MP’s Minute – Jake Took His Worst Month & Made It His Best

Money Follows Attention, Just Ask Santa Claus 🎄

You know who dominates attention every November and December?

Jolly ol’ Saint Nick.

Santa owns the feed, owns the streets, and owns your customers’ minds… whether they’re hungry or not.

So here’s the question: What if YOU paired Santa with your restaurant?

That’s exactly what my guy Jake at Cornerstone Pub & Prime did in Minnesota, and he crushed it. His Christmas pop-up exploded. The restaurant was packed. Social media lit up. And he didn’t wait for customers to get hungry; he made them pay attention first.

And the best part, he turned his worst sales month into his TOP MONTH! He’s also doing something smart and keeping it up through January to keep the momentum going.  

Go check it out for yourself: www.mattplapp.live/santa

💡 Here’s the lesson:

Jake didn’t “do a promotion.”
He created a moment.
He built a scene.
He owned attention, and it printed money.

He made his restaurant the star of the town,  just like those neighborhoods with the crazy light displays and synchronized music. And here’s the kicker…

He planned it. Months in advance.

🎯 Action Step: Plan YOUR Attention Now

Christmas is over,  but attention doesn’t stop.

✅ Want to do a Christmas in July event? Start now.
✅ Want to build a crazy light display for next holiday season? Start now.
✅ Want to dominate social and pull attention from every restaurant around you? Start now.

If you’re not planning to get attention, you’re not planning to get business.

Jake took attention when people weren’t even hungry, and that’s when the real magic happens.

Want help mapping out what you should do each month?
🎁 Grab the FREE Attention Plan → business.americasbestrestaurants.com/attention-plan-download

Make it a great week.
Keep showing up.
Keep earning attention.

 

– MP

This Week’s Song + Book:  The song is obvious, the book is a REPEAT suggestion because I think Jake’s marketing is OUTRAGOUS!

📚 Marketing Outrageously by Jon Spoelstra

🎵 Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer By Gene Autry

MP’s Minute: You’re Not “Losing” a Pizza – You’re Buying a Customer

Last week, a restaurant owner told my team:

“I’m not giving away free food. That’s not how I run my business.”

I get it. On the surface, giving away a free pizza feels like you’re losing money.

But if that’s how you think, you’re missing the entire point of marketing.

You’re not losing a pizza. You’re buying a customer.

Let me walk you through this…

The foundation of your marketing plan is the ONLY marketing you 100% control, YOUR DATABASE

So, you must be willing to do whatever it takes to build your marketing database.

Because that’s where your sales growth comes from.

We do that by trading VALUE (a free pizza, app, dessert, etc.) in exchange for what actually matters: a customer’s contact info.

Once we have that, we can market to them through email, text, and Messenger (which, by the way, still has wild open rates and it’s FREE).

Here’s what that “free pizza” really does:

It helps you:

  • Get a new customer in the door

  • Bring a lost customer back

  • Encourage a frequent customer to come more often

  • Get any customer to try something new

That $2–$3 food cost? That’s not a loss, it’s the price of attention.
And attention is the gateway to long-term profit.

If you’re still resisting this strategy because “you don’t give away free food,” ask yourself:

What’s more valuable? A pizza that costs you $3…

Or a customer who visits 10+ times in the next year because you captured their data and followed up with intention?

I know my answer. Hell, I’d give away almost anything at ABR if it meant building a real relationship with a restaurant owner.

Because I’m not playing for today, I’m playing for the next 5 to 10 years.

If you want to build a restaurant that dominates, you need:
✅ A plan to capture data
✅ A system to follow up
✅ The courage to look beyond today’s food cost

That’s what we do every day with restaurants across the country.

🎵 This week’s song: Africa by TOTO…hurry your customers are waiting for you 🙂 

📚 This week’s book: Vivid Vision by Cameron Herald

 

– MP OUT 🤝

Want More Customers? Be Like Aldo

Last week I visited a restaurant that reminded me what happens when you combine great food with great marketing — and why most pizzerias are missing half the equation.

The place?
Aldo & Manny’s Pizza & Pasta.

The man?
Aldo. A legend in the making.

From a giant wooden statue of himself out front to a mini version used for community scavenger hunts, this guy doesn’t just serve pizza — he tells a story.

