Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast is your backstage pass to the minds of hospitality leaders, innovators, and operators who are redefining what it means to serve. Hosted by Zack Oates, founder of Ovation, each episode dives into real-world tactics and inspiring stories from restaurant pros who know how to create five-star guest experiences—both in-store and off-premise.
From fast casual to fine dining, catering to curbside, learn how to drive loyalty, empower your staff, and deliver hospitality that hits home. Whether you're a restaurant owner, operator, marketer, or tech partner, this podcast will leave you with practical insights and plenty of reasons to celebrate and Give an Ovation.
Give an Ovation: The Restaurant Guest Experience Podcast with Zack Oates
How to Use Direct Mail with Kevin Slaughter of Mailwise Solutions
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Today we're learning about an often overlooked restaurant marketing channel, direct mail. Kevin Slaughter, Director of Operations at Mailwise Solutions debunks the myth that direct mail is a relic of the past, proving its remarkable ROI in 2024. Discover why consistency trumps one-time mail blasts and how sending menus three to four times a year can keep your pizzeria at the forefront of customers' minds, fostering repeat business and steady sales growth.
Learn how to blend traditional mailers with digital campaigns to reach diverse demographics—catering to older generations' love for physical coupons and younger consumers' preference for digital QR codes.
Thanks, Kevin!
Direct Mail Marketing Strategies for Restaurants
Speaker 1Welcome to another edition of Give an Ovation , the restaurant guest experience podcast , where I talk to industry experts to get their strategies and tactics you can use to create a five-star guest experience . This podcast is sponsored by Ovation , an operations and guest recovery platform for multi-unit restaurants that gives all the answers without annoying guests with all the questions . Learn more at OvationUpcom . And today we have a good friend of mine . We met through the legendary Matt Plapp and any friend of Matt Plapp's is a friend of mine Kevin Slaughter , the director of ops for Mailwise Solutions . What's up , kevin ? How are you ?
Speaker 2Good , how are you , zach ? Lucky to be here . It's been a long time coming now .
Speaker 1I know I'm glad we were able to get our schedules together . I know we're both super crazy busy with a lot of different stuff going on , so excited to have you on . For people who might not know what Mailwise is , kevin , can you give us a little overview ?
Speaker 2Of course . So my family , we own and operate a business called Mailwise Solutions . We do direct mail advertisements for pizzerias throughout the United States . I say pizzerias . We will mail for any restaurant , any business , but our main niche is within the pizzeria industry .
Speaker 1All right , kevin , let's talk about mail for a minute . Direct mail . What do you say to people who and I'm sure you get this a lot what do you say to people who and I'm sure you get this a lot Look , kevin , I get that , that's a , that's a . It sounds like a fun idea , but man , it's just . Direct mail does not work . It doesn't . You know , we're 2024 . It doesn't work . Kevin , what do you say to that ?
Speaker 2I do hear that a lot and oftentimes I would say well , if it didn't work then we wouldn't have this business for the past 17 years . When it comes to direct mail , it's an old school marketing tactic that does work . The average ROI is usually between 2% to 5% . So if you mail 1,000 addresses , even on the low end , if you get 20 customers out of it I usually ask a pizzeria owner what is your average bill ? Usually it's around $30 . So it costs a 28 cents a piece to mail 280 bucks and then on the back end you get $500 of sales out of that 280 . And if everything else is going well , repeat customers come out of it and you mail around your delivery radius and you see an increase of sales throughout the week , month and then throughout the year . So my usual response to that is well , I wouldn't have a job . If that wasn't the case , my family wouldn't have this family business . But when you use it , you do it correctly , you will see a sales increase for your store .
Speaker 1And how often should someone be sending out mailers ? I'm assuming that it gets more effective when you do it a few times . I think about ovation and trade shows . A lot of people know us from trade shows because we go to like 30 a year and what we found is you get more ROI if you invest in more trade shows as opposed to just investing in one . Is it similar with mail ?
