Awesome Restaurant Marketing Ideas!

The best restaurant marketing team might be the staff members themselves.  Since there is a preference to “promote from within”, you would think this would result in more success in the restaurant.

The boss says: 

“Your budget is $25 a month for LSM (local store marketing).  Build restaurant sales and stay within the budget.”

The vendors and banks are shouting (using the mail) for the bills to be paid which leaves the restaurant owner asking:

“How can I do restaurant marketing or invest in software and services such as Inside Hospitality offers with no money?”

BeFrugal.com examines top restaurant coupons and provides best practices   – There is a growing demand for coupons from restaurants and yet not enough establishments are taking advantage of this opportunity to bring in additional business.  Coupons & cash back website BeFrugal.com examined their top 100 restaurants based on domain traffic, restaurant-specific coupon searches and popularity on BeFrugal.com to identify which discount methods are most commonly used by restaurants.  

If the slew of fix-‘em-up cable television shows have taught us anything about the restaurant business, it’s that running a successful restaurant is incredibly difficult. Not only does a restaurant owner have to worry incessantly about the cleanliness of the establishment, the quality of the food, payroll and mortgages and taxes and food costs, and whether or not the restaurant’s employees are performing their duties correctly, but then there’s the matter of advertising to the public.

Restaurants are a $372 billion industry. Pop-Up restaurants are appealing considering that more than a quarter of traditional restaurants fail within their first year, and 60% fail by their third year.  Cutting–edge chefs and restaurant financiers have sought new investment opportunities in recent years.

It may be too late for this restaurant marketing idea.  Taco Bell has already announced its new roll out of serving Mtn Dew A.M. as part of the morning breakfast offering. (Note:  Taco Bell does not call it breakfast, they refer to it as FirstMeal)  Instead of focusing on coffee as a morning pick-me-up, they have chosen a Mtn Dew. 

If 45% of the workers say they are less productive without coffee, then why don't you sell more coffee?  The third heaviest coffee drinking profession is the education admistrators. Who qualifies?  Principals?  In that case, a restaurant with outstanding coffee must be at the center of their universe.  

As each month comes to an end, are you calling “Overs”?  Do you hope for a “Do Over”?

• “Overs” – I wish I had not hired that person.
• If only the money I gave that salesperson was still in the bank.
• What if I hadn’t told that employee angry words?
• What if I had not skipped over the profit & loss reports?
• Why did I not listen to those guests who said “bad food”?
• When did the morale begin to slip so badly?  Can we go back?
• Let’s go back in time and do the maintenance on the equipment (Now that it’s broke down.)
• Yes, working 65 hours a week is a lot, but I did it for us honey. Please don’t divorce me.
• Doctor, you don’t understand.  There is no one else who can do what I do.  I have to work more!
• Sure, it seems obvious now that when competition opens next door that it would be tougher.
• The franchisor said “Do it”, so I did.  Now I wish I hadn’t.
• If only I had not let my personal feeling get in the way of firing that employee.
• That guest blog I wrote six months ago was lame.  I wish I could un-write it. 
• How much time did I waste on what everyone else said was important? Now I wish I hadn’t.
• If only I had taken a more long term strategic approach with marketing my business online.
•  If we had used a mystery shopping service all year, we could have had better result.  “Overs”.

Restaurant marketing is not top of the mind for most restaurateurs.  In any larger restaurant company there is a need to execute consistently, control costs and protect their brand.  Only a small portion of time is committed to focusing on the most important piece of the business:  Profitable Sales Increase.

Having a copycat marketing plan in place may beat the waiting game marketing plan but why wait?  With the future looming and studies showing how behaviors are changing, why wait?  Who makes the first move?  Which restaurant manager is willing to raise the bar by changing their reputation?  Who will lead the pack and which business will survive with “same-itis”?