Restaurant Marketing Ideas the Easy Way | Google Wonder Wheel
Posted by Michael Hartzell on Sun, Jun 06, 2010
The easiest ways to get restaurant marketing ideas:
Sit in the lobby of the restaurant and pretend you are waiting for a table. Listen to the guests as they come and go. Note what was talked about.
Sit in the lobby of any restaurant in the local community and pretend you are waiting for another party. Be sure to listen closely and understand from where they came and why they chose this location.
Have the team write down or record every question they hear from guests. Then send the message in restaurant marketing about a NEW product, service or benefit that answers each question.
Take the top five most popular menu items and upgrade them with extras as part of a package. Sell gift certificates for these.
Google "restaurant marketing ideas". Whe wasn't that the first thing on the list I bet you are wondering?
Use the Wonder Wheel in Google Search. This will show you related topics people are already looking for. Especially useful if you decide that talking to people is not something you want to do. (Put your restaurant up for sale if this is the case.)
- These phrases can be used for blogging, fliers, postcards, websites, and menu items.
- The Google Wonder Wheel is NOT limited to online marketing. It can be used just as well for your restaurant marketing.
Do you know which is the busiest competing restaurant? You should. Once you know this I would suppose you would duplicate the best of what the restaurant has.
Stand at the post office and ask each person what they had for lunch (or dinner).
Talk to the school lunch room staff and ask them what is most popular with the kids. (I worked in the school cafeteria during high school. Very enlightening.)
Watch TV commercials. Write down notes about every restaurant commercial. Then visit the restaurant that advertised and watch to see how many products shown on the TV commercial are ordered.
Ask the food vendor "What are the most popular and highest volume items sold?" You better hope that your food vendor will be truthful.
Can you see the problem? You live fast. Every day is full. You don't have time to waddle along and do some of these ideas. You then resort to guessing. You scan headlines, listen to others who are getting marginal results, and do what they do. (They don't admit to being marginal.)
It is not a wonder that the Google Wonder Wheel is so appealing.
The problem is that your community is different. They drink Coke while 30 miles north Pepsi is the drink of the day. Blackened? Are you nuts? Go 50 miles east and blackened is gourmet.
Have fun with the Google Wonder Wheel to research restaurant marketing ideas. Do not take it for the absolute truth. Get feedback from real live people who actually eat a few times a day. Instead of saying "How is the weather", ask them "What did you have for lunch today?"
Remember to keep a restaurant marketing calendar handy, use restaurant tracking forms, know your break even in advance and think in terms of "how will I execute?".
Here is video from YouTube about Wonder Wheel. (Not mine.)
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