Here’s the thing…

Aldo’s food is incredible. His kitchen is spotless. His team is tight.
But what makes him different is that he understands this truth:

Good food gets people in the door.
Great marketing keeps them coming back — and brings their friends.

While most restaurant owners wait for word of mouth, Aldo builds it daily across social media, inside his restaurant, and out in the community.

He’s not lucky. He’s intentional.

So I broke down everything I saw — the exact moves he’s making that ANY pizzeria can steal and implement right now.

📋 I call it the “Be Like Aldo Marketing Checklist” — and trust me, this list is fire.

👉 Go read the full breakdown on PMQ Pizza Magazine right here:
https://www.pmq.com/be-like-aldo-10-real-world-marketing-moves-every-pizzeria-should-steal-from-aldo-manny/

This is the kind of article I wish existed when I started helping restaurants.

Don’t just serve food — build a brand.
Don’t just post online — make it stick.
Don’t just be good — be unforgettable.

Be like Aldo.

– MP OUT 🍕🔥

The Facebook Question That Can Sell More Pizza Than Your Best Food Photo

You don’t need a new menu item or a giant discount to blow up your Facebook page. All you need is the right question.

That’s what I break down in my latest PMQ Pizza Magazine article: How You Can Spark Engagement, Build Your Database and Sell More Pizza With One Simple Post

Last week, a small-town pizzeria asked a question on Facebook that exploded: “How many pizzas do you think we sell on an average Saturday?” No coupon. No sales pitch. Just a simple question that invited the community to chime in.

Here’s why that worked: it made people stop scrolling, it sparked conversation, and it tapped into curiosity and community pride.

The result? Thousands of views, hundreds of comments, and a massive spike in engagement — all without spending a dime on ads.

But here’s the real kicker… They paired it with Manychat’s Comment Growth Tool and turned that post into a revenue-driving database.

📈 333 people opted in
🎯 126 redeemed an offer
💵 $2,368.77 in tracked sales

That’s a 38% redemption rate from people who commented on a fun post.

Most restaurants treat social media like a digital Valpak. Endless food photos, daily specials, and “Order Now” posts. But if you want to win, you have to stop screaming and start connecting.

Ask questions. Engage your audience. Capture their info. Follow up. That’s how you build attention and turn it into money.

This article gives you: 12 proven, no-fluff question ideas to post right now, a real-world breakdown of how to use Manychat to build your database, and a clear path to turn comments into customers.

📖 Read the full article on PMQ here: Click to Read

Then ask yourself: What question will you post this week to grow your brand?

Let’s go.
– MP

MP’s Monday Minute

“How many pizzas do you think we sell on an average Saturday?”

That’s what Circles & Squares Pizza Co. in Newark, Ohio, asked their audience:  a simple question that exploded.

And here’s the beauty of it…

They didn’t post about buying pizza.

They didn’t push a coupon.

They didn’t scream “Order Now.”

They just asked a question.

And the results? Massive.

13 hours after posting, I saw:

  1. 34 shares

  2. 129 comments

  3. 50 likes

  4. 6,000+ views

And that number’s still climbing.

What made this post work?

They treated social media like it’s supposed to be treated: social.

Facebook and Instagram are not digital versions of Money Mailer or Valpak.

So stop posting like it’s 1997. Leave your direct mail tone off social media.

Instead:

  1. Ask questions

  2. Engage your audience

  3. Have fun

  4. Highlight your employees

  5. Promote your community (yes, other businesses)

This one simple post crushed everything else they’ve posted recently, and they’ve got some solid food pics. But this? This lit a fire.

Why?  Because people want to be part of something, not just sold to.

It’s called Social Media for a reason.

So be social.

Be human.

Be fun.

And for the love of pepperoni…

Stop only posting your pizza.

Have an awesome week…

 

– MP OUT.

 

 🎵 This week’s song: Fireborn – Burn It All by Glum Aleks

 

📚 This week’s book:  Sell More Slices by Matt Plapp  – Want a free copy?  Email me and we’ll drop it in the mail today!

🎯 The Dumbest Mistake Killing Your Restaurant’s Reputation (and How to Avoid It)

Let’s get something straight: every restaurant is going to mess up. A wrong order. A cold pizza. A server having a rough day. It happens.

But how you respond when the ball is dropped? That’s what separates the pros from the posers—and the 5-star joints from the 1-star disasters.

