Editor’s note: This is the eighth in a new weekly series of PMQ-exclusive articles about pizzeria marketing from Matt Plapp, CEO of America’s Best Restaurants and Dryver Powered by Repeat Returns.
In this weekly series, we’ve covered theory and strategy up to this point, but now it’s time to give you some promotions to implement.
December, for most pizzerias, will be a madhouse. Consumers are in the mindset to spend money, and they’re out and about now more than ever. Too many pizzeria owners forget about marketing when they are busy—but, in fact, now is the time they should double down on it. I’m not talking about driving more people in with discounts during an already busy time; that would be a bad idea. But how about leveraging the increased traffic to gain more customer data and drive them back to your pizzeria when your sales are going to be lower in Q1?
Introducing the Red Envelope promotion. This idea isn’t new, and I didn’t create it. But, today, I want to walk you through the basics and put a few of my own spins on it.
The Concept
The idea is pretty simple: You pick a period—say, December 10 through December 31—and give every customer who places an order a sealed envelope. Inside that sealed envelope are vouchers for prizes (more on that below). You should inform your customers when they receive an envelope after dining at your pizzeria. Explain to them that they have to bring it back during a limited-time window after the new year and open it with a manager present. If the envelope seal is broken, it’s null and void.
The contest window for most pizzerias should be January since most of you see a slowdown after the holidays. (Note, however, that this promotion can be executed at any time during the year.)
What prizes should be in the envelopes? The easiest item would be gift cards to your pizzeria. Offer various gift cards, from a free appetizer to a $100 gift card. Next up would be physical gifts and cash prizes. I’ve seen restaurants give away the latest gadgets, like iPads, and, believe it or not, smaller denominations of good old-fashioned cash. I’ve seen customers get excited over a crisp $20 bill.
If time allows, another great option is to partner with other local businesses to get prizes. You could trade your gift cards to them in exchange for gift cards to their businesses and also promise social media promos for them. The opportunities are endless: golf courses, retail stores, auto repair shops, other restaurants, nail salons, barbers…you name it. This is not only a great way to create long-term marketing partnerships in your community but also a great way to get attention for your pizzeria with another company’s audience.
Today, I will highlight one restaurant in particular. It’s not a pizzeria, but a BBQ joint up in Wisconsin. Why? Because Kris and his team do the best job running a Red Envelope program of anyone I’ve ever seen. He covers everything on this promo, from building hype to posting the winners.
Let’s lay out every element you should build into your Red Envelope promotion:
Step 1: Secure your envelopes. I assume the color red is used here to connote the holidays, but I’ve seen restaurants use their brand’s colors as well. Just make sure your envelopes aren’t see-through and have a solid seal so they cannot be opened ahead of time.
Step 2: Staff training. Your team must know exactly how the program works and be excited about it. I was just at a steakhouse last week, and they were running a similar promotion. When I asked the server how it worked, she said, “Honestly, I have no idea. Sorry.”
Step 3: Social media and email marketing. You will want to be the most active you’ve been all year on Facebook and Instagram. Below, I’ll explain how you can use social media to promote the program, but remember that you should also send a weekly email pushing customers to these Facebook posts and letting them know about the promotion. Your best traffic to the post will come from your most loyal customers, and email is a great way to drive that traffic. And when you gain a lot of traffic to a post, Facebook will keep showing it to more and more people than usual. This is why it’s so important to encourage people to comment on your posts.
Here are some points to keep in mind along the way:
- Launching your program. Add your own personality; the posts cannot look like another advertisement. As you’ll see in this post, Kris and his son Hunter not only promote the launch, but they gamify it with a contest. He also includes a link to the main post for his Red Envelope promo; this is something Kris does with a lot of the posts throughout the month.
- Promoting your program. From the day you launch until the day you end the promotion, you should have a few weekly posts that gain engagement and showcase what’s at stake. In the picture below, Kris highlights the contest prizes with a post that gets customers to comment on the award they are most excited about. Something to remember about the reach of your Facebook posts: Not everyone sees them. Only about 2% to 5% will see your posts. So it’s crazy important to post many times throughout the month to ensure that everyone is informed. I’d also recommend you spend $25 per post targeting fans who’ve engaged in your content for the past 120 days.
- The redemption period. This is what you’ve been waiting for: the moment you make your January and February much better than usual. It’s time to remind your customers about why they hung onto a red envelope—or, hopefully, many reasons why.
You’re going to have winners, big and small, and it’s crucial that you post about these folks as often as possible. Customers love seeing other customers winning, which will drive social media engagement. But it will also add legitimacy to your promotion, showing people that you’re doing what you said you would do.
Bonus Red Envelope step. Include a QR code on your envelopes that takes customers to a form where they can register their envelopes. This not only allows you to collect valuable customer information, but it also helps you market the second stage of the promotion. With their contact information, you could run a drip email and text campaign every week once customers bring their envelopes in.
That’s it—pretty simple, right? Buy some envelopes, load them with awesome prizes, train your staff, and then sell the heck out of this promotion in-house and online.