Speaker 2Yeah , correct , my mother-in-law always says so , my father-in-law and mother-in-law . They started the business 17 years ago . I've since taken it over , so when I reference my in-laws that's why I'm doing so . My mother-in-law always says mail a little bit consistently . Now we have customers that mail blasts . So if you have a three mile radius with 10,000 addresses and you mail all 10,000 at once , we call that a blast . You're welcome to do so . But our recommendation is actually to mail that delivery radius three to four times a year . So menus are arriving in-home every three to four months . So mail a little bit consistently , stay on top of it , update your menus , update your pricings , change your offers , change your call to actions , update your photos , but mail your menu or postcard consistently weekly all throughout the year , trying to hit menus in-home three to four times a year .
Speaker 1Love that . I think that makes a ton of sense . I remember back in the day I used to sell column inches of newspaper ads . That was , like my , my job in college . I sold newspaper ads in in like the daily . It's called the daily universe , what's that called Like the university newspaper ? And yeah , we people would be like , hey , I just want to do like one big ad on a Thursday and I'm like , well , okay , but what I would recommend is doing same budget but like spreading it out and doing a smaller ad over a longer period of time , because it's about that the viewers , it's about the views , about the impressions .
Speaker 2Exactly Like blasts are great , especially for grand openings , special events , catering , getting the holiday season , or like a targeted direct mail piece where you're sending it to your customer database . But when it comes to growing your sales over time , that consistency and then like starting close to the store , working your way out , that's what's going to help people notice hey , we're still here . You know , maybe you take a different route to work every day . You're driving on the highway rather than the side street or whatever life throws at you that you're no longer taking the same route . It's like , hey , we're still here , even though we're a mile away . You may not know we exist or you've since forgotten about us , just a way to stay top of mind .
Speaker 1Yeah , and Toma , I think that's something where , in the restaurant industry , we don't hear about that very often . We don't hear about that very often , but Toma is a real thing . Toma is top of mind awareness and we really need to remember that because and I think it's really interesting that you said emailing your customers or mailing your customers because when you look at it , it's challenging if you're just getting people , you're just trying to get new people in the door , because we all know that the average return rate of a guest is 30% . And I've seen we have conducted this study , innovation , we've seen it , published studies about this , we have other partners and the number is either 29 , 30 , or 31% in every single study that I've read about this .
Speaker 1And I have restaurants , kevin , I have restaurants all the time that are like oh no , my people love me , they come in the 95% retention rate and I'm like Tony , I assure you it is not 95% retention , no , no , I know every customer that comes in my door and you know it's just not how it works . And so mailing your customers is a great way to remind them about you and bump that 30 to 35 to 40 . And if you do these little incremental bumps . It's the same as if you're bringing in these masses of new people because it's so expensive to bring in new people .
Speaker 2Correct . And then , once you send out a direct mail piece , that's when other marketing can play in as well . So I don't know , when I was at the you mentioned Matt Plapp earlier when we were at the Pizza Expo he said what's one of the most important things to do with direct mail ? It's like , well , pair it with your digital marketing . So if you have a VIP , you have a Facebook marketing , you have some type of other online platform happening , we'll pair that advertisement with your direct mail so that they get it in-home . Then they take action . Make sure you have some people in-store focusing on other marketing to retain their info , and then it just all builds on top of each other .
Speaker 1Yeah , love that , love that . So , thinking about the guest and thinking about the guest experience from your perspective , what do you think is the most important aspect of guest experience nowadays ?
Speaker 2So I think that the most important experience is like the lasting impression and then like the consistency with the meal . So when I go into a place and I think about my favorite restaurants , it's does the staff know . Like , if I ask them like , hey , what do you recommend ? Are they on top of it ? So like I have that like initial impression right away of like OK , they know what they're doing , they're excited to be here too , they're excited to serve me , I'm excited to eat the food . And then when I try that food , if it's a 10 , well , the next time I go there is it going to be a 10 again . And then if I you know , man , I want to go somewhere for my birthday , Well , I want to go to .
