Restaurant Marketing Guide.Pdf

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Contents

Introduction: Using Marketing Strategies to Address ...... 4 Enhancing Brand Recognition While Reducing Costs ...... 4 Establishing Meaningful Connections With Members of the Local Community ...... 5 How to Generate Substantial, Long-Term ROI Through Effective Marketing Principles ...... 5 Chapter 1: Embracing SEO and Building an Effective Web Presence ...... 7 Fostering Valuable Connections ...... 7 Getting the Most Out of Your Web Presence: SEO Guidelines for Your Restaurant’s Homepage ...... 8 Leveraging Third-Party Review Sites ...... 9 Google-Specific Tools and Strategies ...... 9 Share Vital Information and Promote Your Unique Brand Identity ...... 10 Chapter 2: Engaging Online Communities Through Social Media Marketing ...... 11 Building a Digital Community of Like-Minded People ...... 11 Getting the Most Out of Social Media Marketing: Social Media Influencers, User-Generated Content, and More ...... 12 Offering a Look Behind the Curtain ...... 13 Chapter 3: A Comprehensive Approach to Digital Marketing ...... 14 Detail-Oriented Digital Marketing Strategies ...... 14 Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Strategies ...... 15 Acting Locally: How to Get the Most From Your Digital Marketing Efforts ...... 15 Chapter 4: Engaging the Local Community Through Print Advertising and More ...... 17 Establishing Local Ties and Building Community Partnerships ...... 17 Linking Brand Identity to Local Community ...... 18 Foster Mutually Beneficial Local Relationships Through Bartering ...... 19 Local Brand Recognition: How to Get the Most Out of Your Print Marketing Efforts ...... 19

Chapter 5: Stimulating Word-of-Mouth Marketing and Rewarding Customer Loyalty ...... 21 Brand Advocates and the Value of Objectivity ...... 21 Customer Appreciation and Loyalty Rewards ...... 22 Getting the Most Out of Your Rewards Programs and Word-of-Mouth Marketing ...... 22 Chapter 6: Hosting, Organizing, and Attending Special Community Events ...... 24 Branding Opportunities: Generating Goodwill and Enhancing Visibility ...... 26

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Cultivating Mutually Beneficial Relationships ...... 27 Chapter 7: Brand-Building Opportunities: Crafting a Narrative Through Marketing ...... 28 Telling Your Story Through Unique Branding Strategies ...... 28 Creating Personal Connections Between Patrons and Staff ...... 29 Effective Storytelling: How to Get the Most Out of Your Brand-Building Strategies ...... 30 Chapter 8: Embracing the Digital Age ...... 31 Digital Reservations, Deliveries, and Promotions ...... 31 A Service-Oriented Approach: Getting the Most Out of 3rd-Party Digital Services ...... 32

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Introduction: Using Marketing Strategies to Address the Challenges Facing Restaurateurs

◉ Do you want to fill empty seats on Tuesday afternoon? ◉ Does text message marketing work? ◉ Can buying local increase revenue? ◉ Do cooking classes and “theme nights” scare you? ◉ When was the last time a customer shared a picture on Instagram? ◉ Have you ever tagged a great customer on Facebook? ◉ Have you worked with your local Chamber of Commerce? ◉ How can free food drive traffic?

As a restaurateur, you surely understand the multitude of challenges associated with running a restaurant, not to mention the fact that those challenges are quite likely to evolve from one day to the next. The manner in which you choose to address these everyday challenges has a significant impact on your restaurant’s ability to achieve the longevity and prosperity sought by every business owner, underscoring the importance of utilizing the best tools and strategies available. While the challenges you face are numerous and varied, it is also the case that a number of marketing principles and strategies are useful in addressing these challenges. These marketing principles and strategies exist as highly effective solutions for the all-too-common issues found within the restaurant industry. With a comprehensive marketing approach designed according to your specific goals and objectives, your restaurant will be able to address any challenge you might encounter while also attracting a loyal base of supportive customers from the local community.

