Help me think outside the box here

Flyers on local bulletin boards or anywhere else you can post them.

Brent

If it's local business you want then why not place a display ad in the local newspaper or a well known publication in your area.

Go after busy working moms. Geo-target on Linked-In, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. Also, if you have large businesses in your area, offer the employees a discount on their first order.

Steve

Sounds like you're in the food delivery business. Why not promote and target people who are not mobile? Maybe elderly homes? Or people who suffer from agoraphobia.

You really need a Youtube channel and create many videos of your product and activity. Then by all means use the offline marketing (brochure, newspaper ads, namecard, etc) to promote your channel. You also need to put the videos on your website as well.
You can also do video and photo promotion using instagram.
Good luck!

The question is why do you think you are not big enough? You could be breaking your community into sections and send 5000 post cards out at a time. I would think that invest in this once.. and repeating should pay for itself based on the new onboards from the previous set of 5000.

I am going to be straight here... stop monkeying around and either quit what you are doing.. or take it serious drop the funds and market it properly.

Ah, I'm gonna go back to Ewen here and ask his question...What do people get or buy JUST BEFORE they realize they need what you have?

Piggyback on their traffic, their lists, and multiply your reach immediately.

Flyers is a great idea. I like the idea of the local cooking classes- this could be a great thing. What about doing something at a local supermarket? Not really sure what, but it is just a thought you could go off of.

Some good ideas here thanks.

Sorry I don't have hundreds of thousands to invest immediately but I don't think that means my business isn't a serious one.

We have grown 300% per year for three years straight, achieving profitability after only 10 months in our first market.

We will be delivering to a few specific zip codes initially.
We know who our customers are demographically, so even if we did have huge resources to pour into mass marketing, it would still be rather stupid to do so, considering they are in the upper 10% of income earners generally.

Use your existing customers to find new ones.

Give them coupons they can give to friends, and reward them with some kind of tasty bonus when a friend becomes your customer.

Offer rewards (like a free meal kit or free dessert) to existing customers who post about your service on Facebook or upload photos of their meals to Instagram or Pinterest.

Run a contest for the person who posts the most creative video about your service to Youtube next month.

Etc.

Good luck!

Marcia Yudkin

Here's an idea for you...

I was just browsing through one of those free 'homes for sale' magazines, where local realtors show a handful of listings to generate phone calls.

Since I live in a part of Florida that attracts vacationers and snowbirds (seasonal residents) at many economic levels, including that top 10% you mentioned, here's what I would do.

Grab a few of those magazines and go through them looking for the agents/agencies that handle higher end properties. Do some web searches for people renting out seasonal/vacation properties (better yet, outfits that manage several). Propose a joint venture, where you print a sheet similar to the EDDM postcards discussed above, co-branded with said realtors/rental managers. You offer a special intro offer, which the partner advertises as a perk for doing business with them. Another way to go at it is for the agency to pay for a week, two weeks, at a special rate that covers your costs, as a bonus for buying/renting a property. At the end of the bonus period, you make your offer for continued services.

You could make the same kind of deal with high end contractors.

Here's another idea for generating referrals. Study the referral offer from Dish Network - make a referral and get a bonus ranging from a bill credit to a tech gadget. None of which they are paying retail for. If you signed a new referral customer, could you afford to give the referrer a week's worth of meals (at cost)?

Yes absolutely so far such a huge percent of our growth has been referral based, because we allow customers to give someone a free box from time to time, that's our number one most cost effective method we have tried so far.

Maybe there's a communication issue somewhere there Savidge, your grammar is pretty broken and it's not always clear what you are trying to say. I thought you were suggesting that we should be putting large amounts of money into mass media, such as radio or TV, which spreads indiscriminately across all zip codes. Because our customer demographics are quite specific, our customers do not exist in all zipcodes, only a few particular ones and we know which ones they are, so we need to be using methods that are targeted.

Naturally there are exceptions in every zipcode perhaps, but not enough to make it nearly worth the time to waste money that way.

Elderly persons and college students are NOT a valid target. We have literally never had a single college student sign up, not a single one. And we are going to be pulling out of the biggest, wealthiest retirement community in Florida, because it turns out they also are not interested in this product.

