People buy from people.
Despite the marketing promises of highway billboards and primetime television spots, human interaction with the customer often produces the business world’s loftiest prize—increased revenue and profitability.
To gain the customer’s ear and open the doors to one-on-one communication, pizzeria owners have turned to the personalized allure of e-mail, capitalizing on the Internet charge by creating e-mail campaigns highlighting special offers, loyalty programs, and community involvement. Best yet, customers often respond with cash in hand.
“The goal of all organizations and businesses is to have a better relationship with customers. E-mail facilitates this because it engages people in dialog,” says Chris Baggot, co-founder of ExactTarget, an on-demand e-mail software company located in Indianapolis.
Scott Anthony, owner of Fox’s Pizza Den in Punxsutawney, PA, utilized his establishment’s 30th anniversary celebration with roll-back-the-clock $1.40 pizzas to test the viability of an e-mail promotion. Customers traveling to Fox’s website could request an e-coupon for the one-day offer. On that Wednesday night in 2001, Fox’s Pizza Den sold over 900 pizzas, a ten-fold jump from a typical mid-week day. The e-promotion, however, allowed for future contact with customers, vaulting Anthony’s sales figures and his e-mail plans.
“Our database is over 1000 now, more than a tenth of our immediate area,” he says. “This has given us an edge over anybody else in town.”
Outside of its ability to establish and maintain regular dialog between customer and business, e-mail delivers other key benefits. While direct mail campaigns often run a dollar per person, e-mail ventures cost as little as a penny per person for the in-house variety and up to a quarter per person if handed to an outside agency.
With Anthony’s present emphasis on e-mail, secured from a one-time investment of $300 to learn html, Fox’s marketing expenses have dwindled to a fraction of its once annual $6000 direct mailing costs. The same minimal investment holds for Buenos Aires Pizzeria in Denver, where owner Ana Carrera uses the software program Constant Contact to distribute her monthly messages. Chicago-based Home Run Inn, meanwhile, partners with Fishbowl to send nearly 20,000 e-mails each month to its Pizza Lovers League.
“There’s no question that e-mail boosts our bottom line. Even better, though, we’re building impressions for the restaurant and we’re doing so in an affordable way,” says Home Run Inn’s Gina Bolger.
Moreover, e-mail levels the competitive field, placing major chains on equal footing with independents, perhaps even nudging local pizzerias ahead given their ability to connect neighbors, schools, and community events.
“The major chains can beat all the Ma and Pa places on all other mass marketing venues, but with e-mail the small guy can be just as effective,” Baggot says.
The first step in e-mail communication also doubles as the most important: building a database. The snazziest e-mail creates nary a whimper if only arriving in a handful of inboxes. Home Run Inn switches between push and pull methods to gain a stream of contacts—affording customers the chance to enter special contests (a trip to Disney World) before moving to a server’s contest with incentives for the server garnering the most addresses. In contrast, Anthony’s 30th anniversary promotion provided the bulk of his database’s 1,000 names in a single day’s time.
“Nothing’s more important than building that network of names,” says Scott Shaw, CEO of Fishbowl, a Virginia-based company specializing in e-mail marketing for the restaurant industry.
With a database established, e-mails can flow with creative flair, including offbeat promotions, surveys, and contests. Home Run Inn sends special offers for birthdays and anniversaries in addition to monthly deals. Buenos Aires capitalizes on its niche as Denver’s only Argentinean-style pizzeria hyping its gelato and empanadas in addition to its pizza. Some pursue on-line ordering and use e-mail to drive it. One pizzeria on the ExactTarget plan sends an afternoon message to working moms allowing them to ready dinner with a few clicks.
“Dial up the creativity and engage people,” Shaw says. “Your e-mail needs to be just as tasty as your pizza.”
Pizzerias wary of cyberspace need not fret. E-mail software programs such as ExactTarget join with comprehensive providers like Fishbowl to afford proprietors different avenues to seize simplicity, productivity, and results. Nearly all programs claim straightforward means to monitor open rates, forwards, and redemption, thereby tracking success.
Now, some owners, like Scott Anthony, cannot imagine business life without e-mail marketing.
“I can’t see another way of doing this,” he says. “E-mail has cut my marketing costs, increased profits, and provided me a means to communicate with customers and build their trust.”
The Rules of E-Mail Engagement
Get permission: “People don’t want unrequested interruptions in their lives,” says Shaw. “Only e-mail those people who want to receive your messages and do it in a responsible way.”
Answer “What’s in it for me?”: “The e-mail can’t just be news or info, it’s got to be something the customer can use. Give an offer,” says Bolger.
Champion yourself: Share news on employees, community contributions, and photos of contest winners. “This will localize and humanize the e-mail,” Baggot says.
Be consistent but not pushy: “You don’t want to get in people’s minds and then drop off,” says Anthony. “Send out e-mails once or twice a month…but do not hammer people with e-mail just for the sake of e-mail.”
Encourage feedback: Give customers the means to reply to the message. “It then becomes a human relationship,” says Baggot. “Even a complaint can be answered constructively.”
Track results: “Look at the open rate. Look at the response to e-mails with a coupon versus those without. Look at the sales of a new product after its e-mail announcement,” Shaw says. “Keep evaluating what’s working and what isn’t hitting the mark.”
The “Three” rule: A customer who has visited you three times is 90 percent more likely to continue the relationship. “Entice customers to come in not once or twice, but a third time and you increase your odds of having a loyal customer,” says Baggot.