Enhancing Brand Recognition While Reducing Costs An effective marketing campaign shines a wholly positive light on your restaurant and successfully encourages customers to visit as soon as they are able, which in turn delivers such a substantial ROI that it is easily justifies the initial expense. Unfortunately, many marketing campaigns suffer from a lack of branding and ineffective or confusing messaging.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

With a thoughtfully planned and comprehensive marketing campaign, you can ensure your branding efforts are consistent across every platform, regardless of whether it appears on a billboard, social media post, t-shirt or website. Consistent and efficient branding practices also allow you to craft a meaningful narrative that deeply resonates with local community members, thereby reducing your cost expenditures and increasing your marketing ROI.

Establishing Meaningful Connections With Members of the Local Community Every restaurant benefits from attracting a loyal base of customers from the local community, particularly since it is local customers who are most responsible for generating daily revenue. Targeted marketing efforts enable you to connect with members of the community in a meaningful way, helping you avoid those slow days in which far too many seats go unfilled due to a lack of foot traffic. An effective marketing campaign also enables you to express gratitude to your base of loyal customers. You might choose to use a marketing campaign to recognize or promote user-generated content that has helped your business, or you might offer an incentivized discount like a free appetizer or dessert (incentivized discounts are more effective than a percentage discount; customers rarely want to return to pay full price for an item after previously paying half of that price).

How to Generate Substantial, Long-Term ROI Through Effective Marketing Principles and Strategies In the sections that follow, we’ll look at many different ways in which you can leverage the most up-to-date marketing principles and strategies. Every restaurateur surely has different goals and objectives they wish to achieve through a strategic marketing campaign, so a multifaceted and individualized approach is necessary for achieving any restaurant-specific goals and objectives. It is for this reason that we’ll devote the upcoming sections to each the following topics:

◉ Best practices in search engine optimization (SEO) ◉ Establishing an effective web presence ◉ Social media marketing principles and strategies ◉ A comprehensive approach to digital marketing ◉ Print advertising principles and strategies ◉ Fostering Community engagement

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

◉ Stimulating word-of-mouth marketing ◉ Best practices for customer rewards and/or loyalty programs ◉ Benefits of hosting, organizing, and attending special community events ◉ Brand-building strategies and principles ◉ Efficiently leveraging third-party digital platforms and services

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Chapter 1: Embracing SEO and Building an Effective Web Presence

he growing ubiquity of mobile devices capable of wirelessly connecting to the internet at a moment’s notice has radically altered the way every business T markets its products and services, and, judging by nothing more than the number of guests whose faces are illuminated by the blue glow of their cell phone as they snap pictures of an entrée or dessert, restaurateurs are certainly not exempt from the need to build an effective web presence that connects with existing and potential customers alike. Obviously, it is quite likely that you are already aware of the necessity of an effective web presence in this increasingly digital age. That being said, far too many restaurants seem to prefer a minimalist approach when it comes to building and maintaining a strong, effective web presence, which means that these restaurants are missing out on a wealth of opportunities to foster the valuable customer connections needed to ensure continued success as well as long-term growth. Of course, an effective web presence must be easily located and highly visible to existing and potential customers. Through the use of search engine optimization (commonly referred to by its acronym: SEO), you can ensure that the web presence you create and maintain enables your business to immediately stand out from the competition. In the sections that follow, we’ll not only discuss what you can accomplish with an effective web presence as well as the implementation of SEO strategies; we’ll also outline the specific tools, resources, and methods available to you -- each of which is designed to ensure you get the most out of your web presence and SEO marketing strategies.

Fostering Valuable Connections As a successful restaurateur, you already understand the value that accompanies the kind of exceptional customer service that features the forging of personal connections with those dining in your restaurant. While it used to be the case that these relationships began in the restaurant itself, the prevalence of our rapidly evolving digital landscape means that it is more likely that these initial connections are made online, which means nearly every customer’s first impression is shaped solely by your web presence.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

With a highly visible, dynamic, and interactive web presence, you can rest assured that customers will respond positively to this digital first impression. Since this is a clearly beneficial outcome for any restaurant, it would certainly help to explain what we mean by a “dynamic and interactive web presence” along with the ideal strategies for ensuring you get the most our of your web presence and SEO efforts.

