Not Far from the Tree

A Monthly Guide to Using Personality To Build Your Business Online

July 3, 2008

Issue # 3

Grilled Pizza Marketing

A New Twist on an Old Classic

In our family, we traditionally eat homemade pizza for dinner on Fridays (also known as supper if you are from certain areas of the country like my Grandma). But during the summer, our tradition becomes problematic. We don't have air conditioning in our house and the hot oven heats our house as much as the pizza. Our living environment becomes miserable all for the sake of a bit of cheesy-goodness (Sorry, I just channeled my kids).

Last week, my wife Teresa had an idea that would beat this problem. Upon first hearing my wife's suggestion, I thought it sounded ridiculous (Sorry, honey!). My wife asked me to cook the pizza (no, that's not the ridiculous part). Cooking the the pizza wasn't the problem. The problem was the method she suggested. Teresa asked me to grill the pizza.

My response was immediate and confident. You can't grill pizza. I had never heard of such a thing. You cook pizza in the oven. That's how it's done. You can cook it in a brick oven (if you have one in your kitchen or backyard), but you can't grill it. My response was based on experience, knowledge, and how we've always done pizza. However, as is typical in conversations with my very brilliant wife, I was dead wrong.

My wife had done her homework. You can indeed grill pizza. She showed me two methods she had found on the internet. I read up on the technique. She prepared the dough and we launched ourselves into the brave new world of pizza on a grill.

The results were striking and unexpected (at least to me). The pizza was crisp on the bottom. The texture was a little different, but still excellent. The pizza was lighter than oven-baked pizza because without baking you can't put as many toppings on the pizza. It was really good. Yummy, yummy, cheesy-goodness.

This novel cooking method opened up whole new pizza possibilities for our family. We had to take a risk, step out, and change what we knew worked in order to experience the unique texture and taste of grilled pizza.

Marketing on the internet is a lot like cooking pizza on the grill. Sometimes you have to open your mind to methods that you've never considered. Consider some of these possibilities:

  • Do you have a general paper newsletter? Maybe you should consider a targeted eNewsletter to augment or replace it.

  • Does your website focus on your qualifications? Why not move beyond a glorified resume to help your clients connect with you using your unique voice and vision.

  • Do you have a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section on your website? Think about a blog to answer questions regularly.

  • Do you sit down to have coffee with your best customers? An eNewsletter can be used to build that kind of trust with all your customers.

Bottom Line, while oven pizza is great - it's traditional and it works - I've discovered that grilled pizza has benefits you'd never experience without giving it a try. Online marketing works the same way. The method is different and but the results can be astonishing. Done right, the internet is a powerful relationship-building tool.

By the way, if you want to grill pizza, you can find the method we used on our website.