The pandemic hit the restaurant industry hard, but pizza restaurants fared better than most. The industry finished 2020 $240 billion below pre-pandemic sales estimates. US pizza restaurant sales barely moved, from $46.34 billion in 2019 to $46.24 billion in 2020, and were still higher than in any year from 2012 through 2018.
By mid-2021, restaurant visits were climbing again. That was good news for diners and harder news for pizzerias, which had held on to their customers through the pandemic.
The reason is simple: more competition.
As restaurants reopen and guests have more choices for every meal, pizzerias will find it harder to keep the business they held during the pandemic. Pizza and Italian restaurants need marketing that fits the new landscape. Start with these five strategies.
- First-party data comes first. Changes announced by Apple and Google are reshaping how marketers reach consumers. Targeting based on browsing behavior and third-party data is fading, so campaigns will increasingly run on first-party data. For a physical business, that strategy starts with in-store customers. Look for natural places to offer a fair exchange for customer data: an email address for a digital receipt at checkout, an email to sign on to guest WiFi, or an incentive to join your email list. Each one should feel like a seamless part of the guest experience.
- Get to know your customers well. Collecting data is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Segment customers by new versus returning, visit frequency, and other traits, then build targeted marketing for each group. Tools like Adentro make this simple, including audiences based on when guests visit. A midweek lunch guest, a happy hour regular, and the weekend dinner crowd each call for a different message.
- Personalize your messaging. Once you understand your customer groups, a specific message for each should perform far better. According to Accenture, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that provide relevant offers and recommendations. Promote a new weekly special to your happy hour crowd, or a signature pizza to your younger guests, and expect stronger engagement.
- Measure what matters. A business with a physical location needs metrics tied to revenue, not vanity metrics. An email open rate is useful, but does it turn into revenue? Measuring Walk-Throughs, the visits that follow your marketing, shows what is working.
- Expand your reach. Owned channels like email, social, and your website are usually the most conservative use of your budget. Paid social and display advertising can support the rest of your marketing mix, and when every channel is measured by real visits, you can see how they work together.
Originally published on the Zenreach blog on June 17, 2021. Zenreach is now Adentro. This article was lightly edited in October 2026.