And if you want to guarantee 1-star reviews, there’s one surefire way to do it:
Ignore the guest entirely. Or worse—argue with them.

That’s the brutal truth dropped in this must-read article from PMQ:
👉 “How to Get 1-Star Reviews Guaranteed”

🔥 Why You Can’t Afford to Get This Wrong

In the world of independent restaurants, your online reputation is your currency.
That next customer scrolling Yelp or Google isn’t thinking about how great your food could be—they’re looking at what others say it is.

And when a negative review hits and you ghost the guest?

That’s not just bad customer service.
That’s marketing malpractice.

At America’s Best Restaurants, we’ve worked with over 2,500 restaurants across the country. What do the best ones do differently?
They see every complaint as a gift—a chance to show their community what they’re made of.

🚨 Stop Making Excuses—Start Making Loyalty

What most owners don’t realize is that bad reviews can turn into marketing gold when handled right.
Because when other potential customers see how you responded with empathy, urgency, and professionalism—they start to trust you.

So here’s your action plan:

  1. Respond publicly, fast.
    Show the world you’re listening.

  2. Take it offline.
    Get a phone number or email and solve the issue personally.

  3. Make it right.
    Refund. Replace. Invite them back. Do something.

  4. Follow up.
    Check in. Show you care. It matters more than you think.

💡 Want to Be One of America’s Best Restaurants?

You’ve got the food.
You’ve got the team.
Now it’s time to fix the one thing holding you back: your approach to feedback.

If you’re serious about transforming negative moments into powerful branding opportunities, start by reading this PMQ article. Then, take a hard look in the mirror and ask:

“Are we responding like a 1-star operation or building a 5-star legacy?”

📍 Read it now: “How to Get 1-Star Reviews Guaranteed”

Want help turning your restaurant into a local legend?
Let’s talk about the ABR Roadshow, DRYVER Loyalty, or ABR University to get your brand seen, heard, and loved by your community.

📩 DM us or visit: www.americasbestrestaurants.com

Day 337 – The Puzzle – MP’s Monday Minute

I guess you could call this your Restaurant Marketing Math.

Add them all up, and if you’re hitting all 9, you’re off to the races.

 

🔢 Step 1 – The 3 Steps (aka the ABR Commandments)

Every restaurant’s marketing strategy MUST revolve around these three words:

1. ATTRACT – Attract Attention

If your Facebook page is a ghost town, you’re not attracting.

If no one opens or clicks your emails, you’re not attracting.

Your job is to stop the scroll, spark curiosity, and get noticed.

2. BUILD – Build A Database

If your attention-grabbing content isn’t capturing data, you’re doing it wrong.

Stop renting attention and start owning the relationship.

If I comment on your post, I should get a message in Facebook Messenger asking for my info.

If I click your link, I better land on a page asking for my name, email, and phone.

3. RETAIN – Retain Your Customers

This is where most restaurants fall apart.

You don’t retain attention, which means you don’t retain business.

You can’t let customers forget you, especially when marketing distractions are hitting them from all sides in 2025.

 

 

👥 Step 2 – The 3 Customer Types

Every one of your customers falls into one of these buckets.

And you must ABR each one.

✅ NEW

You MUST be running a daily new customer acquisition campaign with an O.S.G. (Offer So Good) they’d feel dumb turning down.

This is how you outpace customer loss. Think of it like inflation: you either beat it, or you fall behind.

🔁 FREQUENT

Your best customers need to be rewarded, not ignored.

This is where a strong loyalty program comes in to encourage them to return more often and increase their ticket value when they do come in.

❌ LOST

Every day, great customers go missing.

Not because of anything you did wrong in-store, but because you lost their attention.

They got distracted. Their habits changed. They forgot.

Your marketing failed to stay top-of-mind. You need a plan to win them back.

 

 

📍Step 3 – The 3 Places You MUST Dominate

Now it’s time to apply ABR to all 3 customer types across 3 key locations:

🏪 IN-STORE

The people walking through your doors are your #1 asset.

Your team should be doing more than asking “How are you doing?”

  1. You need fresh, bold in-store graphics

  2. You need a trained team that’s building relationships

  3. And you need an O.S.G. ready to go to ethically bribe them into your database

     

If someone leaves your store and you don’t know who they are, that’s a missed opportunity.

🌐 ONLINE

Your website can’t suck.

