Awesome Restaurant Marketing Ideas!

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.

A new restaurant marketing spreadsheet is now available.  The new restaurant marketing spreadsheet is an Excel worksheet which can be used on your computer or it can be printed out the size of a poster as a planning tool for a wall in the office.  Your local printer such as FedEx/Kinko's should do if for approximately $10.

The restaurant marketing planning spreadsheet is flexible for you to change/edit to fit your own business.  Narrow down the very long list of marketing tactics to about 12 to 15.  Which marketing tactics you choose will depend on your community, resources and your team. 

Restaurant marketing happens at every point of contact and menu covers can play an essential role when connecting with guests.  Becky and Ron Armstrong offer a guest post which gives you essential information about menu covers.  Read on as Becky and Ron share their wisdom:

Put the staff on a pedestal.  If those on the staff are not true believers, the restaurant marketing campaign fizzles.  The staff must believe that the management has their best interest in mind when making decisions.  It is important for them to believe that the "ownership" is watching out for their income. 

Too frequently the restaurant owner says: "Not too much restaurant marketing.  Don't want to be too busy."  When the restaurant owner is 10% of the staff and picks up the ball when there are staff members who are sick, late, stupid, selfish or undependable, the restaurant owner in survival mode is not interested in more work. 

Is signage a part of the restaurant marketing plan or simply looked upon as another piece of equipment?  Are menus in a restaurant a functional tool or a powerful marketing tool to influence, persuade and grow sales? 

Investing in new restaurant signs and menus can be a costly investment and difficult at times to measure the return on investment.

American Express has formed a partnership with Foursquare and others to change coupon offers from traditional to digital.  Eliminating the scissors and envelope to automation will speed the transactions and improve data collection.  (and reduce employee fraud?)  

American Express and the social networking service Foursquare have launched a partnership that enables American Express card members who link their Foursquare profiles to their cards to "load" to mobile devices and redeem merchant specials without the need for coupons or special codes.

There are rumors about restaurant marketing tactics which are spread around the Internet.  The message is very clear that restaurants are trying to "pull one over" on their guests.

If your restaurant strategy is to create marketing messages that misdirect and minimize information, then over time you will become untrustworthy.

A successful business owner who relies on guerrilla marketing listens first.  Restaurants are no exception.  If your restaurant is in New Hampshire, pay attention to the Beer Institute's Brewer Almanac.  In this special report (which is in essence a spreadsheet) you will learn that the highest consumption of beer per capita is in New Hampshire at about 32 gallons annually and is twice that of the lowest in Utah.

A high impact restaurant marketing campaign must have the restaurant team not only cooperative but also enthusiastic.

Direct mail marketing for restaurants with new technology and online printing appears to be easy and potentially rewarding.  Marketing is a little art and a little science. Using an online marketing tool that only requires the click of a mouse does not ensure a successful campaign.

Bypassing experts who have been doing graphics, printing and mailings for years is a risk.  Very careful consideration is needed before you click the "buy now" button when using an online printing company.  There is a good chance what you see is not what you expect and it may not arrive when you expect it.  This will leave you reordering and any potential cost savings can go out the window.  Testing a service with a small print job is a must to eliminate human error while you learn the ropes.

I like using the online tools for guerrilla marketing campaigns.  The goal is to create unique personal invitations to a specific group of people with a relevant message.