Taking Control of Your Restaurant Marketing

Here's a great article written by Jose L Riesco, a restaurant consultant. I think it teaches a good lesson about measuring your marketing...

In these days of doom and gloom I hear many restaurateurs complain about how slow business is and how the clients are spending less and less money dinning out.

However, as the saying says, "Times of crisis are times of opportunity".

If your business is slow, perhaps this is a great time to re-evaluate the efficacy of your marketing. Eliminate dead wood in your marketing expenses and start investing your money smartly in marketing that really works (and you can prove that really works).

I met recently with the owner of the latest restaurant that I am consulting with, and we did precisely this exercise.

I asked him to write down every single marketing expense that he was making, and then we started evaluating which ones could be tracked.

Amazingly for him (not for me because I was expecting this), 80% of his marketing expenses were non trackable. This means that he was expending a substantial amount of money advertising in the Yellow Pages, two local weekly papers and some other local restaurant catalogs, and yet he had no clue how many customers these expenses brought to his restaurant.

The first thing that we did was to eliminate any marketing expense that couldn't be measured. This is just a logical step to really assess the return of investment.

Let me ask you. Would you invest money in stocks or a mutual funds if you couldn't measure how well (or bad) they were performing?

Of course not, and yet many restaurateurs still spend money hoping for the best and without any substantial way to know how many customers those investments bring to the restaurant.

Since this particular owner was very attached to one specific weekly magazine, and he was assuring me that it brought him many customers, I asked him to change the ad to include a discount coupon.

If people really read his ad and came to his restaurant because of it, they will surely bring with them the discount coupon. In this way, he'll know how many real customers this ad brings him and we will be able to make the numbers to see if it breaks even to cover for the expenses of the advertisement (I sincerely doubt it, but we'll see...)

So after the inventory and cutting down several of his marketing initiatives, this owner was happy to see that he could save $2400 a month! That's money in the pocket that he was wasting.

But this is not all. We also started implementing some inexpensive marketing changes. For example, his online presence was very underwhelming and yet most of the potential and current restaurant customers nowadays (including his, of course) are looking for restaurants online.

So I started working with him beefing up his web presence.

Of course the first step is the restaurant's web site. His web site was nicely done but quite underutilized. I met with his webmaster and we implemented a signup form in the front page to capture his visitors information (on exchange for getting a welcome to my restaurant discount coupon when they enter it). We also added an online registration, a comments field and some other useful and interesting information for his customers.

He also signed up for Meta Flavor (www.metaflavor.com) a great (and free) way to promote your restaurant in the web.

Finally, he created a Twitter account and now started twitting whenever he has empty spaces and wants to bring people (quickly and inexpensively) in.

These are just some examples of things that you can do to improve your marketing and save money in the process.

In these days of slow economy, taking control of your marketing and operating strategically and smart is a must, if you want to survive these challenging times.

Mother's Day is the perfect time to increase sales

The National Restaurant Association reports about 38% of all Americans will dine out on Mother's Day. In fact, many will dine out twice, celebrating with different people: The NRA reports that 59% celebrate at dinner, 51% at lunch or brunch, and 22% at breakfast.

Mom's Love Practical Gifts

A recent survey by Jiffy Lube International reveals that 64% of moms said they would prefer something useful and practical this year.

One practical gift to consider is the gift of vehicle maintenance. Whether commuting to work or running errands, Mom spends a lot of time on the road, and her vehicle handles a lot of wear and tear. In fact, a survey from MomCentralConsulting.com found that 78 percent of moms spend at least six hours in their car each week.(1) Driving a vehicle that doesn't run efficiently or breaks down can be frustrating. "Many moms focus on getting their family where they need to go, and it's important that preventive vehicle maintenance does not get overlooked in busy schedules," said John Sanfacon, head of Marketing and Innovations at Jiffy Lube International.

The Jiffy Lube survey found that 23 percent of women say their biggest pet peeve while driving is streaky wind shield wipers, and nearly the same amount (22 percent) say it's a squealing noise from the engine or brakes that won't stop. The gift of preventive vehicle maintenance can help with all of Mom's vehicle needs, and let her breathe a sigh of relief.

Email Campaign Statistics

Restaurant Start-up and Growth just released a few of Constant Contact's email campaign statistics:

Constant Contacts: Restaurant/Bar/Catering
16.7% Open Rate
23% Bounce Back

Here's our stats:
Loyal Rewards: Restaurant/Bar/Catering
30.4% Open Rate
1.3% Bounce Back

This further ratifies our approach to email marketing: a short, professionally-worded email containing an offer of value.

Loyalty Programs vs. Email Marketing

This week we had a huge Loyal Rewards customer cancel his email account with us to switch to text marketing. I sent a final email to his customers telling them they are discontinuing the email program in lieu of text marketing. I have received over 100 replies to their last email – here's what their customers have to say:

· I am your best customer--I don't text--I guess you don't need my business--thanks a lot

· I don't think that is fair. I don't have texting and I am a great customer. So I feel like I am being cheated and left out.

· Very sad to see you're going away from the email coupons. I don't text, and won't, so I'll not be able to use your coupons. Thus, probably won't visit much anymore :(

· Great you are going totally to texting and discontinuing e-mails -- too bad for you as i do NOT text on my cell phone. You lose a customer

· Not everyone has cell phones and do texting!! What about us? NO MORE EMAILS, NO MORE BUSINESS!!!

· Well sorry I can’t be a part of your program, I DO NOT text. Guess you will lose some customer’s by going to just a text program.

We are only eliminating an email program, not a loyalty program where their customers have earned points. Keep this in mind if you are considering a loyalty program -- Since only 7% of restaurants use loyalty programs, history has proven that few businesses stay with their loyalty program for the long term – and when you cancel it, you lose customers.

Email Marketing Tips from Mom

Moms are the best. They encourage us to be better, scold us when were wrong and scoop us up when we fall. Simply put, they are our biggest fans.

While motherly prodding is sometimes annoying, there's no denying that 'momisms guide us through lots of sticky situations and come in handy when we least expect them to.

Moms even know what they're talking about when it comes to working on your email marketing campaign. Follow this advice for a mom-approved campaign.

Treat Others the Way You Like to be Treated
Its the golden rule, and really quite simple to adhere to. Your email list is made up of people, and those email addresses that you covet really belong to human beings.

Don't talk at them, but engage in conversation and invite feedback in a friendly and polite manner.

Be Yourself
Everyone is a little quirky. Use your uniqueness to your advantage and make your emails a reflection of your personal style. Your personality sets you apart, and it could be the edge that brings subscribers back for more.

Mind Your P's and Q's
Remember though, just because your email reflects your personality does not mean it is the right stage for your personal rants and raves.

Be polite; don't discuss topics that might offend your subscribers or you might have to wash out your mouth with soap!

You Catch More Flies with Honey Than Vinegar
Be like Hugh Honey, not Vick Vinegar. Use an incentive in your web form to sweeten the deal. Outline the benefits to subscribing to your list, and always use positive language. If you constantly berate your competitors, subscribers will pick up on your negativity.

What If Everyone Jumped Off a Cliff? Would You Jump Too?
Sometimes doing the right thing is hard. Its not easy to build a list, but in the long run you will win when you have legitimate and engaged subscribers.

Never Be Too Proud to Ask For Help When You Need It
Were always here to help. Give us a call or send us an email if you ever have questions!