Awesome Restaurant Marketing Ideas!

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”? 

Google has been on a consolidation spree as of late, compressing everything from privacy policies to products and services. Google Places now knows the feeling as it was recently merged into Google+, the company’s social network that has been the beneficiary of numerous integrations. This is actually great for local businesses, so let’s take a look at how restaurants can dig in and take advantage.

Without a doubt, one of the downsides of the restaurant business is “bad, uninformed, uneducated and hyped- up salespeople” selling the next marketing tool, marketing service, marketing product, advertisement. 

How does a restaurant management team expect to learn how to have a successful restaurant marketing plan?  Do you start with the slower and cheaper method?   One great book on business might provide the answer and inspiration and give you a 1,000% return on investment.  (In a perfect scenario.)

There is good news for for you if you are interested in whether you are serving toxic chicken or bad beef and you are too busy to watch the evening news; the USDA is now on Twitter!  (With almost a quarter million followers)

Loyalty program options for marketing a restaurant have leaped ahead faster than any restaurant owner can possibly understand.  While the opportunity for anyone to have a loyalty program grows, consumers (guests) have a dim view of loyalty programs since 93% believe they are more a marketing tool and not truly intended to be a benefit to them.

Two restaurant managers with the same basic skill set and experience will many times have two completely different results.  It might boil down to the perception others have of the restaurant manager.  Each restaurant manager performs the same basic tasks and daily routines.  Neither hesitates at work or the constant flux of the restaurant business.  Neither shirks their responsibilities and their is no doubt of their pride and commitment.

If you own a restaurant, work in the industry, or simply enjoy a night out at your favorite eatery now and then you’re bound to notice the basic marketing gears grinding away. A large sign or two posted out front, a handful of media ads, and an engaging Facebook page are pretty standard stuff when it comes to restaurant promotion.  Many restaurants stop once they’ve covered the basics, and in doing so bypass a whole world of marketing opportunities that can build relationships as well as revenue.

It’s not missing out if you don’t know it exists, so we’ve uncovered a handful of food related marketing opportunities for you that often go untapped.