There are many excellent ideas here which we have not yet experimented with and I greatly appreciate everyone's time and contributions, thanks so much. The enthusiasm here is really cool.

Our customers have a minimum income of 70k, married, with one child, sometimes two, literally 95% fit this description. Also, it is mothers who make the purchase.

Savidge, could you try rewording your criticisms of the website? I'm sure you have something good to say there but I am afraid your english is rather confusing.

Who buys from you (what type of person)?

In my area, I think you'd have a lot of success with self-employed couples with kids at home or couples where both mom and dad work... who make over 50k a year each.

Do they have churches in the areas that interest you? Posh nail salons? Post on their boards and/or partner with them.

Savige- thanks so much for the extra time to clarify, I think that's all really excellent advice and appreciate it. One thing though, not sure I understand what you mean by we have no USP. Didn't you just list 4 or 5? Maybe you can give an example what you mean.

Yes we are strictly in the gainesville area right now, we are opening a new location in Tampa. I type in "meal delivery gainesville" and Chef ami is right there in the top 4 results, not sure how you aren't getting that.

A lot of you have touched on this and this is really the best fundamental idea that has come up here I think- I know that my customers are moms who live in a household with an income around 70k +. I need to figure out all the other places that moms in that demographic shop and play.

Simply contact a good direct-mail list broker. They can get you or create lists that fit these criteria:

1)Family income
2)Family size
3)Gender
4)Zipcode or other defined geographical area

You can toss in age, too, if you want.

I've worked with clients who did this kind of targeting with postcards or mailed letters, very successfully.

Marcia Yudkin

Best you can opt for the business listing and the local ads they may work for your business.

It's a nice site but when you use the URL you might want to type:

ChefAmi.com

When I first looked at the url I was like WTF?

It is a small detail but could have a big impact on flyers.

I think you might be referring to this...

(Using the Quote button when replying will help keep things straight.)

He's talking about helping people both remember and type in the URL correctly.

Both chefami.com and ChefAmi.com (or even ChefAmI.com) will reach the same destination. But adding the capitalization creates an additional visual clue for us human types.

i know in my area there are local facebook groups that have opportunities to talk about some new offerings. another neighborhood website is nextdoor.com

Hello,

Well your website looks good, and I never say that,

Ok if your trying not to spend to much money, you can use smart post cards, for target marketing, FB custom ads, on low budget, Bing ads, and YouTube custom channel, with 100 videos,

And after you make money, cable TV $3,000 per month, it's about $20.00 dollars per spot, for target marketing, I know all about TV stuff, so yes, that is were this business needs to be, it will make its money back over and over, but you must buy a 12 month package, you can pay monthly, but stay on there.

ok hope this helps

Thanks Rob.

We have done direct mail, radio, and TV ads, all at a loss. We know what our customer acquisition cost has to be and for some reason, these avenues just don't generate enough customers. We sent out 10,000 targeted direct mailers and got back only 20 customers.

Can anyone fill me in on what is being talked about with the Mcrib advertising campaign? I have googled the hell out of it but I don't get anything except the fact that they are using its low availability to create scarcity, which I don't see how that could be relevant to my business.

Ideas about partnering with daycare centers, school sports programs, etc. are really what I'm looking for here as we have found nothing works for us like word of mouth. We need to target anything that is relevant to moms in a household with a 65k+ income and partner on their traffic.

Any ideas on how to forge these partnerships, where to forge these partnerships, what kind of incentives to offer those businesses to get them to really promote us, etc. are really what I need, thanks.

You need to start with one to five well-connected moms. I'm sure you've heard of Mary Kay and Tupperware and Pampered Chef and things like that? Maybe come up with a party plan structure or edible trunk show to let everyone sample something. Offer a freebie to the most popular mom blogger in the zip codes you're targeting. Build a relationship by commenting on the blog without spamming your link. A lot of bloggers are on Twitter or Pinterest, so use those to promote your pictures of your food (Instagram too).

Partner with after school places like gymnastics studios, martial arts studios and private businesses. Find out when the local high school is selling ads for the drama club or put an ad in the school paper or yearbook or PTA directory. You're very likely going to need personal introductions to break into these very tight knit circles, so bring your A game and make sure you wow them!

Good luck!

