SnapFood.com hits the streets for New York restaurants

To persuade New Yorkers to order their meals online, SnapFood.com uses direct mail and affiliate web site leads, but the most effective is face-to-face guerilla marketing—including a biker who pedals Manhattan streets to hand out coupons for online redemption. “Once people try our online service, they like it, but the best way to get them to try is face-to-face marketing,” president and founder Lon F. Binder tells InternetRetailer.com.

SnapFood.com, which launched online six months ago, takes orders for 75 Manhattan restaurants, offering consumers discounts of about 5-10% on each order. The service, which is free to consumers, lets consumers order from online menus from each of the restaurants. SnapFood.com processes the payments, then forwards the orders to its restaurant clients via e-mail or fax. Consumers can pick up their orders in person or request delivery; either way, all payment is done through SnapFood.com

Once each month, SnapFood.com forwards payment to each restaurant, minus the commission it charges on each order. Binder declines to divulge the commission rates.

SnapFood.com’s guerilla marketing team consists of four people who hand out coupons on street corners; one of them dons a special red-and-white jump suit–reflecting SnapFood.com’s logo colors–to distribute coupons from a bicycle in the afternoon hours. “The bike promotion has been effective,” Binder says, adding that his biking marketer finds it easy to engage with the public.

The face-to-face distribution of coupons has also helped build a loyal customer base, he adds. “Among customers who order more than once, 90% of them keep ordering,” he says.

If things work out as Binder expects, SnapFood will be sending guerilla marketing teams and bikers through the streets of additional cities. With about half of the $440 billion annual restaurant and catering market handled through restaurant delivery services, he says, SnapFood hopes to build a franchise organization to eventually serve restaurants in metropolitan areas throughout the U.S.