Marketing Ideas: Selling Pizza By Cellphone -- Part 1

Aug. 25, 2009 - PRLog -- Part1: Marketing Ideas: Selling Pizza By Cellphone

Mobile Marketing Could Be A Great Tool To Sell Pizza and Boost Your Sales!

Now more than ever, people are turning to their mobile phones for Internet access. From coffee house tables to New York subways, consumers are using their iPhones, Blackberries and other mobile devices to locate laundry shops, pet shops, and even internet cafés.

While many businesses have an online presence, most are unaware of their potential reach across the mobile Internet. Throughout the world, even small businesses that has mobile Web sites receives an advantage over to those who do not.

However, it is not as simple as setting up a mobile web site. The small screen size and high cost of transmitting data, for instance, create a number of stumbling blocks to transacting business by mobile phone.

The good news is that it’s easy and affordable to establish a presence on the mobile Web and to begin attracting customers on the go. And what's the best of it is that spending a lot of money is not essential. Here are five simple steps to help you out:

Create a mobile site

Mobile web sites are designed for accessing and viewing the internet using a small device such as cellphone or PDA. If you're going to create a mobile website, ease of access and usability is the main key.

Unless you're a multimedia programmer, chances are you're looking for a quick and easy solution. A great place to start is Ubik.com, an online service that provides free mobile web site creation and publishing. With Ubik.com, setting up a mobile web site can only take you less than 15 minutes.

By removing the clunky, mobile-unfriendly components of your traditional site, you can create a simplified version that can adapt to the parameters of small mobile phone browsers. Coding for the thousands of mobile devices on the market, with varying screen dimensions and resolutions, would be an impossible task. Now with Ubik, you will only need to provide the text, images and menus and the rest is taken care of!

There are dozens of scenarios that can be used to demonstrate how useful it is to have a mobile web site. Here’s one: A group of friends exit a movie theater one night with an urge to splurge on a pepperoni deep dish. They wonder if your pizza parlor is still open, one of them flips open a mobile phone and finds out. By having a mobile web site ready, you can easily reach customers on the go, it can assure your customers that they can enjoy eating until 11 p.m. at your establishment is one more key to closing a sale.

Simplicity is the key

Simplicity is an important key to keep customers browsing your mobile web site, by simply removing unnecessary texts and slow-loading pictures. Mobile shoppers are looking for simple solutions that they can act on quickly, so keep your messages short. Even in these days of “all you can eat” data plans, many users are still paying for every byte they download.

Mobile customers need something far simpler than the average PC Web site. Let's say these people are too busy and only has time to use their cellphones with a few key strokes. You can adapt your mobile web site to highlight information that's key for hungry and busy people on the go, such as this weeks specials, menus, establishment location, store hours and contact information. Make it simple, consistent with your brand's theme/look, while keeping the navigation simple and directly provide the right information. If you focus on quick and convenient access to pertinent information, you’ll help drive new customers through your door instead of your competitor’s down the street.

Marketing through text messaging

Your customers are your community. With SMS marketing, it can generate an immediate response from them. People carry their mobile phones all the time, so keep in touch with them by offering an opt-in text messaging system to let them know about special deals and menu items.

You can even give them electronic coupons. People are more likely to read and respond to text messages than many other forms of communication. Increase your chances further by sending a text message to notify customers when their offer is about to expire and that if they act now, there will be an even greater reward.

In fact, according to the Mobile Marketing Association, 89 percent of companies used text and multimedia messaging to reach their audiences in 2008, using nearly 1/3 spending 10% above their budget just for advertising in the text message marketing medium.

To give their business establishment a boost and an edge over their competitors, many restaurants are now offering mobile ordering service through text messaging. Typically, the customer creates an account on your Web site which activates the text message ordering service by entering their mobile number and setting up a list of favorite orders, such as “large cheese.” The favorites list corresponds to an online customer account, giving you a buzz when to cook that large cheese when the “FAV” text message arrives.

The way to success

The latest handsets come with location-based capabilities and mapping software. How do you make sure your business is listed when someone nearby is searching for what you can offer? One answer is Google Maps for mobile, one of the most popular applications for use on smartphones.

With this free to download application, your business establishment can be mapped and searchable by mobile phone users. With Google's local search engine, people can search for business establishsments by name like "Momma's Pizza Shop" or by type such as "pizza parlor" or "pizzeria." They'll be able to search for your business address, working hours, menu, contact info, payment method, ratings, pictures of your establishment and even be able to contact you through text messaging or calls.

You can simply link directly to your Google listing from your web site.

---------------------------

With over 20 years of experience in restaurant point of sale the author of this article is the Customer Relations Vice-President at http://www.pos-for-restaurants.com -- helping you use your Restaurant POS technology to be more more efficient and more profitable.

---------------------------

# # #

Searching for the best Restaurant POS System Solution for your business?
We're a National network of POS System Solution Experts who offer better value and features than most "Major National Suppliers"!