LTOs create organic marketing and staff development opportunities
If limited-time offers are creating chaos in your pizza business, you’re doing them wrong. That’s the opinion of Lars Smith, co-owner of State of Mind Hospitality Group and three pizzerias in the San Francisco Bay Area. As the speaker behind 2026 Pizza Expo seminar “Building Your Slate of Limited Time Offerings,” Smith emphasizes that limited-time offers should create rhythm and structure for your kitchen, front-of-house staff and guests alike.
When Smith was developing his business plan, limited-time offers (or LTOs) were front and center. Not only did they promise to keep him engaged as a chef and an owner, LTOs also reflect the ethos of his brand: to celebrate California using local and seasonal product, meats and cheeses.
No local produce? No problem! Regardless of your own brand’s mission, Smith says LTOs “should strengthen your brand and not distract from it.”
What is a Limited-Time Offer (LTO)?
Every limited-time offer at State of Mind has three qualities in common:
- It’s intentionally built.
- It’s time bound.
- It’s clearly communicated.
Intentionally Built: Limited-time offers should reflect your brand and what is happening outside your restaurant (think St. Patrick’s Day, 4th of July and Halloween). Intention also includes cost: You should not be losing money on an LTO, no matter how limited its timeframe.
Time-bound: At State of Mind, the LTO menu changes seasonally, or four times per year. This doesn’t mean the entire menu changes (more on that later). Rather, there is a definitive start and end date for seasonal offerings.
Clear Communication: Your vendors, kitchen staff and servers should all be briefed well in advance about your LTOs. The entire staff should have an opportunity to taste the new dishes before they are expected to sell them.
Familiar With a Twist
LTOs don’t need to be complicated. They should make sense to your regular customers as something that belongs on your menu – only more exciting.
For example: Smith created a truffle honey pizza that elevated a traditional pepperoni pie and sold it for Valentine’s Day. Staff was skeptical, but it sold well enough that the pizzeria now offers a truffle honey spritz on its bar menu.
Putting a trusted staff member in charge of LTOs is a way to keep them engaged and develop leadership. Some pizzerias source ideas from staff when creating LTO menus – and Houston-based Coastline Pizzeria even offers profit sharing to staff members whose ideas are selected.
Have a Core Menu
Everyone loves winning over a new customer, but none are more meaningful than the loyal customers you already have. Don’t alienate them by regularly throwing out beloved items every three months.
At State of Mind, top sellers such as cheese pizza, pepperoni and mushroom and Caesar salad will always have a spot on the menu – regardless of the season.
LTO Doesn’t Mean Discounted
Limited-time offers aren’t about emptying out the freezer. The price of these items should be in line with your regular menu – if not a little bit higher because they are special.
“Do not feel if you come up with a really good LTO that you need to make it cheaper. You do not,” Smith says. “You need to make it compelling. You need to drive business and create urgency that changes your guests’ behavior.”
An ‘Organic Marketing Tool’
Your staff, guests and even journalists and social media influencers all will be moved by the sense of newness and urgency created by a limited-time offer. “You’re creating new opportunities for your team to learn, for them to engage with the menu and prep organic talking points without destabilizing operations,” Smith says.
At the end of the seasonal menu period, State of Mind posts photos and video of the limited-time items to social media and sees a sales spike as a result. Urgency moves customers to change their behavior and prioritize a pizzeria visit to taste items they haven’t tried as well as favorites they may not get a chance to have again.
Support Community
Not only can LTOs be used for good – as with fundraisers organized by Slice Out Hunger – Smith also will tie sales of a dish to a nonprofit or cause that he believes in. “We’ll do a month special and donate a certain amount of the sales back to them,” he explains.
The pizzeria menu also reflects the community where it operates. The Los Altos store, for example, was once an apricot orchard. Smith offers a nod to the area’s history each spring, when apricots are in season, by creating a special pizza.
“I only make that pizza when the fruit peaks,” he says, adding that State of Mind doesn’t typically offer fruit-topped pies. “It’s unexpected but aligned in that we’re paying homage to the local community.”
KATE LAVIN is Senior Editor of Pizza Today.