Getting the Most Out of Your Web Presence: SEO Guidelines for Your Restaurant’s Homepage In order to get the most out of the SEO strategies you incorporate into your marketing plan, it is first necessary to understand the goals of any search engine algorithm, which is to provide the searcher with a set of practical and entirely relevant search results. In essence, these algorithms always value highly relevant content that both informs and engages the visitor. Your website should therefore include much more than basic information like your daily hours and current menu options. As you build or update your homepage, consider the many different types of content you might provide to visitors. Yes, you should certainly list your hours and make your current menu available online -- in fact, this information should be prominently displayed so that it is immediately visible to any visitors. Beyond this basic information, consider creating informative and engaging content, including, but certainly not limited to, each of the following examples:

◉ In-depth profiles of restaurant personnel and/or valued customers ◉ Historical information (about the business, the owners, or even the building) ◉ Specialty recipes shared by the chef ◉ Links to recent reviews ◉ Customer appreciation (sharing and expressing thanks for any user-generated content, such as a positive tweet or Instagram post, for example)

Ultimately, your goal should be to create “shareable” content, which is simply the kind of content that visitors will find engaging enough that they will recommend it to others. Search engines prefer content shared across multiple online platforms, so adopting a focus on shareable content will boost your search ranking, thereby enhancing your overall visibility.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Leveraging Third-Party Review Sites With the increasing number of third-party sites offering information about businesses across a multitude of industries, it is important that you play an active role in ensuring every listing associated with your restaurant features complete, accurate, and up-to- date information. These popular sites -- Yelp and Zomato (which acquired Urbanspoon), for example -- provide customer reviews along with additional information about the restaurant. It is in your interest to leverage these sites to the best of your ability by providing detailed information about your restaurant while remaining committed to updating that information whenever appropriate. To ensure the reviews posted on these third- party sites accurately reflect the quality of the dining experience at your restaurant, make a point to encourage your customers to post a review of their experience at the specific site in question. Yelp, as well as a number of other third-party sites, makes it possible for you to claim your own profile. It is worthwhile to not only claim each and every profile listed through these third-party sites, but to also make the effort to regularly update each profile with new information and as many pictures as possible. It is also worthwhile to ensure your restaurant is listed on any community-focused sites, including, for example, your local Chamber of Commerce’s website.

Google-Specific Tools and Strategies Google is constantly developing new features and functionalities capable of adding value for anyone using its platform, which certainly includes both restaurateurs and their customers. Applications like Google My Business offers a centrally managed profile for all kinds of businesses -- restaurants included, of course -- and since the application automatically interacts with Google Search and Google Maps, it is certainly helpful in establishing a pervasive web presence. Google’s Local Business schema markup is another interesting tool available for fostering an effective web presence, especially since it allows such a high level of user customization across a wide range of scenarios, including, for example, ensuring your restaurant’s content shows up in a host-specific carousel whenever a user enters search terms such as “best restaurant in [city],” or “best nearby restaurants.” Since you will surely want to keep an eye out for any new listings or reviews shared online, make sure to set as many relevant Google Alerts as necessary, as this will help ensure you are always immediately informed about any newly shared information concerning your restaurant.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

These alerts make it easy for you to manage your web presence by enabling you to address any issue as soon as it arises. If you’re unfamiliar with how to set an alert, you can learn more about it through Google Search Help.

Share Vital Information and Promote Your Unique Brand Identity Every successful restaurateur understands the importance of prioritizing strategies designed to foster the valuable, long-term customer relationships so central to a restaurant’s ability to thrive in a highly competitive marketplace. With it being increasingly the case that these relationships are initially forged in the digital realm, the importance of an effective web presence will only continue to expand over time. This simple truth underscores the need for all restaurateurs to utilize the aforementioned digital tools and strategies in order to share vital business information while also promoting -- not to mention crafting and protecting -- the restaurant’s wholly unique brand identity.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Chapter 2: Engaging Online Communities Through Social Media Marketing