SMS blast its also a good idea to try, i do know people who use it and its help to boost their sales

The demographic is obviously middle/upper class income. It's Not hard to find the neighborhoods.

You could dress up like a carrot and stand on the street corner and hand out flyers.

Saw this story and thought I'd pass it along.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/connect/...osed_community

I viewed your website, and it looks very attractive. However, IMHO your pricing is too high. Even people in the $70k-$100k wage bracket are watching their food costs these days. My ideas are a bit outside the box of what you asked for, but perhaps may be helpful.

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1) Ditch the donation angle. Donating 50% of your meals is not working. Charity is fine, but in your case, it needs a bit of refinement. For example:

-- Hold an open house where people can sample a cooked dish over a 2-3 hour period. Then donate 10% of the first meal cost for every new customer who signs up on that day.

-- You could hold this event in conjunction with a local community event, or anywhere that gets a ton of foot traffic.

-- As an alternative, hire a $25/hr. demonstrator to give away free bites of dinner in a place like Costco or maybe a kitchen trade show. The one to one, personal interaction is very important! ... It can make people feel like they know the business owner personally!

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2) Reduce the cost of a meal to no more than $7or $8 per person. Even Panda Express is down in this price range now.

-- Since you won't be giving away half of your products to charity anymore, this will not impact your business at all.

-- You could also offer a special membership deal. For example, get 20% off your first meal when you join as a new customer and commit to a 30 day trial membership. Or maybe...

-- Save 10% on every meal you order, after purchasing your first 10 meals and automatically becoming a "gold" customer.

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3) I didn't see the word "organic" anywhere on your website, but this is a BIG selling feature!

-- You could just mention that your ingredients are "primarily organic" or "organic wherever possible."

-- Or you could state that everything is organic unless otherwise noted. Then use asterisks and small footnotes to denote items which could not be sourced as organic. People will appreciate knowing exactly what they are getting.

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4) There are also some additions that would be a natural for a business like this.

-- Offer small pre-packaged dessert items (if you also order dinner). No preparation needed on your part, just deliver.

-- Maybe offer a small selection of 2 or 3 wines, in conjunction with a local liquor store.

-- You could also team up with a local flower store, and offer a complete birthday or anniversary dinner package as a completely separate offering.

-- If desired, you could add on some small seasonal gifts -- for example, a pre-made cake or box of candy for Valentines Day.

-- Again capitalizing on holidays, like Valentines Day or Christmas... Give away one free romantic meal via lottery in conjunction with a local radio or newspaper ad. Winner could be the 10th caller, or name drawn from a hat etc. I believe local radio ads are fairly reasonable in price, no more than $100 or $200 for ad campaign.

-- If you do team up with one or two partners -- like a liquor store, flower shop, or gift shop -- then it would be natural to do joint postcard advertising, as someone mentioned, where the cost to you would be zero or at least some minimal amount.

-- You and your complementary businesses could also offer some kind of welcome wagon deal in your area, say half price off your first order. If there is no official welcome wagon organization in your area, check with the chamber of commerce, change of address packets at the post office, or a local newspaper.

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5) Ordering Process -- I suggest you keep the number of items you offer simple, but allow people to order directly from your website so they don't have to call you unless they prefer to call.

-- You are targeting affluent people who are busy, and ordering online can be pretty speedy and unobtrusive, even stealthy. You might even want to have a smartphone app available for them.

-- This would make the ordering process easier for you, especially if you offer add-ons like desserts or small gifts.

-- All of your online orders would already be in writing, which would make it easy to fill them and deliver.

-- You will also want to incorporate some sort of tracking system, so you can easily tell when you are about to run out of something and can mention that on your website. Have a contingency plan in case you run out of Meal # 3, for example.

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6) Menu Expansion -- You might consider expanding the menu, so people could choose any 3 of the following 12 items, for example.

-- Variations could be as simple as a chicken dish with your choice of 3 different sauces. It doesn't necessarily have to be complicated.

-- Slightly expanded choices would make things easier for people who are vegetarians, on restricted diets, or who can't eat anything difficult (like chewing steak).

-- If you try this, make sure they can order multiples of the same item, if there's only one thing that they happen to desire.

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Hope these ideas help spark your inspiration and creativity for greater success!

Joanna