Pizza Today - March 2021 - 58

his year's marketing trends
are vast. We've
scoured dozens
and dozens of
2021 marketing
trend predictions
to give you a look
at what's hot and
what's relevant to pizzerias.
In the world of independent pizzerias,
budgets for marketing are often tight or
focused on the tried-and-trued initiatives that operators have used for years. It
may be time to introduce new marketing
strategies to reach your target customers.
What's hot this year aren't necessarily
new marketing initiatives, but they are
surging marketing ideas that are resonating and building steam, especially after
such a volatile year for restaurants.
An overarching trend with no signs
of slowing is a focus on digital marketing, whether that's social and websites or
e-mail and search engines.
Lou Malnati's continues to grow its
digital marketing spend. " We continue
to invest in digital marketing as it grows
and want to engage customers in their
preferred channels, " says Natalie Levy,
marketing manager at Lou Malnati's
Pizzeria. " Also, we lean into social media
and embrace influencer marketing to
build relationships and increase engagement. We value content marketing as
it remains relevant to connect with our
customers and focus on video marketing
which is vital for storytelling. "
Clayton Krueger, Director of Marketing and Communications at Tacoma,
Washington-based Farrelli's Pizza, was
an early adaptor of social media and
social continues to be an area of concentration. He sees new marketing trends
as opportunities. " You have to keep your
eyes open to new opportunities that align
with your brand, that align with where
you are at with your resources and make
sure you are going after the target market
that you want to get, " he says.

* SHORT-FORM VIDEO. From
TikTok and Instagram to YouTube and
Facebook, these 15- to 30-second videos
are content marketing gold. Instagram
Reels and TikTok specifically are all the
rage because a user can cut in several
small snippets of videos into their short
video. The possibilities are endless for
pizzerias. You can highlight a pizza
special in unique ways, do a vlog style
culture video, show the pizza-making
or delivery process start to finish or go
for the drool factor with some slow-mo
finishing drizzle toppings or cheese pull.
Don't forget the metadata (that's the
titles, descriptions and tags). Without the
metadata, you could go viral with your
video without hitting your target market.

LET'S TAKE A BRIEF LOOK AT
SOME OF THE HOTTEST MARKETING TRENDS RIGHT NOW
AND HOW YOU CAN USE THEM:

* PARTNERSHIPS. Some call it cobranding. But, let's broaden the term for
its use in pizzeria marketing. Collaboration is nothing new to pizzerias. Krueger
views third-party delivery partnerships

* VOICE SEARCH. If you have said,
" Hey, Sir " , " Hey Alexa " or " Hey Google " ,
you have done a voice search. The reality
is that smartphone uses are already using
voice search to find local restaurants. A
2018 BrightLocal study found that restaurants were the top industry for voice
search. So how can you capitalize on
voice search? It begins with SEO (Search
Engine Optimization). Understanding
relationship between your website, order
apps and local search keywords, like " near
me " and " best pizza nearby " .
" We don't pay for any services like
AdWords or Google Search rankings, "
Krueger says. " We just do everything we
can to keep our website up-to-date and
accurate. We manage our Google business pages. When you just take the time
to do those things, your search results
automatically improve, and you see your
SEO high. When your SEO is high, if
someone asks Siri or Google or Alexa a
question, you just have a better chance of
it being you already. So, step one is just
make sure you have the tools that you
can control dialed in. And beyond that,
now there are other companies out there
trying to help you be the top result. "
For more on SEO and website traffic,
see page 40.

as a marketing line item. " We think of
third-party delivery as a form of advertisement, " he says. " You are going to pay
upwards of 20+ percent to have your
products delivered by them. We think
of that 20+ percent as a marketing fee.
What it is is a new customer acquisition
strategy. " The challenge is that pizzerias
are not capturing data on third-party
customers. It's an issue that Krueger says
Farrelli's has been working diligently to
convert those customers to use the pizzeria's internal platforms through branding
and experience-based marketing. " How
can we take third party and use it to our
advantage to cast this net out there, bring
the people into the pizzeria and convert
them to our online ordering platform,
our data aggregator?, " he asks. " How can
we bring them into our system and how
do we retarget them? It doesn't have to
be slick and polished; it just has to work. "
* E-COMMERCE. Providing a
vehicle for customers to order from your
pizzeria digitally, whether that is online,
on social or on mobile has become
essential in a time without much faceto-face ordering. This trend is poised to
continue as many are now accustomed to
digital ordering. " E-commerce endures as
the preference of choice for brands and
consumers with significant growth and
investment opportunities in the future, "
Levy says, adding that e-commerce
remains the most effective marketing
channel at Lou Malnati's.
* LIVE STREAMING. We saw the
capabilities with live streaming thrive
during the pandemic. Pizzerias around
the country went live to interact with
guests that they missed engaging with
when dining areas closed. These opportunities will only grow as more people
are now accustomed to and enjoy live
streaming. You can host a virtual pizzamaking class, do a food and wine/beer
pairing event or vlog what's happening at
the pizzeria or share your pizzeria's story.
* PERSONALIZATION. In the era
of COVID-19, people are seeking personal connections and hyper-personalization marketing will meet that customer
demand. Your POS and loyalty programs

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Pizza Today - March 2021

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