Social media platforms, along with the rapidly growing digital communities each platform hosts, represent a valuable opportunity for restaurateurs, particularly when it comes to readily engaging with a nearly unlimited number of existing and potential customers. The sheer vastness of social media -- with Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest representing a mere fraction of the social media platforms currently available -- makes it possible for you to interact with a wide range of people in an instant, enabling you to build meaningful, long-term personal relationships with your customers while also collecting valuable feedback about your restaurant. Of course, social media platforms are also a central component of any successful marketing strategy, especially since these platforms serve as a sort of starting point or even a compass for internet users. Twitter users, for example, merely have to scroll through their personally cultivated feed or quickly review the trending topics in order to catch up on whatever information they view as most important. Social media platforms therefore serve as a centralized source of information capable of guiding each user’s subsequent internet use -- all according to the preferences of each individual user.

Building a Digital Community of Like-Minded People Given the overall potency of the diverse and ever-expanding social media platforms, restaurateurs stand to gain a great deal from maintaining an active presence within these digital communities. Although active participation within the digital communities that exist across different social media platforms certainly yields a number of valuable benefits, you should also consider the value offered by the opportunity to build a digital community of like-minded people united by the joy they experience when dining at your restaurant. As a digital community begins to build around your restaurant’s brand, you will begin to have greater access to the wealth of benefits yielded by brand advocates, social media influencers, and user-generated content, all of which are among the most effective marketing tools available today. While social media influencers and brand advocates are critical components of any digital marketing strategy, there are many different methods for ensuring you always get the most out of your social media marketing strategies.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Getting the Most Out of Social Media Marketing: Social Media Influencers, User-Generated Content, and More Due to their inherent objectivity, brand advocates and social media influencers are uniquely effective in promoting your business via social media. The same is true of user-generated content, as any user-generated content shared via social media is inherently objective and thus more likely to be trusted by others. Since this is essentially a digital version of word-of-mouth marketing, it is critical for you to consistently foster these kinds of digital conversations with a diverse approach that could include encouraging patrons to use their preferred social media platform to:

◉ Check-in at the restaurant ◉ Share photos of the food and the restaurant ◉ Post a review of the dining experience

Initiating a digital conversation in this way will provide a number of opportunities to craft an engaging and entirely genuine social media presence for your brand. Whenever a customer writes a review or shares a photo through social media, you can express your gratitude in any number of ways, including offering a “freebie,” or featuring the patron as well as their picture, post, or any other form of user-generated content across your social media platforms. Considering the value of user-generated content, it is surprising that so many brands fail to properly recognize those responsible for creating and sharing organic and inherently objective content. Of course, there are other ways to get people involved with your brand online, including those who might not yet be familiar with your restaurant as well as your existing customer base. Like many of the previously mentioned methods, each of the following strategies creates an opportunity to both engage and expand your current audience:

◉ Ask patrons to “Help Us Build Our Online Menu” by taking a picture and publishing to Twitter or Instagram with a tag (e.g. @RestaurantName) and the menu item ◉ Offer exclusive specials via social media (e.g. “Today only! Free appetizer with every meal from 2-4 p.m. Tuesday afternoon”) ◉ Highlight customers by tagging them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms ◉ Promote any patrons who share via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

When utilizing these strategies, it is also important to remember that social media provides the unique opportunity to personally address customers who share negative feedback about a dining experience. You can make an offer to correct the issue with the customer in any number of ways, including by discussing the issue online or by simply sharing your direct phone line or email address through a private channel (a direct message sent through Twitter, for example). A friendly and genuine approach to any negative social media content -- along with the help and support of a community of loyal patrons and brand advocates -- will give you the greatest degree of control over your reputation and brand identity.

