Using Product Personalization To Personalize Digital Marketing With Zach Hempen, Director of Digital Marketing at Your Pie Franchising
Zach Hempen is the Director of Digital Marketing at Your Pie Franchising. Born in 2008 in Athens, Georgia, Your Pie offers a pizza with a crust created through traditional brick oven cooking with unique toppings, including avocado, pickles, and peaches.
In the marketing space for over a decade, Zack possesses sales, management, strategy, social media, and advertising skills. His expertise ranges from helping companies like McDonald's launch their initial Facebook pages to leading entire marketing teams.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
Zach Hempen talks about the uniqueness of the Your Pie concept and how the brand began
Which digital marketing efforts have been most effective at Your Pie?
How the brand personalizes its relationship with customers
What value has Your Pie gained from its mobile app?
The biggest challenge Zach faces as a digital marketer
What excites Zach the most about his work with Your Pie?
What you’ll learn in this episode:
If you're in the mood for pizza, multiple options are usually available in any direction. That’s why pizza places have to set themselves apart in this saturated marketplace. How can a pizza brand personalize the experience to keep customers coming back?
According to Zach Hempen of Your Pie Franchising, personalizing products for unique customer groups led to tremendous growth through its digital marketing efforts. Your Pie caters to many customer preferences, including gluten-free crust, keto-friendly choices, vegan cheese, meatless options, and vegan sausage. Marketing those options and then evaluating them from an SEO perspective, Zach found that no other brands are competing on that front. As a result, Your Pie remains the number one vegetarian, keto-friendly, and gluten-free option. Although their target customer is a smaller subset in the marketplace, Zach knows they’re some of the most passionate about their food choices.
On this episode of From Persona to Personal, Roger Hurni welcomes Zach Hempen, Director of Digital Marketing at Your Pie Franchising, to discuss the benefits of product personalization and how digital marketing can be used to target your customers. Zach talks about what excites him most about his work with Your Pie, why product personalization has been so valuable, the advantages provided by the brand’s mobile app, and the worst advice he has ever received.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
This episode’s sponsor:
Today’s episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we create meaningful moments of brand trust and influence how people interact and engage with brands.
There is a science behind tapping into your audiences’ desires and motivation. After all, if you’re not changing your audiences’ behaviors, you can’t truly unlock all of your brand’s potential.
The proven models and methods of Behavior Design is the strategic foundation for your brands’ success.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:02
This is From Persona to Personal podcast. Today's episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. Off Madison Ave creates meaningful moments of brand trust and influences how people interact and engage with brands. The science behind their approach taps into your audience's motivations and desires. After all, if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you can't truly unlock all of your brand's potential. Now, let's get started with the show.
Roger Hurni 0:34
Hello, everyone, I am Roger Hurni, the host of From Persona to Personal where I get to speak with top leaders changing consumer behavior so they can propel their brands forward. Before we get to today's guest. This episode is brought to you by Off Madison Ave. At Off Madison Ave, we use behavioral science to create meaningful moments of brand trust, which influences how people interact and engage with companies. Our behavioral approach taps into your audience's motivation and prompts them to shift behavior. And if you're not changing your audience's behaviors, you truly can't unlock all of your brand's potential. These proven behavioral models and methods are the strategic foundation for your brand success. Visit offmadisonave.com to learn more. Now today I am super super happy to have with me, Zach Hempen. He is the Director of Digital Marketing at Your Pie pizza. Zach has more than a decade of experience doing digital marketing and brand strategy. He's really really great at and he's helped companies like McDonald's onto the first initial Facebook pages to leading entire marketing teams while based in Hong Kong, and has a wide breadth of marketing expertise. Zach is currently leading the digital revolution at your pie pizza as they look to transform that consumer dining experience. Zach, welcome to the show.
Zach Hempen 1:55
Hey, thanks for having me on excited to be here.
Roger Hurni 1:57
Oh great. You know I should have asked immediately if he spoke any Cantonese living in Hong Kong or how long you live there?
Zach Hempen 2:04
Yeah, I was there for two and a half years and the amazing thing about being over there is everybody wants to practice their English on you so my Cantonese is really bad my Mandarin is even worse but I have a couple phrases I have I've learned to forget over time but yeah, definitely not as good as they are.
Roger Hurni 2:24
I only know one certain sin that spawn Yao and they Houma. That's it. I'm done. I did get to go to Hong Kong once it was it was fabulous. It was before all the all the craziness, but we're not here to talk about that, because that will be a bold show ended up itself. Let's start Zach by. Let's tell the audience a little bit about your pie pizza how it got started, maybe the uniqueness of the restaurant concept?
