“I love it when a plan comes together!”
– Col. John “Hannibal” Smith, A-Team
You can have the best ideas, but if you cannot execute them, then they are useless. In last month’s column, we talked all about ideas for marketing. Now, it’s time to put those ideas into an action plan.
For this example, let’s take a limited time offer (LTO). It’s a marketing idea that’s simple, and I feel like everyone should be doing them.
If you look at “the big three” pizza companies, they do LTOs all the time. Look even farther, and you will notice all corporate casual restaurant chains are doing the same thing. However, many independent operators miss this easy layup.
The action plan needs to look like this:
- What is the offering?
- What is the objective?
- What is the time frame?
- What marketing materials are needed?
- What is the activation?
With these key points in mind, let’s break down each one.
What is the offering?
Let’s use a large, stuffed-crust pizza with two toppings for $22 as an example.
A side note: When picking a limited time offer, we make sure the item’s food cost is still within our goal range.
We usually brainstorm in a group about limited time offers, listening to each other’s ideas about what might work. Sometimes, as in this case, we follow the trends set forth by “the big three.”
What is the objective?
That’s the No. 1 question with any marketing campaign. In this case, the objective is twofold: to entice new customers with a unique offering and to give our regular customers a reason to come back sooner than they intended. I suggest writing out these steps in an action plan to make them clearer.
What is the time frame?
We like to run limited time offers for anywhere from 45 to 60 days, and we lean more toward 60 days because it gives the campaign time to breathe and take on legs of its own. Some programs you implement could stick around for the whole year, and others could be so successful that they last forever. Some things we do until they just don’t work anymore.
What marketing materials ARE needed?
We usually create some sort of digital marketing for everything we do. Beyond that, we create table toppers along with posters that we frame for in-store usage. Promote your LTO in as many forward-facing places as you can. Videos have been working really well for us, so they are a focal point of any campaign.
WHAT IS THE ACTIVATION?
Finally, the last question we ask as part of a plan is how to launch the LTO. As mentioned above, we use video as a main ingredient in our marketing campaigns. We launch with video and e-mail blasts. If you have text marketing set up, I also would use that in this example.
Once all of these steps are in place – and you follow through on them – you can start to focus on the next campaign or idea. Next month, we will talk about how to come up with the pizzas for LTOs.
Nick Bogacz is the founder and president of Caliente Pizza & Draft House in Pittsburgh. Instagram: @caliente_pizza
