right from food to service to atmosphere. They never have to advertise or give discounts and they're always full. They just get it right all the time.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

The very best marketing is free and it's word of mouth recommendation.

I agree most of the time and this has been my secret to success (or survival)

These people in London dont talk to each and are scared of their own shadows so word of mouth may not gain traction in the way that you and I are used to

 

[Mark T Jones]

I agree most of the time and this has been my secret to success (or survival)

These people in London dont talk to each and are scared of their own shadows so word of mouth may not gain traction in the way that you and I are used to

The cliche goes that london isn't a city, but a series of villages.

Some of those villages are still very close and "chatty'. Fulham would definitely have been one, but may have been 'gentrified" up it's own backside by now

 

[cjd]

These people in London dont talk to each and are scared of their own shadows so word of mouth may not gain traction in the way that you and I are used to

That's not actually correct - except in some areas of central London where few people live - but even there where the restaurants have to rely on tourism or office trade, word of mouth is vital.

These days it's not just neighbours talking, it's also social media services like Trip Adviser. It's all free and it all depends on just being really good at what you do.

Restaurants need repeat visits, if you're not selling really good food and service you're going to have to spend an awful lot on advertising to get people to visit you just once.

 

[fisicx]

I frequent Brick Lane (for a curry) or Soho (for Asian). Both are always busy and all rely on people knowing where to go for the best grub. Reputation matters.

 

[Mark T Jones]

That's not actually correct - except in some areas of central London where few people live - but even there where the restaurants have to rely on tourism or office trade, word of mouth is vital.

These days it's not just neighbours talking, it's also social media services like Trip Adviser. It's all free and it all depends on just being really good at what you do.

Restaurants need repeat visits, if you're not selling really good food and service you're going to have to spend an awful lot on advertising to get people to visit you just once.

Whilst I completely agree with the gist of what you are saying, the 'good food' bit is very subjective and is where many restaurants fall over.

McDonalds and Harvester are successful, busy restaurants, whereas celebrity chefs routinely lose money (and often fail) running restaurants.

The absolute key here is that 'good food' is specific to the taste of your target customer, not yourself, nor some randoms on Facebook.

 

[Sean Lee-Amies]

@Mark T Jones Nail on the head RE restaurants should be focusing on adapting to the palette of customer's not themselves or a micro following of biased people.

Good food is subjective, for a restaurant it's determined by the preferences of the people in your local area and this, I feel, is where so many restaurants fall down (especially those run by egotistical celebrity chefs).

Restaurants invest so minimally into marketing they fail to collect, en masse, evidence of the preferences not only of existing customers but of new ones who either haven't heard of you yet or, for some reason, decided against giving a restaurant a go.

With sufficeint investment into marketing, collecting data to inform decision making that leads to higher rates of interest and "trying them out" - in what is often a very crowded market - is possible and very much required.

Restaurant: "We can't do X, Y, Z because our customers won't like it..."

"Do you have enough customers and monthly revenue?"

"No..."

"Ok, so, you need to start focusing on attracting new customers, not just preventing the loss of existing ones".

 

[fisicx]

And this is why they have almost left it too late to begin a marketing campaign. There should already be a bit of a local buzz. Invites should be in the post for the launch party. The website should be showing the menu with lots of pictures of the food. Local foodie bloggers and influencers should be invited to a pre-lauch taster.

There are so many ways to marketin the restaurant. But two months is woefully short. It's almost worth delaying the opening to make sure you have a full set of bookings for opening week.

 

[UKSBD]

Based in London.
Type of business: pizzeria

Any marketing companies recommendations ?

Get Dave Portnoy to do a review

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Lot of good advice on here.

Video production here but Chinese so grew up in Chinese restaurants. Couple of ideas which work really well.

First is the Fei Er marketing thing which packed out their little London restaurant and is absolutely, 100% free marketing. These guys did home made videos on their phones. These two vids alone got them more than 11 million views, cost them nothing and now they're packed out every single day:

TikTok - Make Your Day

TikTok - Make Your Day

Their best performing vid is running at over 8 million views and it's all free. And even before these, they were making vids getting a few thousand views even up to a few hundred thousand views which brought in more customers. Because the more people who know your restaurant's there, the more who can buy from you.

So videos on social work incredibly well.

Secondly, I'd do a spin on what used to work. So back in the day, we'd invite local journalists etc... to the opening. We'd find them, invite them and you'd be surprised how well that worked to kick off the restaurant.

However, today, it'd be better finding all Tiktokers in the local vicinity and invite them for free food at a soft opening. Some of them will want money and won't come but others will just be happy to turn up and get some free food. And you initially get a ton of people talking about your pizza restaurant.

Good luck with the opening. (And if you try any of these, my price is a free pizza...)

 

[MarketingQuote]

What area of marketing were you wanting help with (website, PR, leaflet distribution etc.)?

 

[fisicx]

I’m not sure @Bechara Aoun will be back. Which is a pity as there has been lots of great advice freely given.

 

[gilbertm]

Based in London.
Type of business: pizzeria

Any marketing companies recommendations ?

You might want to look into marketing companies that specialize in local businesses and food services. A few options could include those with experience in boosting online presence and running targeted campaigns for restaurants. It’s also worth exploring agencies that offer digital marketing services like SEO and social media management, which can help attract local customers.

If you’re open to outsourcing some of your marketing efforts, companies like Sourcefit provide remote marketing teams that can work closely with your business to tailor campaigns to your needs.

 

[fisicx]

@gilbertm - you mean use the sourcefit that you work for….

 

[gilbertm]

@gilbertm - you mean use the sourcefit that you work for….

I mentioned Sourcefit as one of several options for businesses seeking tailored marketing solutions. It’s great to have various choices when looking for a partner that aligns with specific needs. I believe many companies can offer valuable support in enhancing local marketing efforts.

 

[Sean Lee-Amies]

@gilbertm - you mean use the sourcefit that you work for….

Leave the poor AI auto responder alone, it's trying its hardest