Awesome Restaurant Marketing Ideas!

Guests who come and go from a restaurant continue to be forgotten before the food is even served. To change this reality, my preference is to think beyond "restaurant marketing" and instead turn to guerrilla marketing.

 The term was coined and defined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his book Guerrilla Marketing. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary and marketing textbooks. 

The concept of guerrilla marketing was invented as an unconventional system of promotions that relies on time, energy and imagination rather than a big marketing budget.

Guerrilla marketing is about using time, energy and imagination. This applies to the touch points in a restaurant. Let's look at the many touch points a restaurant has.

Zillow is a free tool online that almost anyone can use to create a quick and simple restaurant marketing campaign in their local community. You may think of this tool as a real estate website but a guerrilla marketing expert sees opportunities for restaurant marketing in the most unexpected places.

Below you will see maps from Zillow.com.  Each map will show yellow dots showing which house have been sold recently.  There is an option to choose how recently the homes were sold.  This guerrilla marketing tactics for restaurants will come in handy because in essence there is a very targeted market to folks who may not have boxes unpacked, who don't know the area and may have literally no friends yet.

Open your mind to the next restaurant marketing idea.  This marketing idea uses video.  The video can be of the exterior area of your community (with your restaurant included).  If you prefer, it might be for a dinner plate which starts empty and then becomes a masterpiece from your menu.

How will your video be remarkable in such a way that your guests will share it? Can you educate, inform and make them SMink = Smile and think at the same time?  

A marketer's wish:  "How can I get someone to say the name of my restaurant?"

Anyone can serve a slice of cake with a candle.  Restaurants should not miss an opportunity to include a celebration whenever possible.  A restaurant offering a flaming candle sushi, special writing with sauce over a plate or Panda Bear oranges, this is a restaurant going above and beyond expectations.

A true story. Watch the video:

Everybody is a critic and if you are a restaurant owner, you have a target on your business.  Restaurant review sites are growing and there is more than just Yelp to consider.

Each day can be spent chasing comments on the Internet to protect your restaurant reputation.  While this article is not about restaurant reputation management, the long list below may make you nervous enough to look for a solution.

Reminder:  When someone makes a comment online, you will not feel it or hear about it anymore than you would in the old days when people would talk.  The difference is in the permanance of the comment and the whole world is watching and listening.

Turn the comments and restaurant reviews online into a restaurant marketing opportunity.  Instead of waiting for something to happen and wonder "Will it be ok?", be pro-active and influence your destiny.

New restaurant marketing idea:  Email Newsletters. Email marketing is not a new idea.  How many restaurateurs have an email list of at least 5,000?  Even in the days of dial-up Internet (1997), I already had an email list of about 5,000. How many have 20,000?  How many have 100,000?

This will be a simple restaurant marketing idea.  The goal is to keep you on top of your game, connect you with your guests, do something to add to their experience, and capture an email address so you can stay in each person's inner circle.

Free restaurant marketing is my preference. However, if you understand the importance of investing in a restaurant marketing strategy, here are a few tips on where to look for funds.  The goal is to ear-mark dollars which can then be invested and re-cycled as each marketing campaign pays off.  If your restaurant has a sales issue and is short cash then investing in anything, especially marketing, seems an impossibility.

A Christmas restaurant marketing idea never came to you? You can use this idea next year of if you are scrambling at the last minute, this may be perfect.

Ever had a restaurant marketing idea in the middle of the night only to have it drift off as you snooze? Here is an idea for your marketing campaign and a free online tool to assist you.

'Tis the season to think about the holiday gift card options.  Will you make your own gift certificates or will you hire a gift card services company?  John Harris from Lynch + Harris offers certificate and gift card ideas and options. 

The Gift - Savvy Merchant

A Must for Independent Retailers, Restaurateurs & Service Establishments

By John S. Harris

We did a a little restaurant marketing research on Halloween.  Instead of just handing out candy, we thought it might be interesting to learn what kids love.

Here is what we put on a tray for their selection:

• Pencils (skeleton and other odd shapes)
• Oatmeal treats (for healthy reasons of course)
• Small toys / trinkets (Halloween in nature)