Offering a Look Behind the Curtain When building a digital community via social media, it is absolutely critical that you focus on sharing unique, interesting, and valuable content. This kind of focus ensures that the members of your digital community recognize the mutually beneficial rewards stemming from maintaining such a digital relationship through social media. In order to make sure your social media efforts entertain and engage your audience without seeming overtly promotional, try to focus on sharing more personally revealing or behind-the-scenes content about your restaurant and your team members. This means sharing pictures and videos of the things most patrons don’t experience while dining at the restaurant, such as a brief video of the kitchen staff preparing for the night ahead or a screenshot showing the total number of steps taken and calories burned by a server during an especially busy shift. Unique content -- like the kind that offers “a look behind the curtain,” so to speak -- is a key component in creating and maintaining an effective social media presence. When a server asks a patron if they’d like to receive a digital newsletter by providing their email address, it is much more likely that the server will be successful if he or she is able to make reference to the interesting features, valuable offers, and laugh- inducing photos and videos that make up each newsletter. These behind-the-scenes looks are also highly effective in developing a sense of a deep personal connection between the restaurant and its patrons, thereby creating the loyal base of regular customers every restaurant needs to ensure a prosperous future that properly rewards all of the time and energy that goes into running a restaurant.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Chapter 3: A Comprehensive Approach to Digital Marketing

Digital marketing is an all-encompassing term referring to the host of marketing practices and principles specifically designed for web-based platforms or applications. These wide ranging practices and principles -- including everything from social media marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) to establishing a brand-specific web presence and cultivating an online community -- are increasingly vital for restaurateurs, particularly those with prosperity and longevity clearly in mind. Since we have already discussed how to establish a highly effective web presence through the utilization of SEO [link back to chapter 1] and social media marketing strategies [link back to chapter 2], this section will focus on a number of specific methods designed to complement the effective principles and practices we have already detailed in previous sections. Given the increasing prevalence of mobile- based platforms, this section will also go into detail on how to ensure your marketing strategies are adaptable and mobile-friendly.

Detail-Oriented Digital Marketing Strategies As a restaurateur, you are surely interested in targeting an audience located within a specific geographic range of your restaurant’s location (or locations, as the case may be). This can be accomplished through geotargeting, which is a surprisingly underutilized marketing tool given its effectiveness in reaching a highly specific audience based on proximity to the restaurant. There are quite a few marketing strategies that benefit from the use of geotargeting, including each of the following:

◉ Facebook advertising (as well as ads featured on a host of other social media platforms) ◉ Mobile advertising ◉ Email newsletters

Geotargeting ensures advertising appearing on mobile and social media platforms is efficient in reaching its intended audience while also allowing the message to be tailored in a way that maximizes conversion rates. It is for these same reasons that geotargeting is useful when applied to email newsletters, as it allows you to create a truly dynamic and specific newsletter capable of providing genuine value to each individual customer.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

This added value is a large reason why email marketing campaigns utilizing geotargeting experience substantial improvements in performance across critical metrics such as click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates. It is absolutely critical to demonstrate your commitment to providing genuine value to your customers through digital marketing, as this will ensure your customers continue to open your emails and pay close attention to your advertising efforts.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising Strategies Given the endless efforts to refine its search engine algorithm, Google, along with a host of other search engines, clearly understands the importance of consistently providing highly relevant results. The order in which these results appear is of exceptional importance, and it is well known that achieving top placement in search engine results can generate a lot of traffic in a very brief period of time. Recognizing this, Google and others use Pay-Per-Click, or PPC, to offer the opportunity to appear before the organic search engine results in exchange for a small fee for each click the listing generates. This fee is determined through a bidding process and can vary considerably based on the popularity of the specific search term, making it possible to generate significant ROI if there is a general lack of competition for what is often referred to as a “niche” search term. As a restaurateur, your marketing efforts are quite likely to involve targeting a highly specific audience based on geography as well as a few other factors. Since PPC marketing offers the opportunity for substantial ROI when dealing with highly specialized or “niche” search terms, you should seriously consider utilizing PPC marketing as a part of an overarching digital marketing campaign.

