Making Dough with Diane: Six easy ideas to market your pizzeria to tourists

The busy tourism season is here, and if your pizzeria is in a hot vacation spot or tourist destination, you probably want to attract the attention of visitors and locals alike. For pizzeria operators, this means planning and organizing for the tourist season. Here are six easy ideas to continue to market your pizzeria to tourists. 

1. Revise your plan

The best way to see what worked for you in the past is to revise and analyze your previous year’s summer performance. You must look for ways to ensure your pizzeria is operating efficiently and your pizzas are top-notch. Identify your previous successes or failures to see areas where you can improve. Make a list of your summer sales by hours, days, weeks and months to get a good picture of your peak times. Gather data on your existing customers, and use tools like Google Analytics, social media reports and customer surveys to identify common patterns and trends among your customers. Identify things like gender, age, interests and buying behaviour.

2. Create a must-visit pizzeria vs. tourist trap

I am sure you have eaten at a tourist trap while travelling to another country. By the end of the meal, your family members feel cheated. Tourist traps are well known for gimmicky menus and super-huge alcoholic beverages. Please don’t deliver that to your guests. Take a good look at your menu to see if any areas can be improved, or perhaps it’s just a good time for a refresh. You must take a solid and accurate look at what you need to make, when to make it and how you can order supplies accordingly. Seasonal and summer-themed products are always popular among tourists and customers.

If you want to attract tourists and locals alike, it’s a great time to focus on any local specialties you are known for and tempt your regular customers with new products and recipes to arouse their curiosity.

3. Take appealing pics

In today’s digital age, social media is a powerful tool for promoting your shop and products. Visuals are everything these days. Take high-quality photos of your pizzas and make them visible on your social media platforms and website. Use bright and bold colours to make your pizzas look as delicious as they taste. 

Use social media to announce special offers, deals, discounts or free delivery over a certain amount. Don’t forget to include customer testimonials and fun captions to make your pizzeria marketing strategy stand out. By regularly posting updates on social media, you will keep your customers and tourists informed and generate excitement about your business and products.

4. Use window displays, banners, sandwich boards, clear signage

Make sure what your pizzeria does is clear to anyone who has never been to it before. Good and clear signage is beneficial, especially for new visitors! Whatever you do or use, make it exciting and appealing. Use creative window displays, banners or posters as an opportunity to let your pizzeria’s products and personality shine. You could also put a blackboard at the entrance. It doesn’t require a lot of investment and it’s very effective. If you are allowed to use a sandwich board, do it! Use it to promote summer-themed gift cards or gift bundles.   

5. Promote your hours online

When people are looking at visiting an area or are trying to figure out what to do and where to go while they are in town, often the first place they will look is online. As you know, many tourists will use Google, Facebook and other similar platforms to find places to eat, drink and celebrate. Your hours must be updated on these platforms.

6. Professional and clean appearance

Cleaning up your physical space will increase the chances of making a good first impression. Do you see signs of wear and tear? Customers make their choices based on everything they see, hear and smell outside and inside a restaurant. Sweep the sidewalk, knock down cobwebs, add a coat of fresh paint, add ambiance via lighting, change your tables, chairs and benches if worn out and add flower planters.

Diane Chiasson, FCSI, president of Chiasson Consultants Inc., has been helping foodservice, hospitality and retail operators increase sales for over 35 years by providing innovative and revenue-increasing food service and retail merchandising programs, interior design, branding, menu engineering, marketing and promotional campaigns. Contact her at 416-926-1338, or chiasson@chiassonconsultlants.com, or visit www.chiassonconsultants.com