Zach Hempen 2:50
Yeah, absolutely. Your pie pizza, which we actually just celebrated our 15th anniversary about 10 days ago. So been around for a little bit. We were founded in Athens, Georgia, home of the University of Georgia where our founder, went to school there, got married in Athens, and then had his honeymoon over in Ischia, Italy. And his wife had his family over there. So they did their honeymoon over there. And he said that, you know, sitting around the table 50 family members at dinner, everybody speaking Italian, and he didn't understand a word of it. But it still felt like family. And it just felt like the coolest experience, he wanted to bring that over to America, the way they do pizza is a little bit different than your typical Chicago or New York style pizza. So he wanted to bring that experience. And he actually created the first down the line pizza experience. So when you think of Chipotle, and you're selecting your ingredients, it's the same concept. So you're going down the line, seeing all the fantastic fresh in house ingredients that we have the in house sauces, and then seeing it just popped into the oven and be ready in under two minutes. It's just a really cool experience. It's something I was a fan of the brand for a long time and did some consulting work with your PI. And they said, why don't you just come aboard and do it yourself? Is that I would love to.
Roger Hurni 4:17
Well, that's that's fantastic. I know that that's getting to be more and more of a popular concept in the QSR space. But we're going to talk about digital marketing specifically. That's digital marketing has become this massive area. And you have in terms of digital marketing, a lot of arrows in your quiver. What are the best digital marketing efforts, though, which have been the most valuable to you in terms of marketing? Your pie?
Zach Hempen 4:49
Yeah, great question. I think the one really cool thing about digital marketing is we, for a long time looked at radio advertising or newspaper advertising billboards. whatnot, and said, you know, we spend some money and we had some people come in couldn't really trace it back. The beautiful, beautiful thing about digital marketing as we can always say, Okay, we've spent $5 here, and I can track this customer and see that they came into the restaurant and spent this much money. So really getting that true ROI. And we've been doing a lot of, you know, everybody's doing Google, nothing different there. But Google local advertising, one, one thing that we really focus on is we're not going to outspend Domino's or Pizza Hut across the country. But when we look in that two to five mile radius, we're top were the top brand that you can search for. When you say pizza near mean, you're one of our stores, we're going to be one of those top options for people. So just really keeping that top of mind awareness. But then Google allows for that, that see through and view through conversions, where you can see somebody actually see your ad, maybe not even click on it, but Google is tracking. And they can see that they actually went into your store or about from your store, within the next 24 hours to even a week long, you can do that through conversion rate. So really understanding the consumer where they're at, and then tracking them to see if your advertising is really having an impact.
Roger Hurni 6:19
You know, that's the that's one end of the scale. I've always thought where you can track those transactions. It's a bit for me maybe to say that it's utilitarian, but that's really a great function of digital marketing. There's an there's another side to that. Gartner had a stat on one of their surveys, that companies that engage in personalization will outsell their competitors by 20%. That was one of the research findings that they had. And pizza, quite frankly, it's probably the most deeply personalized food there is out there. Because particularly on a down the line product, you get to decide everything that you want on it. And I know you mentioned to pull that in there some other kinds of concepts that are like that. But a piece of this seems to be near and dear to everybody's hearts. So my transition here is are you able to carry that kind of personalization into the digital marketing space? More on that front end?
Zach Hempen 7:22
Yeah, absolutely. I think that's one thing that we see because of the level of personalization and the focus we have on consumers that we really outperform other brands really highly. We are some a brand that has gluten free crust and keto and then vegan cheese and meatless options. So we've got the sausage is an availability, and being able to market that and what we see from an SEO perspective is nobody's bidding against that. So we are able to always be the number one vegetarian pizza option, or the number one keto friendly or the number one gluten free. And while those are smaller subsets of the marketplace, those are some of the most passionate users out there. The amount of social media feedback we've received of some moms saying, You know what, my kid hasn't been able to have pizza in like five years. And she's crying because your kid can finally have pizza again, because we've got a gluten free option. And we're smart enough to take care of that customer and have the right training in place to do a backup house and not in front of everywhere else where all of the semolina slide all over the place. So really taking care of our customers understanding their needs. And then from a digital perspective, really talking about how we do that and offer things that aren't widely available in the marketplace.
Roger Hurni 8:44
I think that's I think that's wickedly smart. Hopefully, hopefully, you didn't give away too much Strategy here. Okay. Well, is this a personalization, people think that it's it's a name, right? It's remembering your birthday. And it is so much deeper than that. And I find it fascinating that you're looking at taking the piece of building experience in store, and what happens there on a trend perspective and turning that into personalization on the front end, in terms of marketing. And I think that's a pretty genius way of of looking at at search. And in doing that kind of SEO kind of content. Is there anything that you think you're missing in terms of personalization? Or is there a place you want to get to?
