In a previous insight we talked about marketing for pinserie, or in general for all the places that offer pinsa or intend to do so. We went into the subject in depth, explaining not only its centrality for customer acquisition and loyalty, but also underlined how a basic strategy, well-designed and executed, is within everyone's reach, both in terms of skills and cost
Here we focus on this last aspect: the cost, with the declared aim of providing some suggestions for make the most of your budget, avoiding waste.
FIRST TIP: DO NOT ACTIVATE CHANNELS THAT YOU WILL NOT USE
Any venue is aware of the need to be present on social media, perhaps to have an excellent website and a communication channel with its public, but how much does it cost to have them, or what commitment does it require to manage them? all these tools and how much does it actually cost to acquire a new customer?
The question is not trivial. Since there is no direct and immediate connection between a marketing action (with partial exception of advertising) and the return on investment (ROI), many establishments see these activities as a necessary evil and do the bare minimum. It has happened to anyone to consult existing but deserted social profiles, write through an official channel (e.g., Facebook Messenger to book a table) or to the email info@ and not receive a response, find the restaurant on TripAdvisor but without any kind of interaction between the restaurateur and his public, or a magazine regularly present as a section of the site but with the most recent article from last year.
It is almost superfluous to underline how all these non-activities generate a boomerang effect on acquiring new customers. Better, much better to be present on a limited number of channels, perhaps using a company WhatsApp (perfect channel to interact with groups of users) or a well-curated blog with the possibility of interacting via email, than to launch into the conquest of TikTok, Instagram, TripAdvisor and Facebook by posting once every 6 months only to communicate the summer closing days.
START WITH STRATEGY, NOT COSTS
But let's get back to the central issue: how much does it cost to do things well? Obviously, there is no fixed and definitive answer, because it all depends on the strategy and the objectives you set.
The golden rule, as mentioned, is that it is best to monitor a few channels and use well-defined tools (e.g. the newsletter) with passion and consistency, which in fact also allows you to limit the budget and define challenging objectives but commensurate with the economic burdens. The budget is relatively important (if you don't go below certain thresholds, such as a few hundred euros per month), what matters is not to waste it. If, especially at the beginning, the expense cannot be significant, focus on the blog, the newsletter or the social channel used by the greatest number of customers, so as to obtain the first significant results. Once the strategy has been validated, it can always be intensified at a later time, perhaps starting to make competitive assessments.
Obviously, the more ambitious the goals, the more the necessary budgets grow and, above all, it becomes appropriate to get into the technical: for example, it is necessary to segment the clientele within a tool such as CRM (Customer Relationship Manager), it is necessary to calculate the acquisition levels of each individual channel, the customer acquisition cost, and thus consultancy from professionals or dedicated agencies becomes indispensable.
But without going too much into technical details, which is beyond the scope of this article, the important thing is to define a strategy, and you do this by answering some key questions, including:
- What do you want to achieve and in how much time;
- Which channels to activate to achieve the goal and how to mix them (if more than one);
- What budget to dedicate to individual activities;
- How to measure (KPI) progress towards the desired goal.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), in particular, are fundamental in this regard, they must be chosen carefully and depend on the tool you adopt and the strategy as a whole. For example, a blog will take into account the number of keywords it is positioned on and the monthly traffic, a social media will take into account the level of interaction with potential customers in your area, a newsletter will take into account the opening rate and so on.
By doing so, investments are focused on one or more specific areas, they are carefully monitored and managed, there is no dispersion and it is always possible to correct the course if some channels or activities prove to be completely inefficient.
THE NEXT PHASE IS SCALING, BUT COMPLEXITY INCREASES
After the first small investments, which often serve to validate a strategy, it is natural to want to take the next step: to climb. But what does it really mean? It is not enough to increase the budget hoping for a proportional growth; true scaling consists in achieving a much higher return on investment (ROI) than the increased costs.
To do this, it is essential starting from advanced audience segmentation. Analyze existing customer data to segment your target audience into specific groups to create personalized, more effective campaigns. This approach improves your conversion rate and reduces your cost per acquisition.
In parallel, expand your strategy exploring new channels or adopting techniques such as retargeting and cross-selling, which maximize the value of acquired customers. It is important to monitor each initiative, identifying the activities that offer the best return.
Finally, invest in advanced automation and analysis tools to optimize performance in real time. Only with strategic management can you transform a larger budget into exponential growth in ROI.
