Special Report
10 New Ways to Market Your Takeout Menu
Low-cost strategies to get your menu in front of more hungry customers — and keep them coming back.
Your Takeout Menu Is Your #1 Marketing Tool
Your takeout menu is probably your most important piece of low-cost advertising, but a lot of restaurants, pizzerias, and diners across the country fail to take advantage of the endless possibilities. Today it costs pennies to print a professional full-color glossy takeout menu — and if marketed correctly, it can yield thousands of dollars in extra business. Stop pumping money into yellow page ads, local cable, radio, newspaper ads, and penny-saver magazines. Just focus on a 3–5 mile radius around your restaurant and you will see great results.
Mail with Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)
The USPS has a direct mailing program for small business owners — and it's FREE to set up. By mailing your 11×17 full-color glossy takeout menus to local homes, businesses, and new movers with the Every Door Direct Mail Program (EDDM Retail), you can increase your sales and generate new customers. You can now mail your full-color takeout menu for only about 26¢ postage each. Direct mail is still the most trusted form of advertising to baby boomers ages 45–65. Market your takeout menu where the money is. The EDDM program, setup, and mailing permit are all FREE — you pay for postage as you go with no minimums, no tabbing, no addressing, and absolutely no contracts.
Team Up with Local Non-Competing Businesses
Get local businesses to print a flyer, postcard, or brochure to insert inside your takeout menu and split the postage costs. Law firms, chiropractors, pharmacies, car dealerships, florists, landscapers, real estate agents, and furniture stores are just a few examples of businesses that do a lot of direct mail. Get your hands on a local penny saver or val pak and call all the local businesses who have their advertisement inserted inside — 8 out of 10 will be interested in merge-mailing their offers with your EDDM takeout menu mailer. You can insert as many flyers, postcards, and brochures in your EDDM mailer up to 3.3 ounces and still pay only about 26¢ postage each.
Add a Coupon Strip to Your Takeout Menu
Putting a coupon strip on the side of your takeout menu works great when you mail or hand them out. For the takeout menus in your restaurant, you can cut off the coupon strip with a $20 paper cutter so customers don't use your coupons when they order at the counter or in the dining room. Don't use the same old offers like $1.00 off or 10% off. Be creative and blow your competition out of the water. Give a free pasta dish and a two-liter of soda with the purchase of two entrées. People don't want money taken off — they want choices. Ask some of your loyal customers what kind of offers they'd like to see on your next takeout menu.
Upgrade to Full-Color Glossy Printing
If your takeout menu is just 1 or 2 colors — or worse, a black-and-white photocopy — you need to update your takeout menu to compete in today's restaurant market. With full-color glossy takeout menu prices at all-time lows, you can now afford to print professionally in full color for pennies. Make sure the printer you choose specializes in restaurant marketing, menu engineering, and custom design. Hungry customers eat with their eyes, so use high-quality professional food photos and graphics. Studies have shown your takeout menu is your #1 marketing tool.
Put a Mailbox Outside Your Restaurant
In New York City, many restaurant owners buy a small mailbox from the local hardware store and attach it near their front door filled with takeout menus. You'll be surprised to know that people are embarrassed to come in and ask for a takeout menu if they don't plan to order at that moment. People might want to take your menu home or back to the office and look it over for future business. Buy a small rectangular mailbox that opens from the top to keep your menus dry during bad weather. Put a 'Takeout menus — please take one' sign on your mailbox.
A Menu in Every Bag and Box That Leaves Your Restaurant
In every bag and box that leaves your restaurant — doggie bags, takeout bags, catering orders, paper bags, plastic bags, and yes, even on your pizza boxes. You never know where that bag or box is going. That customer could be taking your food to a friend's house who has never heard of your place, or back to an employee break room. When they all try your great food, they'll have a takeout menu for future ordering. Pizzeria owners: don't forget to put your takeout menu on every pizza box and bag that leaves your restaurant.
Put Them on Your Counter — Make Them Easy to Grab
Don't 'harbor' your takeout menus behind your counter. Mail them out, display them on your counters, hand them out to local businesses, and always have a bunch in your car. When you meet someone in your daily travels, give them a few takeout menus. This is like putting out pennies and getting back dollars. Have your menus neatly placed in a brochure rack on both ends of your counter, in the front and back of your restaurant. Make it easier for your customers to get them. The more customers that get your takeout menu, the more your sales will increase.
Use Your Staff as Word-of-Mouth Ambassadors
Your staff — whether it's your pizza man, cashier, or delivery person — all live in or near your business. They have friends, family, go to school, and are members of local clubs. They are your voice, your word-of-mouth advertising. How do you make them talk and recommend your place? Incentives. Assign every staff member a number and a few hundred takeout menus. Let them go out and promote your business. When their menu comes back, give them the incentive you worked out — a night off, a free meal, movie tickets, or a cash bonus.
Insert Menus in Your Bills and Statements
Why not attach your takeout menu to your soda bill, distributor bill, or insert it in your bank statement? Someone has to open your mail or cash your check — and these people have to eat too. The most important point: how much money do these companies collect from you a month? Do they ever order from your restaurant? People who you give business to should give you business back. Write down a list of everyone you wrote a check out to last month, then mark off who gave you business back.
Make Up a Local Travel Guide for Your Area
This guide needs a local map of your area with points of interest and important phone numbers. The best part is the restaurant section — you are the publisher, so you say who's in or out. You can put other non-competing restaurants in your guide, but leave your competition out. Place your menu on the first page of the restaurant section. The only cost to you is time. Drop the guides off at all your local hotels, motels, and places of interest. The staff at hotels and attractions love to recommend local restaurants to tourists. Taxi, limousine, and shuttle drivers are also a great asset — provide each driver with a special number on their menus and give them an incentive when people bring in a menu with their number on it.
Ready to Put These Ideas to Work?
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