It needs:

  1. Strong calls to action

  2. A way to capture data even when customers don’t order

  3. Facebook Pixel + Google Tag Manager — so you can retarget visitors like a pro

     

If someone visits your website, that’s the next best thing to walking through your doors. Treat it like it.

📱 SOCIAL MEDIA

Your customers live on social.

You already know this.

Use it to:

  1. Run targeted ads for new, lost, and frequent customers

  2. Post content that builds trust, not just discounts

  3. Stop treating it like Money Mailer and start treating it like your media channel

     

You’re not just a restaurant – you’re a local brand. Act like it.

 

 

🎁 IN CLOSING

Here’s my gift to you:

[Click here] to access 3 documents that’ll help you jumpstart your marketing ATTENTION plan.

No guesswork. Just plug and play.

 

-MP out

 

🎵 This week’s song: Outrun – WEARETHEGOOD

📚 This week’s book: Deep Work by Cal Newport – You are an entrepreneur, and putting in place strategies like above you must be able to do DEEP WORK.

Day 336 – The Puzzle 🔥 6 Pizza Marketing Power Moves You Can’t Afford to Ignore (From the PMQ Power Forum)

Running a restaurant in 2025 without a marketing game plan is like tossing pizza dough with your eyes closed — messy and pointless.

That’s why I broke down my Top 6 Takeaways from PMQ’s Pizza Power Forum, and let me tell you… these aren’t just ideas. These are field-tested, ROI-driven truths that could shift how you market your restaurant forever.

👉 You’ll learn:

  • Why you’re probably blending in when you should be standing out.

  • How the most successful restaurants think about content (hint: it’s NOT about the likes).

  • The importance of building a real marketing funnel – not just “posting more.”

  • Why relevance + repetition = results (most restaurant owners blow this).

  • How to track the right data so you know what’s actually working.

  • And the real reason your Facebook ads might be flopping (and how to fix it).

If you care about getting more butts in seats, increasing repeat visits, and owning your backyard, then this is required reading.

🧠 I wrote it for the owner who’s tired of guessing and ready to get serious.

👉 Click here to read the full article on PMQ:
https://www.pmq.com/matt-plapp-my-top-6-marketing-takeaways-from-pmqs-awesome-pizza-power-forum/

Day 332 – The Puzzle – From Flat to Record-Breaking: How Papa Kelsey’s Tripled Its Loyalty Sales

Why Loyalty Alone Isn’t Enough for Your Restaurant

Most restaurant owners love the idea of loyalty programs. The promise is simple: reward your best guests, keep them coming back, and watch sales grow.

But here’s the truth most operators don’t want to hear: loyalty programs by themselves don’t actually grow your customer base.

That’s the problem Andy Dell, owner of Papa Kelsey’s in Queen Creek, AZ, was facing. Andy had been running a loyalty program for years—and it worked. His regulars were engaged. His repeat customers were steady.

But here’s the catch:

👉 He was only adding 30–50 new members a month.
👉 With churn, his active members never grew.
👉 His sales plateaued during the brutal Arizona summers.

Sound familiar?

The Missing Piece: DRYVER Acquisition

When Andy added our DRYVER Acquisition program, everything changed. Instead of 30–50 new loyalty members a month, he started adding 200+. His active ordering members grew from 600 to over 900.

And the results followed:

  • Sales in June and July—normally his worst months—were up $7,000–$8,000 each month.

  • Loyalty sales nearly tripled compared to just a few years ago.

  • He’s on pace to finish the year $100,000 ahead of last year.

The secret? It wasn’t just loyalty. It wasn’t just acquisition. It was the combination.

  • Acquisition brings in new customers.

  • Loyalty keeps them coming back.

  • And the ABR Roadshow builds the brand that makes them unforgettable.

That’s the full foundation. Anything less is like sitting on a one-legged stool—you’ll eventually fall over.

Read Andy’s Full Story in PMQ

I recently shared Andy’s results and the full strategy behind them in PMQ Pizza Magazine.

If you’ve ever wondered why your loyalty program feels stuck—or how to finally grow your customer base while making every marketing dollar pay for itself—you’ll want to read this.

👉 [Click here to read the full PMQ article.]