Acting Locally: How to Get the Most From Your Digital Marketing Efforts A locally focused marketing effort is a necessity for any restaurant, as it is members of the local community that are most likely to consistently support your efforts over the long term. Effective digital marketing -- which includes SEO, social media marketing, geotargeted advertising, and more -- allows you to quickly and easily connect with potential customers within your target market. Digital marketing also allows you to establish the brand identity you wish to have associated with your restaurant, provided that your marketing efforts are designed to offer both existing and potential patrons something of value.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

In addition to utilizing geotargeting or PPC as part of your marketing campaign, remember that the likelihood of long-term support from the community is often increased with reciprocation. You may want to reach out to local community websites to offer something of value in exchange for a review or a feature, or you can offer discounts in exchange for signing up for your text message or email marketing lists (e.g. “Sign up for our text message marketing list and receive a 10 percent discount!”) Locally focused marketing efforts also provide additional opportunities to entice new and existing customers while also cultivating your brand identity. Creating a video of your chef preparing a specific meal -- “This is today’s special, if you can name it, you can have it for 20-percent off. Come in anytime and tell your server the name of the meal in today’s video” -- and sharing it through your website, social media channels, mobile ads, and digital marketing lists offers customers something entertaining and valuable that also shines a light on the quality of the ingredients as well as the unique talents possessed by the chef. Since it offers so many opportunities to sharply focus on a specific target market, digital marketing is especially valuable in building strong, long-lasting relationships with members of the local community. As a restaurateur, you are surely aware of the inherent necessity of connecting with local community members, particularly as it relates to establishing the core group of loyal customers so central to achieving longevity and prosperity in the restaurant industry.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Chapter 4: Engaging the Local Community Through Print Advertising and More

It is difficult to overstate the importance of a comprehensive approach to marketing that includes a wide range of digital- and print-based strategies. Even though it might seem possible to rely solely on digital marketing strategies, there is still good reason to incorporate different kinds of print advertising efforts into your approach. In addition to serving a complementary purpose when paired with digital marketing strategies, print advertising is also uniquely effective in terms of its ability to help you engage and connect with members of the local community.

Establishing Local Ties and Building Community Partnerships Over time, local restaurants often become an integral part of a community and its unique identity. As a restaurateur, you are surely aware that there is tremendous value in your restaurant being woven into the local community fabric, particularly since it is local customers who are instrumental in providing daily revenue streams. Just as it is critical that you use digital marketing strategies to connect with a web-based community, so too is it critical to use print and other promotional strategies to establish and strengthen those important local ties. There are many ways in which you can utilize print advertising to reach members of your local community while also demonstrating your commitment to supporting local residents, organizations, and events. Traditional print advertising strategies still have tremendous reach and remain one of the best ways to increase your brand’s visibility within your local community, which is why it is worth incorporating any of the following print-based options into your overarching marketing strategy:

◉ Billboards ◉ Bumper stickers ◉ Carryout boxes ◉ Menus ◉ Newspapers ◉ Postcard mailers ◉ Receipts ◉ Signs

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Postcard mailers, for instance, exemplify how print advertising can play a substantial role in increasing your standing within the community while also attracting new customers to your restaurant. After sending out postcard mailers to customers in your area based on zip code, you can run a promotion in which the restaurant agrees to donate 10 percent to a local organization (churches, Cub Scouts, local schools, youth sports teams, etc.) on behalf of each patron who presents the card when dining at the restaurant. You can choose to partner with a specific organization or allow your patrons to choose from a list of local organizations when they present the card. Of course, branding is one of the principal benefits of print advertising. Including your name and logo on all of your print advertising efforts -- whether it is a billboard, carryout box, bumper sticker, or anything else -- will ensure your logo is instantly recognized any time it is seen by members of the community. Placing print advertisements throughout your local community will also result in an immediate association between your restaurant and the community in which it is located, which is obviously valuable for your branding efforts.

Linking Brand Identity to Local Community The subtle use of print advertising to create an association between your restaurant and the local community is just one of the many ways you can use marketing to connect with members of the community. In order to further link your brand identity to the local community -- all while continuing to generate interest in your restaurant and promoting your business -- consider incorporating strategies based on partnerships or sponsorships with local members of the community, including, for example, each of the following strategies:

◉ Sponsor a local youth sports team (T-ball, soccer, etc.) ◉ Sponsor high school sports programs (trade sponsorship for end-of-the-year meal for the entire team, buy advertising signage in school gymnasium, etc.) ◉ Donate catering services to special community events ◉ Partnership donations ◉ Partner with local farmers and use locally sourced ingredients

Supporting community members as well as local events and organizations engenders a great deal of goodwill and showcases your commitment to giving back to the community that supports your business. As a result, the community will want to continue to support your business in any way possible, whether it is by dining at the restaurant on a regular basis or simple recommending the restaurant at every opportunity.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Of course, this type of marketing is not merely based on an implicit quid pro quo, and there is indeed a wide range of strategies available to you to ensure you get greatest possible return on your marketing investment.

