Editor’s note: I believe the following article contains the best community marketing advice an independent pizzeria operator will get this year. It might not be easy to implement for some operators, but it’s a game plan that will almost certainly work for a hometown pizza shop. Get your team together and make it happen!
By Matt Plapp
I just got back from Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. I enjoyed hundreds of conversations with independent operators, passionate people, great food and real hustle in the kitchen. Every year in my interviews at the Expo, I ask the same question: What are you doing out in your community to market your restaurant and connect with the people who support you most?
Every year, I get the same answer: “We do dine-to-donates.” Honestly, that was everyone’s answer.
I want to be fair to that answer. Fifteen years ago, it was a legitimate strategy. You hosted a fundraiser night, and a percentage of sales went to the school or the team. People showed up, and everybody felt good. Done.
That was 2010. This is 2026.
The Competitive Landscape Has Changed. Your Marketing Hasn’t.
Here’s the reality that independent pizza operators are facing: Where I live, in Union, Kentucky, there were zero restaurants on a quarter-mile stretch of land 30 years ago. There were two when we moved in a decade ago. And there are 23 today, with more coming. That story is playing out in every suburb, every small city, every community in America.
Chipotle has 11 locations in Northern Kentucky alone. McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Wingstop–they’re printing money at your expense. You cannot outspend them. You cannot out-footprint them. You cannot out-advertise them. But you can out-community them. And almost nobody is doing it.
The chains cannot do what you can do. They don’t have an owner who grew up three miles away. They don’t have a face, a story, or a reason to show up at the bowling team’s send-off to the state finals. They have a regional manager and a marketing playbook written in a corporate office somewhere. You have a smartphone, a real story to tell, and the ability to walk out your front door and become the media outlet for your community.
But most operators aren’t doing this. And the ones who are doing something are stuck doing one thing: the dine-to-donate.
The Dine-to-Donate Is One Arrow. You Need a Quiver.
Let me be clear: I’m not telling you to kill the dine-to-donate. These fundraisers should absolutely be part of your community marketing strategy. But they should be one of 15 to 20 tools you’re using, not the whole strategy.
The operators killing it in their communities right now are the ones who became the show. They’re not waiting for people to come in on fundraiser night. They’re out on the streets with their phones. They’re at the bowling tournament, the parade and the Harlem Globetrotters event. They’re interviewing coaches, celebrating players, showing up for Eagle Scouts, band trips and local charity drives—and broadcasting all of it.
I’ve watched Cindy and her husband at LaRocca’s Pizza in Topeka, Kansas, transform their community presence over the past couple of years. They’re one of our clients at America’s Best Restaurants. They were following along, hearing the message, and then they actually did it. Now they’re everywhere: Eagle Scout celebrations. State championship bowling team send-offs. Community parades. The Harlem Globetrotters came to town, and they were there, in the middle of it, on camera, on their Facebook page, showing their community that they belong to it.
You cannot fake that kind of presence with a dine-to-donate fundraiser held two nights a year.
The Real Problem: You’re a Member in Name Only
There’s a term I use a lot: MINO. Member in Name Only. Most independent restaurant owners are MINOs in their communities. They own a piece of real estate. They’ve been on the corner for 20 years. They figure the community knows them, owes them and will keep coming.
But the Chick-fil-A down the street is sponsoring the youth league. The new fast-casual that opened six months ago is posting player-of-the-week content every Thursday. The chain you’d never expect is showing up at the chamber of commerce mixer. Meanwhile, you’re waiting for people to find you.
The operators winning community marketing have figured out that consistency compounds. Sponsor the girls’ volleyball team, yes, but not for one season—do it for three years. Interview the football coach the week before homecoming—every single year. When your community sees you showing up again and again, you stop being a restaurant, and you become a pillar.
That’s when you beat Chipotle. Not with a bigger budget, but with a longer commitment.
The Playbook Nobody’s Running
Think about the Dream 100 model applied to your own backyard. Within a mile of your restaurant, there are 52 coaches, team leaders, nonprofit directors, business owners and community organizers who have audiences you don’t yet have access to. Each one of those people has parents, players, donors, customers, kids, fans and followers who love them and will pay attention to whoever shows them love.
What if, instead of one dine-to-donate per quarter, you interviewed one of those community leaders every single week? Highlighted their team, their cause, their event. Posted it on your Facebook, tagged them, and let their audience find you. That’s not charity—that’s the smartest marketing a local restaurant can do.
The pizza joint across the street from my kids’ high school, with a student body of 2,500 plus teachers and parents, sat silent as two of its alumni faced off on national TV in a college basketball game that aired on ESPN. Both players grew up across the street. Both families were in that community.
Where were the pizzeria’s watch parties, social contests, coach interviews and 30-day content campaign? None of this happened. The restaurant sat there and did nothing. That is the problem: not bad food or bad service, but no marketing imagination.
Stop asking what you can get from your community. Start asking what you can give. Highlight the kids. Celebrate the coaches. Show up at the events. Be the voice for the people and causes that matter to your neighborhood. Become the media outlet your community doesn’t have. The dine-to-donate is fine. But it’s one arrow in your quiver. Pick up the other 14.
The ABR Community Marketing Punch List: How to Attract, Build and Retain in Your Community
Use this cheat sheet for your community marketing plan:
ATTRACT: Get Their Attention
- Identify your Dream 52: one community leader, coach, nonprofit or business per week to spotlight
- Create content at community events—and not just content about them. Go live, shoot video and tag people
- Post a player/coach/student of the week using your restaurant’s social channels
- Celebrate local accomplishments (state championships, national honors, awards) before anyone else does
- Show up at events your competitors ignore: band trips, academic competitions, charity drives, civic meetings
- Use your personal Facebook/Instagram and your business page; you are the brand
- Join the chamber of commerce and actually attend (don’t be a MINO!)
- Identify 26 local businesses that are bad at social media and offer to spotlight them
BUILD: Capture the Relationship
- Never just hand out coupons at events; deliver digital offers via QR code opt-in
- Run a contest at every offsite event with a clear CTA: scan to enter for digital prize delivery
- Forward-to-a-friend mechanism: When someone opts in, give them a reason to share with their team or office
- Target catering prospects with a one-two punch: door-to-door QR scan into a consumer VIP program opt-in
- Build your database at every football game, festival, parade and chamber event you attend
- Log every event in your annual marketing planner, and know what’s coming 60 to 90 days out
RETAIN: Keep Showing Up
- Sponsor teams and causes for multiple years, not for one season; consistency is the whole game
- Create a recurring segment (weekly or monthly) featuring a local school, team or business
- Celebrate your community wins publicly and often; make your channels about them, not your food
- Be at the events nobody expects a restaurant to be at: Eagle Scouts, county fairs or state send-offs for the bowling team
- When something big happens in your community (a championship, tragedy or milestone), respond fast and publicly
- Measure your community activity monthly in your marketing planner, alongside revenue data
The Non-Negotiables
Remember these five principles:
- Your smartphone is your broadcast studio. Use it.
- Dine-to-donates are one arrow. Build a 15-arrow quiver.
- You are not just a restaurant owner. You are the media outlet your community doesn’t have.
- Consistency compounds. One year of showing up does something. Three years makes you untouchable.
- Help others get attention. Their audience will find you.
My name is Matt Plapp. I’m the CEO (chief energy officer) of America’s Best Restaurants. I’ve worked with thousands of restaurants since 2008 when I started this company, and over the next 12 months, we will help 2,500-plus restaurants with their marketing. This is the latest article in my biweekly column for PMQ to help restaurant owners understand the gold mine we have to market in 2026—and beyond.
