Lenny's featured in Nation's Restaurant News

Lenny's Sub Shop was recently featured in an article in Nation's Restaurant News titled "Maximizing the value of the social media fan." The article talks about the success Lenny’s has had with its social media and how the brand has been clever with its social media initiatives. Brent Alvord talks about how this method has helped Lenny’s become a leader in the social space and outperform larger competitors. The article also includes information about some of the new product launches and promotions. Click here for the full article, or begin reading below.

Maximizing the value of the social media fan
Smaller restaurant chains share Facebook strategies that have helped them grow sales and units

Upstart restaurant brands like Toppers Pizza and Lenny’s Sub Shop have to compete against industry giants like Pizza Hut and Subway for sales, and while they acknowledge that they can’t match their rivals’ size, they can punch above their weight in terms of marketing through social media.

Executives at both brands said they concentrate less on the total number of “likes” they earn on Facebook compared with much larger chains than they do at their likes per store. Though the number of restaurants in their systems do not approach the same league as the competition, often their stable of Facebook fans per unit far exceed that of their peers.

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Lenny's featured in Memphis Business Journal

Lenny's Sub Shop was recently featured in an article titled “Social media: Lenny’s meal ticket” in Memphis Business Journal. The article included a section based on Lenny’s from the interview we secured for Brent Alvord with Michael Sheffield.

In the article, which includes two great store photos, Brent talks about the success Lenny’s has had with its social media brand initiatives. He does a great job talking about how the brand has connected with its fans and followers to handle all social experiences, and has increased its social fan base better than its larger competitors.

Social media: Lenny’s meal ticket
by Michael Sheffield
Sub sandwich chain rewards fans, draws customers

What was once its slowest day of the week has transformed into one of the busiest days of the week for Lenny’s Sub Shop, thanks to Facebook.

Since launching its Facebook page three years ago, Memphis-based Lenny’s, which has 150 locations across the country, has grown its fan base to more than 85,000 followers, with an average of 578 fans per location. By comparison, Subway, with more than 37,000 locations around the world and 16.4 million followers, has an average of 442 fans per location, according to industry statistics.

Brent Alvord, president of Lenny’s, says the company has tapped into its followers through its Social Wednesday promotions.

Social Wednesday provides Lenny’s followers with coupons ranging from free chips and drinks to free subs, and has increased annual sales among the company’s top franchisees by more than 9 percent. Lenny’s top franchisees average about $694,000 per year. The top 5 percent of the company’s franchisees average around $1.2 million in sales per year.

Lenny’s top store is based at Memphis International Airport and is owned by Kelly Green Restaurants, which owns eight Memphis locations.

Alvord says Social Wednesday evolved from a Valentine’s Day coupon the company launched three years ago that gave customers a free sub. That giveaway alone increased the company’s modest fan base by 43,000 people. Alvord says Lenny’s increased its fans by another 20,000 last year.

The company worked with Chicago-based No Limit Media Consulting on its web initiatives.

“We analyze how many friends those people have and how many their friends have, which is more than 19 million people,” Alvord says. “It continues to build momentum.”

Nick Powills, chief brand strategist for No Limit Media, says Lenny’s has an active engagement with its customers through initiatives like Social Wednesday.

No Limit estimates a non-Facebook fan will spend about $150 per year in the restaurant, while a Facebook fan will spend $310 annually.

“If you can increase impressions, you can encourage them to come in more,” Powills says. “It’s important to build your fans organically. If it’s a popularity contest, I want to win one with real people instead of names I bought from someone else.”

In addition to the customers participating, Alvord says franchisees have to buy in to the promotions.

“They’re independent owners, so we cannot mandate particular things and I can’t fix pricing or an offer,” Alvord says. “So we try to make sure it’s something they’re OK accepting and something we think will be appealing to the guests as well.”

Reuben Brunson, president of Rocket Fuel, which works with its clients on social networking projects, says the best way for a company to succeed in social media marketing is to make sure it is creating a targeted message for its web audience, which is most likely different from the traditional audience. That lack of a message distinction is often where campaigns fail.

“There are things you can do on the web like ask questions and start conversations,” Brunson says. “But you have to be careful to not come across too sales-y. That doesn’t mean you can’t do specials, but you don’t want to be unbalanced.”

Brunson says direct conversation with customers can create a level of trust, and if done the right way, your customers become your best advertisers. But only if they trust you.

“In the old days, if you had a great experience at a restaurant, you’d tell your friends or coworkers; same with negative experiences,” Alvord says. “In today’s world, people tell their Facebook friends. We can head off negative exposure and seek the customers out to make it right, but we can also proactively seek customers. It’s prime territory.”

Read the article on the Memphis Business Journal site