Foster Mutually Beneficial Local Relationships Through Bartering Bartering is underrated as a marketing strategy and, as a result, is grossly underutilized by businesses. Restaurateurs who make use of bartering benefit from the inherent cost-effectiveness of this approach, not to mention the positive short- and long-term benefits associated with establishing mutually rewarding relationships with local businesses. Since bartering is inherently cost-effective, you will be able to apply any savings to other aspects of your business, perhaps including a more diversified approach to your marketing strategy. Supporting other local businesses through bartering also generates goodwill from the community while creating opportunities to develop personal relationships with professionals in the area. If, for example, you need high- resolution pictures of your cuisine for an online menu, consider offering a photographer a free meal (or meals, depending on the photographer’s typical fee) in exchange for his or her services. Given the wealth of benefits associated with bartering, you should always be open to bartering with your suppliers and other local businesses. Bartering is useful as a negotiating tool, as you can use an exchange of goods to replace or even supplement a monetary exchange. Bartering is also a lot of fun, and everyone enjoys recalling the details of the great deal they negotiated -- thereby stimulating a new source for the endlessly valuable word-of-mouth marketing sought by every restaurateur.

Local Brand Recognition: How to Get the Most Out of Your Print Marketing Efforts In order to yield the greatest possible ROI from your locally focused marketing efforts, it is important to remember the value of forging long-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with members of the community. The process involved in making these connections is often cited as one of the most enjoyable aspects of a locally focused marketing campaign, but many note the creative opportunities as an equally enjoyable component. This is because there are just so many ways you can get the community involved in some way or another, so make sure you at least consider developing and incorporating creative marketing strategies based on the unique qualities of the local community.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

A number of restaurateurs have relied on their creativity to come up with the following strategies, each of which was clearly designed with the goal of engaging and connecting with members of the local community in some way:

◉ Encourage community involvement in adding new menu items (e.g. “Two new menu items, vote for your favorite during the month of June!”) ◉ Attend local trade shows and farmers markets ◉ Include pictures of local ingredients being delivered and prepared in print advertising materials as well as social media; offer dinner to that farmer as a “Thank You" ◉ Invite community VIPs (e.g. the mayor and other city officials; anyone who wins an award or is featured in the local newspaper) ◉ Offer newspaper reporters a free meal along with a tour of the restaurant to entice them to write a review

Through the use of marketing strategies designed to showcase your commitment to community involvement, your restaurant and the brand associated with it stand to experience a host of both short- and long-term benefits. These particular types of strategies not only offer a potentially substantial ROI, but also help transform regular patrons into fiercely loyal brand advocates willing to offer their ongoing support by promoting your business to others in the local community. This in turn stimulates the immensely valuable word-of-mouth marketing that every restaurant needs to thrive over the long term.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Chapter 5: Stimulating Word-of-Mouth Marketing and Rewarding Customer Loyalty

Traditional word-of-mouth marketing remains one of the most valuable methods available to restaurateurs, mainly due to the inherent objectivity of opinions, reviews, and recommendations offered from one customer to another. As a restaurateur, it will always be vital that you utilize strategies designed to stimulate word-of-mouth marketing without tainting the objectivity that makes this type of marketing so valuable. Although it might appear quite difficult to effectively generate word-of-mouth marketing, there are a few simple strategies you can rely on to ensure your core customer base feels a sense of duty to advocate on behalf of your business. Of course, this is very much a two-way street, which is why you must go to great lengths to ensure your restaurant patrons not only feel appreciated, but also feel confident in the quality of the dining experience you consistently provide at your restaurant.

