6 August 2009

8 Restaurant Marketing Tips

Posted by chefal under: Recession Tips & Tricks .

A good marketing campaign can help your restaurant or kitchen increase profits and survive the recent economic slump.

Don’t have a marketing campaign?

Don’t start investing in lottery tickets just yet. With the right marketing strategy you can stay ahead of the competition with little investment.

Here’s what we advise:

1. Create a Marketing Plan: Simply deciding you want to be more proactive when it comes to marketing won’t be enough. You need to create a 6 month plan and communicate it to everyone on your team. This way you can gauge your efforts, improve on weak points, and develop new goals along the way. Don’t waste time making small marketing pushes, relaxing, and repeating. You want to build marketing momentum for your business. When you have finished your 6 month plan–make another one. Repeat.

2. Make a Website: You can build a simple website with a local/community web developer at a reasonable cost. Make sure you incorporate a Google Maps of your restaurant’s location in a prominent spot. No one wants to cut and paste your address and than look it up themselves on Google Maps or Mapquest.

3. Use Social Media: Social media is just a fancy phrase for a bunch of popular meeting places online… Businesses use social media to tell customers about their corporate culture in order to create fans and win over clients. Add your restaurant or kitchen to every popular social media platform so you can begin to build relationships with your customers. Customer relationships will create loyalty and they will help you decide what to add on your next menu, etc. For starters, here’s what you should do:

• Flickr: Take a few photos of your restaurant and upload them to Flickr.
• Youtube: Make a few videos of your restaurant or chef in action and post on Youtube.
• Twitter: Create an account and tell guests about deals and funny stories from your kitchen.
• Facebook: Create a business page and acquire fans. Tell them about your menu and your story.
• Blog: Create a free Wordpress account and write weekly recipes and stories.

See which platform works best for you and than commit yourself to it. Remember, be honest about your establishment and about yourself.

4. Promote Your Take-out/Delivery: Make sure everyone who enters your business knows that you also have a take-out option. Give out business cards and menu’s to departing diners.

5. Build Loyalty: don’t bother with loyalty cards or loyalty programs. They are only used by people when the opportunity arises. They don’t remind people to come back to your establishment. Instead, make it your job and make it your employees job to remember repeat customers and greet them with a smile and a handshake. Instead of offering general discounts–give specific discounts to diners who frequently visit your restaurant.

Customer loyalty isn’t rooted in savings, but rather in warm, natural, communication.

6. Retool Your Menu: Offer nutritional information for your menu items. Diners will appreciate the effort and they may return in order to stick to their diets. It may also nudge you into creating a healthier menu.

7. Have a Story: Marketing is about telling a story that people can remember. No one will remember your restaurant or kitchen unless it has a story.  Tell your diners verbally, on your menu, or through your social media platforms about why you opened your kitchen and show them your passion. Customers will be sure to remember you and tell their friends about you.

8. Get Press: As we said earlier–it’s important to connect with local press, blogs, radio programs, and TV shows and get mentioned. People in the media industry are always looking for a good story–especially if it’s local. So the next time you have a great idea or a time-efficient recipe share it and try to get it mentioned in your local media. It’s free advertising!

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