Speaker 2My favorite place is a place called Knuck and Futz . Here it's a wing place . There's a wing joint called Knuck and Futz . It's hilarious Hole in the wall , but when I go the wings are 10 , and it's a 10 every single time . I'm never disappointed and the atmosphere is great , the impression is great . So when I think about what's the most important thing , a lot of it goes into running a restaurant . But as long as you're consistent and you're consistent every single time and you meet that expectation , you make me happy when I go there . I think that's the most important thing right now for any restaurant .
Speaker 1Consistency we hear that so often here , because consistency yields trust . Right , I trust what I'm going to get when I get . I got to be really careful in saying that name Nuckenfutz , nuckenfutz . Yeah , okay , careful in saying that name Nuckin' Butts , nuckin' Butts . Yeah , okay , not a name I would like casually throw out there , but I think it's Correct .
Speaker 2Correct . I can't believe I even said that on this podcast , but it's just the truth . My favorite place .
Speaker 1But I think it's one of those things where you got to know what you're going to get . And then it's about realizing like hey , we're all humans , everyone makes mistakes , right . And the problem about consistency is , I think , about a pizza joint that I went to for years and I went in one time and one of the things I love about this pizza place is their creamy Italian dressing . And I went in and the creamy Italian dressing was so wrong . It was just like it's normally this nice thick dressing , and it was just like water , super runny , really gross , and I ended up . I used to go there like at least once a month . I ended up not going to that place for two years .
Speaker 1Yeah , you get disappointed , and then you just oh you know , and it wasn't because exactly the factor Cause I wasn't like it wasn't like I was so mad at them , but it was just like oh , there's a bunch of other pizza places I haven't tried in the last you know few years , so let me try that . And it took two years for me to get back to putting that restaurant in my cycle .
Speaker 2You had that ugh factor and then you lost the customer's attention and it's like , well , now I might go look and try something else . So that again going back to consistently . If it's a 10 every time , I don't want to go anywhere else . I know I'm going to get this at this restaurant , but keeping that is hard , but it is very important .
Speaker 1Yeah , so what do you think about some tactics ? What are some tactics that you've seen to improve the guest experience ?
Speaker 2So I mentioned this one earlier .
Speaker 2But like , if you go into a restaurant and you haven't seen it , you look at the Google reviews , you look at the photos you have like this impression going in and then again when I want to place an order , I actually like hate asking the question , but I always do like , hey , what are you known for ? What do you recommend ? And if they have a good answer and they're excited about it oh we have this special going on , or I really like these three items and it's not like the most expensive item on the menu . I think that's a great tactic to get people excited about the food they're about to eat .
Speaker 1I love that , and can you do that with what's a great way to do that with mailers , like what would be some good strategies for kind of getting that
Direct Mail Marketing Campaign Strategies
Speaker 1out there ? Do you find that promos , like do people still walk in with coupons ? Is that like a thing ?
Speaker 2Most of the time . I think people do walk in with promos still , especially like the older crowd . If you think of people who get direct mail or who get , who checks their mailbox every day , people who are paying the bills day . People who were paying the bills when I was 18 , at my parents' house and not doing anything , just hanging out , going out with friends when I was 22 , 21 , didn't have that many bills yet , but once I graduated school and moved into my own place and well , guess who's going to get the mail then ? People who were paying the bills , so I would say my dad's age . They are still using coupons , like me .
Speaker 2I get a mailer , I scan the QR code and I use the coupon code to order online . But my parents don't . They'll use , they'll walk in , they'll call to use the coupon . So have a coupon code on there to reach my demographic . Put a QR code for me , but also include a walk-in for my parents' demographic as well , because they're still checking the mail . They check the mail every day , just like I do now as an adult . But promos call to actions , food photos , all of those matter when it comes to direct mail .
Speaker 1And what do you look at ? So , do you have a coupon ? Do you have like a ? Bring this in with a QR code .
Speaker 2No , well , it can be both . So it's like it can be present this coupon at the time of ordering , or scan like scan online to order online and put this QR code when you're ordering and then that way the POS system then takes over . And then what's nice about POS system and technology these days , which maybe 17 years ago we didn't have when we first started this business , is it's trackable .
