How To Market Your Restaurant

How to market your restaurant. In order to fill the seats in your restaurant it is essential to have a restaurant marketing plan.

As a restaurant or other small business owner, it is odds-on that you don't know a whole lot about how to market your restaurant. If that is the case, what are your choices?

1) You could rely on a salesman who wants to sell you some advertising space. They usually make unsubstantiated promises, they don't know your business, they don't know your customer profile, they leave you to write the advertisement and they only want to sell the space to earn their commission.
2) You could learn about marketing and dip your toes in the water to test it.
3) You could hand the whole issue over to your office staff or restaurant manager.
4) You could take advice from a professional.

I think you'll guess that option 1 is not the answer, but it does give us some clues as to what we should do.

Let's take those clues one at a time.
Firstly, that they make unsubstantiated claims. Twenty years ago when yellow pages was the advertising medium of choice, most restaurateurs assumed they were getting new customers from their yellow pages ads. In fact very, very few restaurants were actually able to identify the returns they got from yellow pages advertising. Unless your staff had asked the customer how they found you, you were unlikely to know, because your customers wouldn't tell you! All of your new custom should be track-able to the source of their interest.
So key number one is to ask them when they walk through the door. Establish whether they are repeat, regular or new customers straight away and note down where they heard about you. This is vital information for you.
Secondly a salesman does not know your business, in fact on many occasions; it's a mystery to most people. You know what your business is and what your goals, vision and aims are. Your vision must be clearly and intensely defined and understood by everyone associated with your business as well as publicized to your customers.
Key number two is to set your vision in writing so that everyone can focus on achieving it. Know what you want to aspire to, your dream, your vision and engage everyone around you into helping fulfil those ambitions.
Next the salesman probably won't be able to identify your ideal customer profile or which demographic group they belong to. So how can he hope to target your advertising? Most advertising magazines are far too broad in their scope to be able to provide value for money to the advertiser.
You know your typical customer, so key number three is to target the ideal marketplace with your marketing and advertising.
If the salesman for your advertising doesn't offer a copywriting service for your advertisements and most don't, then you will be the one to write your own ads. In one sense this is a good thing because you know who you want to attract and you know what you want to offer them.
Key number four is to take some professional advice on how to structure and script your ads, in order to maximise response and be able to track your returns. Do not under-estimate the influence of professional copy.

That's the salesman dealt with, what about the other 3 options: learn about marketing; passing it to your staff or; taking professional advice.

What to do!
My recommendation is to use a mix of all three. Knowing how to market your restaurant is an involved process; it's not something to handle lightly and you need to develop a sound restaurant marketing strategy.
Getting all your employees involved is a great idea, particularly on the Social Media side of promoting your restaurant.
By learning some marketing skills yourself (there are plenty of resources online) and testing various ideas you will begin to understand the complexities. It will also put you in the habit of viewing things from a different angle and broadening your perspective.
Getting guidance from a professional is great for fixing your attention on your goal. Spend time with them explaining where you are, where you want to go and what you are looking to achieve. They will be able to provide you with a roadmap and the tools to reach your destination.
So that is key number five, be open to your options, get good advice, always be willing to learn and get everyone involved. Once you have put your restaurant marketing plan together, write it down and display it on your office wall. Refer to it often, keep on track and you will reach your destination. Good luck and get started right away, take action right now.


Copyright (c) 2011 Baz Rothwell