How to Market a Pizza Takeaway: What Works and What It Costs
Marketing a pizza takeaway is mostly about making word of mouth easy to act on, because it already brings in most of your customers. Get your Google profile right, print your number and a QR code on every box, run a few leaflet drops with a separate code per area, and keep only what produces orders you can count.
Where takeaway customers actually come from
On a French pizzaiolos’ forum, one owner spent several weeks asking every customer how they’d heard of him: 21 out of 32 said a friend, a neighbour or a colleague. Another put word of mouth at around 70%. Leaflets, Facebook and the web trailed well behind. The thread has been read close to 60,000 times, and UK owners tell the same story.
There’s a catch, which the forum spotted: you only ask the people who come to the counter. Teenagers and delivery customers find you on their phone, often on Just Eat or Deliveroo, and never tell you how. The lesson still holds. You can’t buy word of mouth, but you can control what happens after someone says “get it from there, it’s good”: they search your name, look for the menu, and order wherever it’s easiest. Every channel below either feeds that recommendation or turns it into an order on your terms.
Before you spend a penny: the four free basics
1. Your Google Business Profile
This is where a recommendation lands. Opening hours that match reality (including the Monday you’re shut), real photos of your pizzas, the menu, and your own ordering link set as the preferred one. Google doesn’t take orders itself any more: the order button sends people to a website, and you choose which one gets top billing. If you leave it, Just Eat will happily fill the gap.
The 10 local SEO mistakes pizzeria sites make
2. The box is your best leaflet
Every pizza ends up on a table, often in front of people who’ve never heard of you. A stamp or sticker with your name, number and a QR code to your menu costs a few pence per box. On a platform order, it’s also the only way to tell that customer they can order from you directly next time.
3. The shopfront
Readable from a car at night: “pizza”, the phone number, the days you open. A dark sign on a Monday with no hours on the door reads as “closed down”.
4. Local Facebook groups and Nextdoor
Town and village Facebook groups and Nextdoor are where people ask “where’s good for pizza round here?”. A sharp photo of a pizza of the month, posted regularly and without the hard sell, travels further than an ad. On photos, pizzaiolos agree: light is 80% of the result, and a phone by a window is enough.
Leaflets: still worth it, if you check they’re delivered
| Option | Typical cost | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Royal Mail Door to Door | Around £60–70 per 1,000 + VAT (light leaflet) | Reliable; reaches “no junk mail” doors unless opted out |
| Local distribution firm | Roughly £30–70 per 1,000 | Ask for GPS tracking; spot-check |
| Paying someone by the hour | At least the National Minimum Wage | Expect 150–250 doors an hour |
| Doing it yourself | Your evenings | You know it’s done |
Indicative rates; Royal Mail prices depend on weight and volume, local firms on area and housing density. Get two quotes.
The real risk isn’t the price, it’s the bundle in a skip. French owners judge it by whether “the phone rings the next day”. You can do better: give each drop area its own promo code or QR code and count the orders that come in with it. An area that produces nothing after two drops gets dropped.
On the leaflet: the menu with prices, hours, phone, QR, and one offer with an end date. Two offers and nobody remembers either.
A leaflet is only measurable if it points to a link you control. If the QR goes to a delivery app, you pay for the print, the drop, and then the commission on every order it brings in.
Facebook and Instagram: visibility over competitions
“Like and share to win a free pizza” is the classic. Owners who tried it report few direct orders and winners who take weeks to claim. What it does give you is presence, and as one owner put it, being seen everywhere, over time, is what pays. A one-off competition doesn’t do that; a post a week does.
Small boosts of £5–15 on a good local post, targeted to a few miles around the shop, beat big campaigns. Your customer lives ten minutes away, not in the next county.
Old channels: keep or drop?
- Paid directory listings: dead as a source of pizza orders. Keep free listings accurate, don’t pay for upgrades.
- Local radio and papers: only for an event (opening night, a charity pizza day), and better as a story than a paid ad.
- Sponsoring the Sunday league team or the school fair: a few pizzas or a banner, cheap, and exactly the kind of thing people mention.
A 90-day plan for a new takeaway
| When | What | Rough budget |
|---|---|---|
| Weeks 0–2 | Google profile, box stamp or sticker, signage, your own ordering link | £50–250 |
| Weeks 2–6 | 2–3 leaflet drops in different areas, one code per area; opening-week offer | £250–700 |
| Weeks 6–12 | Keep the areas and channels that produced orders; start a loyalty scheme; post weekly | £100–250 a month |
Indicative budgets for a single-site takeaway, excluding menu printing.
Loyalty cards that actually bring people back
Measure it: one question and one code per channel
For a month, ask every customer “how did you hear about us?” and tally it on a sheet by the till. It takes three seconds and it’s the best market research you’ll ever do.
Online, it’s automatic if every channel has its own link: the north-side leaflet QR, the box QR, the Google profile link. You see what each one brought in and cut what doesn’t work. A Just Eat order never tells you where the customer came from.
Getting customers to order from you online
FAQ
How much does it cost to deliver 1,000 leaflets?
Royal Mail Door to Door is around £60–70 per 1,000 plus VAT for a light leaflet; local firms are often cheaper but less reliable. Give each area its own QR or promo code so you can see which drops brought orders.
What’s the best free way to promote a new takeaway?
A complete Google profile with your own ordering link, a QR code on every box, readable signage and regular posts in local Facebook groups. Word of mouth brings in most customers, so make it easy to act on.
Do “like and win a pizza” competitions work?
Owners report few direct orders and slow redemptions. What you get is repeated visibility. Regular good photos and a monthly special do more over time.
Do I need permission to hand out leaflets?
In the street, possibly: many councils have designated areas where you need consent under the Environmental Protection Act 1990. Check your council’s website. Letterbox drops don’t need consent.