Zach Hempen 9:27
Yeah, I think with just the division of of all of our streams and the way people get content these days, it's hard to be everywhere at all times. And to really understand all trends that are happening and stay on top of all trends. And then with 70 stores across the entire US, making sure everybody else every single store can get all of the ingredients that need to be and what's really trending. So some of that can be supply chain and then down to the digital side. Making sure that we are building out all of The things that people are truly searching for and understanding and making sure our nutrition calculator is up to date so that they can understand what ingredients are going into everything. So missing in the regard that there's always more to do. And there's always more to update. And there's always more that needs to be done so that we can really get that message out.
Roger Hurni 10:21
You know, one of the areas you didn't mention it right here, so I'm going to point it out. There's this been this this massive, massive shift since the pandemic, in terms of mobile app, especially the QR space, who, quite frankly, with the work that I do in behavioral marketing QSR was got it figured out better than pretty much every other industry as far as terms of using the mobile app. I mean, honestly, before the pandemic, like people didn't know how to shoot a QR code, right. So how is your mobile app doing? And what kind of long term value do you see there?
Zach Hempen 11:00
Yeah, that's, that's something that we have seen. Great, great strides. With, since the pandemic, I think, one interesting thing about us we were 90%, dying before the pandemic, and Pandemic hits. And we've got to say, I mean, most people were thinking pizza delivery. That's not what our model was. So we really had to relook at the model, re figure out what consumers wanted. And the mobile app has been a big part of that experience, making sure that we're communicating with our guests, whether they want to dine in whether they want to get a takeout, whether they want to get delivered, but also the loyalty aspect of it. Understanding that very few restaurants are literally doing the paper punch card that you used to walk in with. Now it's all about the app that is your your paper punch card, you open up the app, you've purchased this many times. And after this many more purchases, you get a free pizza, but also incentivizing it. And making sure that opportunity days Tuesday used to be our lowest volume day of the week ever since I think, early 2020. With our app, we started saying you'd get double points on Tuesday. If you comment, anything, you purchased double points. Since then, it went from being our lowest volume day of the week to our second highest only behind Fridays. So really a good motivator. I think the gamification aspects that we have within the app, and just what are these appealing to consumers right now is is really interesting to look at. And it's something that we want to continue to focus on and reward our guests and get them excited about coming to your pie. Yeah, in
Roger Hurni 12:39
case you didn't realize this Tuesday's everybody's slowest day. I don't care what business you're in Tuesday's everybody, the car business, the pizza business, the great these days, everyone's? Well, you know, I I've spoken to a lot of organizations that in the QR QSR space, and one of the things now and I can't even have this conversation with you without mentioning it is AI is everywhere. And when I see apps in the QR space, with, with my background in behavioral marketing, behavioral economics, I feel like there's something that's always missing, it's great that you can send everybody like, Hey, we're gonna run this promotion on a Tuesday, right? It's great that people can order and figure out kind of stuff. But there seems that AI has this massive opportunity for being a part of the app that looks at implicit and explicit behaviors and determines what the next interaction should be for that consumer, or that customer on an individual basis. It is, I see that as an opportunity, do you? And is that something where you want to take the app for your pie?
Zach Hempen 13:56
Yeah, I think from a machine learning, that's it's basically machine learning is what you're talking about to some degree of understanding and recognizing those patterns and seeing what direction is most beneficial, and not only for the brand, but also for that consumer. So the individualize aspect. I think it makes a lot of sense. It's, it's something that I think is going to be explored more and more, I mean, we are currently making some big transitions with ChatGPT. And just understanding what it can do for our business. And from a content creation perspective. It's a it's a great tool for writer's block, that's for sure.
Roger Hurni 14:33
Do you see AI also integrating into your other digital marketing efforts aside from ChatGPT? Or is it like an idea generator?
Zach Hempen 14:40
I think it's both. I think it's, it's anything that you've shut your mind off to with AI would be a mistake. It is something we see building and getting bigger and all it is is a tool for making our lives better and easier. As long as it's used with some discretion. It isn't
Roger Hurni 14:59
freelance work. core consulting for your pie you got on board, you've been there now, I think a couple plus years. What's the biggest challenge you're facing right now? Like what keeps you up at night?
