No matter if you’re a well-seasoned restaurant owner or new to the restaurant business, you’re likely looking for the latest trends in restaurant marketing. Although multiple technological advances have opened new doors for restaurant marketing, it seems the most efficient methods combine the old with the new. Three tried and true methods to help you with your restaurant marketing plan are below.
1. Let Your Customers Say it for You!
Whether an old-fashioned recommendation to a friend or a scanned QR code turned to Facebook check-in, word-of-mouth is still the best (and usually cheapest) form of restaurant marketing. You can encourage this behavior with referral incentives, such as “bring a buddy, get 50% off” specials and/or contests and sweepstakes rewarding this behavior. Let customers post pictures of themselves wearing your custom t-shirts all over the world and award gift certificates each month.
2. Make the Most of Technology! If you don’t have a website – get one! If you do, make sure it’s mobile-friendly. In this age, customers check your menu and specials immediately before getting in the car and choosing their destination – make it easier for them to find your information. Post the soup of the day – don’t make them call! Also, ensure you’re an active member of social media. If you don’t have time to run an interactive Facebook, Twitter, etc. campaign – outsource the work. You can likely engage a college intern for next to nothing or you can pay whatever you can afford through a freelancing agency. Make sure you have some young blood behind this effort as they’ll be the most up-to-speed on what “they” are doing out there right now. They’ll have great ideas on how you can use Youtube and QR codes to your advantage with minimal cost.
3. Freshen Things Up! Your menu is more than a listing of your dishes – it’s your all-inclusive marketing brochure that gets face time with each and every customer. If sales aren’t what they should be, you may need some intense menu engineering to ensure your big sellers are more visible. If you plan a menu overhaul, start with a customer survey. Either provide a questionnaire at each table or examine some sales statistics. Find out what your big sellers are and why or why aren’t people trying certain things on your menu. Sometimes giving a plain old hamburger a flashier name is all you need to do! If all else fails, invest in some high-quality restaurant consulting and let the experts give you some advice. You can also promote a number of “improvements” to bring in new business or encourage some customers to try your restaurant again. If you have the funding, a new name or new slogan can catch attention. Throw in a logo, some bright colors and some cool promo items, and customers will want to see what the buzz is all about. It always help to offer “limited edition” promo items for the first 100 customers, etc. to encourage people to get there first!
So there you have it! Now that you know how to market a restaurant, toss around some restaurant promotion ideas and work these efforts into your standard restaurant operations. It will be worth your time!