📈 How One Phoenix Pizza Shop Turned a Flatlined Loyalty Program Into $70K Summers With DRYVER Acquisition

📈 How One Phoenix Pizza Shop Turned a Flatlined Loyalty Program Into $70K Summers With DRYVER Acquisition

Since 2010, a single-location pizza shop in Phoenix, Arizona, has been running a DRYVER loyalty program (formerly Repeat Returns). While the program delivered steady results year after year, it eventually flatlined. The sales from existing members were solid—but without new members joining, growth stalled.

For over a decade, loyalty sales stayed relatively stable. And every summer, as Phoenix temperatures soared, customer frequency dropped—hard.

By 2023, something had to give.

The owner had just come off a tough year. His “COVID bump” had faded, and like many restaurants, sales had returned to pre-pandemic levels. So he made a decision:
 Focus on growing the loyalty list.

And it worked.
 He started pulling in 2–3x more new members, which meant more orders and more revenue. But the real challenge was still ahead…

At the 2024 Pizza Expo in Las Vegas, he pulled me aside and said:

“Matt, Arizona summers kill my sales. If you’ve got a fix, I’m all in.”
 

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED.

In June, we launched our DRYVER Acquisition program.
 The results? Game-changing.
 Sales skyrocketed. Membership exploded. And summer turned from slump to surge.

❌ The Problem: Loyalty Alone Isn’t Enough

This is exactly why we acquired Repeat Returns and turned it into DRYVER.

For years, we watched restaurant owners assume that a loyalty program alone could solve their sales problems. But if you’re not actively building that loyalty membership, then it’s like having a Ferrari in the garage with no gas.

That’s where DRYVER Acquisition comes in.

Our goal?

To help restaurants build a flow of new customers through paid Facebook and Instagram ads, capture their data, and plug them directly into loyalty programs—giving owners both new faces and repeat business.

🔁 The Shift: From Flatline to Growth Engine

Let’s break down the numbers:

Between 2018 and 2022:

  • New loyalty signups: 25 to 50 per month
  • Ordering members: Averaged around 500/month
  • Loyalty sales: Consistently between $13,000–$15,000/month
  • Peak (July 2020, during COVID): $18,000 in loyalty-driven sales

Flat.

In 2023, the owner started making in-store and community opt-in efforts, bumping new member signups to 97 in June and 83 in July. That bumped ordering members to the 600s.

But the big transformation started when DRYVER Acquisition flipped on in early 2024.

📊 Loyalty in July: Year-by-Year Breakdown

Here’s what happened to loyalty sales and ordering members every July:

📅 July 2018
 👥 518 ordering members
 💵 $14,000 in loyalty sales

📅 July 2019
 👥 525 ordering members
 💵 $15,000 in loyalty sales

📅 July 2020 (Pandemic Peak)
 🚀 546 ordering members
 💰 $18,000 in loyalty sales

📅 July 2021
 📉 508 ordering members
 💵 $15,000 in loyalty sales

📅 July 2022
 ⚠️ 462 ordering members
 💸 $13,000 in loyalty sales

📅 July 2023 (DIY Growth Effort)
 🔧 649 ordering members
 📈 $21,000 in loyalty sales

📅 July 2024 (🚦DRYVER Acquisition Launched)
 🔥 768 ordering members
 💥 $26,000 in loyalty sales
 🎯 New traffic. Bigger list. Real results.

📅 July 2025 (⚡1 Year Into DRYVER Acquisition)
 🏆 945 ordering members
 💸 $34,000 in loyalty sales
 💣 List is growing. Sales are surging. Summer slump? Gone.

 

💡 The Takeaway: Build the List, Then Use the List

This case study proves what we’ve known all along:

Loyalty without acquisition is a dead-end street.

You can’t rely solely on in-store efforts—because over time, your team’s energy fades. They stop asking. Worse, they stop selling it.

That’s why you need a consistent, scalable traffic source.
 And nothing delivers like a customer acquisition program—like DRYVER Acquisition—using targeted Facebook and Instagram ads.

If you’re not actively feeding new customers into your marketing pipeline, your loyalty program will stall out.

But when you use DRYVER Acquisition to build the list and DRYVER Loyalty to retain and monetize it, you turn your slow seasons into growth seasons—on autopilot.

⚙️ Ready to Launch DRYVER Acquisition?

If you’re ready to take your loyalty program to the next level—or starting from scratch and want to launch with impact—now’s the time to build.

Stop hoping loyalty alone will save your business.
 Start stacking the deck in your favor with DRYVER Acquisition.  

CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR DEMO TODAY