Zach Hempen 15:10
I think that consumers shift in needs in and where, where they want content, how they want content, it used to be very easy to know that, you know, quite a few years ago that everybody was going to be watching the mash finale, and you get an add on the mash finale. And you know, everybody's gonna see it. Right now. We've got a Facebook ad, then we've got an Instagram and we've got a tick tock, and we've got something on Google do we need to do something on Bing as well. And each one has a different message. And within that there's tons of different users that want different messages. So personalization, going back to that is very easy in the restaurant, because somebody comes in and they say, you know, I want a 10 inch, I want it to be wheat dough, I want marinara, and buffalo sauce is the base and this kind of cheese. So that's easy, but proactively understanding what consumers want, how to message them, how to have a long term conversation with them. That is of value to them not, it's not about what's of value to us. It's really the consumers dictating what's value to them. And that's how they want to be approached. So think that's the big thing that we're always trying to focus on is how do we have better conversations with our customers and potential customers?
Roger Hurni 16:27
I couldn't agree more with you. It's it's, it's a fundamental shift. And a lot of people don't do it. They still think they're marketing, one campaign that looks different across these channels, as opposed to smaller campaigns that change over time as your customers interact with them on a personal basis. And I truly believe that is where everything is going. But I'm surprised that more people, more people aren't on board with that. Yeah, I recognize that personalization. That level of personalization is certainly is certainly the biggest challenge. Well, if that's the biggest chairlifts, go ahead,
Zach Hempen 17:05
yeah, I was just gonna say it's, it's the hard part about that is it's, it's hard to not be yourself or it's hard to remain yourself. When you do that. When you split your voice between so many channels, a lot of brands, try and be this person over here and another person over there to remain consistent remain the same voice. This is definitely a challenge something that we've we've tackled, I think we do a good job of but it's something you got to stay on top of all the time because you want to jump on a trend. And then you say, Is that who we are? Are we part of this trend? Are we somewhere else?
Roger Hurni 17:38
What are you most excited about right now? What's gonna be the same answer to the challenging question?
Zach Hempen 17:44
Um, yeah, we are we are engaging in like I said, we're starting to look at how we could do social media differently, we are actually redoing the entire social media Strategy and approach. We are engaging new partners with that. We're also doing new creative and kind of redoing our website. So we're really looking at doing just a visual and character facelift on on who the brand is. And then really, like I said, utilizing some AI tools to really help with that workflow and take some of the onus off of ourselves to be the inspiration point or to get through writer's block and using it to kind of get us further along the path.
Roger Hurni 18:35
Well, that that sounds amazing. You been really gracious with your time, I just have one more question. And I end every show this way. If you heard her show, you're probably going to know what this question is. But the advice you've given has been great. I think people can read into it and help apply it to all kinds of businesses. But I do believe every opportunity is a learning experience. So I end with what's the worst advice you've ever gotten?
Zach Hempen 19:04
I think it was back to back with some horrible advice from one boss. And then the their immediate boss gave me the best demo cases I've ever had. I had a boss, one of my first jobs just say, you know, it matters. The hours that you put in that matters more than anything is how much you're in here and how much you're showing your face and how much you're putting into projects that really matters. And I you know, I was soaking that in as a young, young in my career and in that person's boss came to me and he said, you know, Zach, I don't care. I don't care about quantity. It is not about quantity whatsoever. It is about the quality of your work and is about what you create that you're proud of. And if you're done every day at noon, get out of here. I don't care. But let me also tell you, I'm here until seven o'clock every night. And that's because for me to get the quality that I want and appreciate and my work, that's what it takes. So do whatever it takes for you to get your quality. And I just thought that was That's great advice that it doesn't matter if you're spending two weeks if somebody else can do it in in two days, that's a lot more impressive.
Roger Hurni 20:21
Yeah, it is. Working hard, is really important. But that doesn't mean that working hard is time. Working hard can be bringing great value in relatively short periods of time. And generally that comes with deeper levels of experience, but, but I think that that's great. I love that. And I appreciate your time today. And it's been it's been a really wonderful conversation.
Zach Hempen 20:46
Thank you for having me.
Roger Hurni 20:48
No worries. I had been speaking with Zach Hempen. He is the Director of Digital Marketing at Your Pie Pizza. Zach, where can people learn more about you and your pie?
Zach Hempen 20:59
Yeah, yourpiepizza.com come check us out, find out. If we've got any restaurants near you. Would love to share some pizza with you. And if you ever need anything or want to reach out to me just marketing@yourpie.com Shoot me an email.
Roger Hurni 21:14
All right, very good. I'm gonna have to take you up on the pizza thing since it is my favorite food. Followed by gelato. So thank you again, Zach.
Zach Hempen 21:24
Awesome, thank you.
Roger Hurni 21:25
I'm Roger Hurni Everyone, and this is From Persona to Personal. We'll see you next time.
Outro 21:31
Thanks for listening to From Persona to Personal, the podcast that takes a closer look into how organizations personalize their marketing. We'll see you again next time and be sure to click Subscribe to get future episodes.