Speaker 1So then you're kind of seeing that ROI or seeing those coupon codes come in and it makes it easier for my customers to then track what type of response they're getting . Yeah , that makes a lot of sense . So do you find that , with mailers , what can I be expecting ? Let's say , I guess , what should I expect for a typical investment and a typical ROI out of a mailer campaign If you were going to say here's like the ideal way to do it ?
Speaker 2Now are we speaking for any restaurant or for pizzerias ?
Speaker 1Let's talk about pizza .
Speaker 2Okay , because I know pizzerias and it would be a long-winded answer about getting , because it does depend on the type of store . For my example , if I was mailing for an HVAC company , well , they would only need to get like two responses and replace an AC and then they've made up that mailing volume right , they've made up that postage . When it comes for a pizzeria to get that , it's like there's many different types of postcards , there's many different types of menus . So what's in your budget ? And then , how frequently are you looking to mail ? So I have recommendations like I said , three to four times a year , but if you're in , it does show your entire menu , mail that consistently , build up that brand awareness within your delivery radius and then use postcards , magnet postcards , scratch-offs , anything you might have as a way to .
Speaker 2I always say , like , hit them with a change-up . You throw the fastball , throw the fastball , throw the fastball with the menu . You're building up that brand awareness , you're sharing your menu with your customers . There might be a coupon strip in there for the call to action , but then during , let's say , football season , send out a football postcard . During the holiday season , send out a customer data mailer to your target audience saying thanks for being a loyal customer of Jersey Pizza Boys . Here's $7 off , rather than like a $5 off , something special to get them to come in the door , but for your value as a customer that they got that mailer . So hit them with the menu , then hit them with the change up . As I say , hit them with the postcard something a little bit different to change that You're still staying top of mind , but it's different than the menu that you've sent out three to four times a year . Does that make sense ?
Speaker 1Oh , love that and I would say , coming from the other side of things , the digital side of things , when you send that out .
Speaker 2I mean , combine it with other media that you're pushing it to be able to track everything . Yeah , you know , if you're having a Halloween social media campaign going on on Facebook , we'll send out a Halloween targeted mail piece that combines it together . So just try to target it from . You know , that's also a nice thing about direct mail . Is my parents ? They're not on TikTok , they're not on Instagram , they're not on Facebook . Well , I am , and I might see an ad from someone , but I'm also I might get another hit by . Maybe I see that Instagram ad because it's local , and then I go to my mailbox and , boom , there it is again . So they do play on top of each other , but they do target different demographics as well .
Speaker 1Yeah , love that . And , kevin , you know a lot of people in this industry , and so the next one's going to be a tough one . But who know a lot of people ?
Speaker 2in this industry , and so the next one's going to be a tough one , but who is someone that deserves an ovation in the restaurant industry , who is someone that we should be following . So , since I am a service provider for restaurants , I'm going to shout out another service provider , which is David DeSantis at Wook AI . Do you know David ? Yeah , yeah . So David has come up with a program that basically picks from their orders , so it looks at different providers and will pick the cheapest option for you . I probably have 15 of my 300 weekly customers using his services now and his product works and it saves them money . So let's give a shout out to David .
Speaker 1There we go . David DeSantis , I know you can find him online and that's Wook AI . W-o-o-k AI , wook AI , awesome . Well , where can we go to ?
Speaker 2learn more about you or Mailwise , kevin , totally so . Our website is wwwmailwisesolutionscom . You can go on there and request a sample packet if you're interested , or you can give us a call at 859-341-3400 . We are on Instagram . We are on Facebook as well , so just reach out to us and if you have any interest in our services , give us a call .
Speaker 1Well , kevin , for mailing in some amazing insights on this podcast . Today's ovation goes to you . Thank you for joining us on Give an Ovation .
Speaker 2Thank you , Zach . I appreciate the time .
Speaker 3Thanks for joining us today . If you liked this episode , leave us a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite place to listen . We're all about feedback here . Again , this episode was sponsored by Ovation , a two-question , sms-based actionable guest feedback platform built for multi-unit restaurants . If you'd like to learn how we can help you measure and create a better guest experience , visit us at OvationUpcom .