By Tracy Morin | Photos via Little Italy Ristorante
Avery Ward, owner of Little Italy Ristorante in Groveport, Ohio, knows that digital marketing doesn’t mean just one thing; it means a lot of things. In fact, you could say it means everything—at least when it comes to boosting the success of his pizza restaurant, situated in a town of less than 6,000.
Ward, who’s only 27 years old, knows his customers are living in the digital age, and he’s happy to meet them there. Whether using gamification in his loyalty program or creating avid engagement on Facebook through two-way storytelling, Ward prioritizes digital intelligence. Here are seven of his most successful strategies to keep business booming.
1) Know who you are.
It’s impossible to create a cohesive digital marketing plan without first having a sense of your business’ personality and values. For example, Little Italy Ristorante, in addition to its brick-and-mortar business, operates a food truck and a full-service catering company. Ward knows it’s crucial to maintain a unified front across the board—all businesses, on all platforms. “From your website to the way you talk to customers, you need to be consistent with your branding,” he says. “Everything should tie in—your mission, vision statement, menus, in-store graphics and displays all need to speak the same language.”
2) You’re only as great as your people.
Avery knows it takes a dedicated team of people to pull off your efforts—and you can use digital marketing to attract them. Ward recently posted a TikTok video that showed him (wearing his eye-catching personal “uniform,” a shirt covered in cartoon pizza slices) asking his marketing guy to post a delivery driver ad right before he leaves for the day. The implication: that this off-the-cuff video was the result (complete with an AI-generated song that explicitly called out its AI origins). The video’s tongue-in-cheek humor attracted, as of press time, more than 176,000 views—but, more importantly, it reaped 31 driver applications.
You can also tap your staff members to develop or pursue their side passions. “So many 18- and 19-year-olds want to get TikTok famous now,” Ward says. “We have six employees in college studying digital marketing because they want to be in social media.” The takeaway: Don’t overlook the talent that’s inside your four walls—and don’t hesitate to make contact with local students who might want to assist in your digital marketing efforts.
3) Track customer behavior.
Whether he’s sending “win back” offers to loyalty members who haven’t visited in a while or messages meant to drum up business in the moment, Ward uses his POS and a dedicated marketing system (Toast and Dryver) to contact customers and gauge success. “We make an offer so good they’d feel stupid saying no to it,” Ward says. “We then track customer behavior and build a profile of them—see how often they visit, what time of day, what they order. So if we have a slow period at 2 to 4 p.m. on a Monday, we can see what customers have come in at that time and send them offers to drive traffic.” For all efforts attempted, through any channel, the Little Italy leadership team evaluates results, building scorecards to determine how effective a digital marketing effort is. They’ll look at, for example, how many people redeemed an offer and how much they spent.
4) Diversify your digital marketing.
Committing to multiple types of efforts will reap maximum benefits. “Our digital marketing occurs on several fronts,” Ward explains. “We have a website that uses video with a clear call to action, plus text messaging and email marketing. When people sign up for our loyalty program, they consent to us contacting them on Facebook Messenger, not just through text and email. And our program is gamified, where they earn points to unlock rewards.”
5) Use video to tell your story.
Ward’s vlog series on YouTube, called Slice of Life, began this year as a way to profile movers and shakers in the local community. He releases a new episode (six to 13 minutes long) every Wednesday and now uses them to detail his life as a young entrepreneur, celebrate his team members and share stories adjacent to his business. For example, an episode over the summer that showed Ward visiting Pure Green Farms (“Where Our Salads Begin,” the title explained), has received nearly 2,000 views. Together, his first 30 episodes tallied 2.4 million.
“We have very good production, and the videos drive a lot of customer engagement and brand loyalty, because they’re following our story,” Ward says. “People want to get behind a mission and a product and cheer you on—so share your story and journey. I always hear from customers who say they watch our episodes every week, and that starts a conversation.”
Ward also uses an AI-driven program called OpusClip, which pulls out short-form video (perfect for TikTok, Reels and YouTube Shorts) from longer videos, based on what it thinks has the most viral potential. From every video filmed, Ward generates seven pieces of content: the original, four shorts, and two retargeting posts (for example, asking, “Did you catch last week’s episode?”).
“Give people a story to follow, and they will. Yes, there will be haters, but you want to create that attention and buzz. Revenue follows attention.”
—Avery Ward, Little Italy Ristorante
6) Conform to the purpose of each social media platform.
Ward emphasizes that each social media platform has its own focus, and you want to make sure your content is catering to that. “People are on social media to be social, not to get ads,” Ward says. “Your content should align with the purpose of the platform you’re using. Facebook was created to connect with friends, so its goal is to create conversations (engagement). TikTok is for mindless scrolling and funny videos. Instagram is to connect through photos.” And, if your content gets enough views, it’s more likely to be shown to more people—after all, Ward points out, every platform’s goal is to keep people on their website as long as possible. To capture an audience, start with an attention-grabbing hook—whether it’s something funny on TikTok or a post that asks questions on Facebook.
7) Start a conversation.
Similarly, you want to be sure your Facebook posts aren’t just advertising your menu, but getting customers talking. Ward encourages comments by asking for favorite memories of Mom and Dad on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, or posting trivia questions with gift cards for the correct answer. “The key is to be social back with them,” Ward adds. “Write back and say, ‘Thanks for your comment. We love this story, and we’d love to see your mom at the restaurant soon!’ Give people an opportunity to share their story, too.” Ward also loves pizza-themed contests, like showing a box with an invite to win a gift card by guessing the number of pepperoni slices inside.
The bottom line, Ward believes, is to start somewhere—anywhere. Establish who you are, take your story into the digital sphere and keep sharing what you’re about. “Give people a story to follow, and they will,” Ward says. “Yes, there will be haters, but you want to create that attention and buzz. Revenue follows attention.”
Tracy Morin is PMQ’s associate editor.