Brand Advocates and the Value of Objectivity In order to cultivate devoted brand advocates willing to help promote your business in an organic way, there are just a few prerequisites to keep in mind. Even though most of the following conditions might seem rudimentary to even a neophyte in the restaurant industry, these issues are unfortunately so commonplace that it is worth repeating:

◉ Excellent customer service is an absolute must; a poor reputation in this regard is incredibly difficult to overcome ◉ An emphasis on cleanliness is of paramount importance; a clean restaurant -- especially the bathroom -- is mandatory ◉ The restaurant must feature a consistent, enjoyable atmosphere that is appealing to a broad range of diverse customers

There are few restaurants capable of generating word-of-mouth marketing -- let alone thriving for any length of time -- if it is unable to offer quality customer service, a clean environment, or an enjoyable atmosphere. Brand advocates are rarely willing to stake their personal reputation on a restaurant that clearly does not prioritize these basic values, and no amount of customer appreciation programs or loyalty rewards can change that.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Refusing to cut corners in this way is the first step involved in cultivating a truly dedicated group of brand advocates willing to sing your praises at every opportunity.

Customer Appreciation and Loyalty Rewards The most basic form of customer appreciation occurs when you provide an exquisite cuisine and offer patrons consistently exceptional service within an enjoyable atmosphere, but there are many additional methods available for demonstrating your appreciation for your customers. Loyalty rewards programs, for example, offer something of value beyond the culinary delights your restaurant provides, thereby making customers feel appreciated for their patronage in a way that serves as a form of subtle encouragement for word-of-mouth marketing. Perhaps you might be hesitant about taking on the responsibility of managing a loyalty rewards program, especially if it means diverting attention away from your core responsibilities. Fortunately, there are several digital applications available, many of which allow you to customize an automated program according to the specific needs of your restaurant, including, for example, each of the following applications:

◉ Belly ◉ LevelUp ◉ Loyal Blocks ◉ Perka

These customer service-oriented applications provide rewards in a number of ways, including, for example, by functioning as a sort of digital punch card or facilitating order-ahead sales, among other things. The fact that each offers varying levels of customization and automation provides additional marketing value for unavoidably busy restaurateurs.

Getting the Most Out of Your Rewards Programs and Word-of-Mouth Marketing It is entirely appropriate to further emphasize the importance of creating an outstanding dining experience for each and every patron by ensuring your restaurant earns a reputation for its outstanding cuisine, its consistently exceptional service, and its unrelenting focus on cultivating a clean and enjoyable atmosphere for an exceedingly broad base of customers.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

You will want to carefully consider the effect of every last detail -- whether it is the volume of the music, the layout of the tables, the number of staff working on a given night, or even the way you train your servers in upselling techniques -- as a detail- oriented approach in this regard is absolutely vital when it comes to building the base of loyal customers that will eventually become tireless brand advocates. Of course, there are many other ways to help spur your brand advocates to promote your business through word-of-mouth marketing. Offering special deals or discounts, including some of the common examples listed below, will give your brand advocates something unique to discuss with anyone they happen to run into -- not to mention the fact that the limited availability or time period of a special deal or discount creates a sense of urgency that spurs new customers to visit the restaurant as soon as possible:

◉ BOGO (“Buy One, Get One”) drinks and appetizers ◉ Monthly lunch specials ◉ Monthly “Happy Hour” specials ◉ Discounted gift certificates (e.g. $50 gift certificate for $45) ◉ Clothing-related or holiday-specific discounts (Discounts for anyone wearing red, white, and blue on American holidays; red on Valentine’s Day; pink on Mothers Day, etc.)

The preceding examples represent the kind of deals and discounts you might consider offering when trying to stimulate word-of-mouth marketing from your loyal brand advocates, but there is certainly ample room for creativity when it comes to offering special deals or discounts with the purpose of engendering a sense of goodwill in addition to sparking the word-of-mouth marketing every restaurateur values so dearly. In order to promote effective word-of-mouth marketing, it is worth recalling some of the axioms regarding the most ideal approach to using social media as a marketing tool. Stimulating word-of-mouth marketing requires brand advocates possess something they deem “shareable.” In this instance, “shareable” might refer to any number of things, including information that is unique, interesting, or helpful; a rare opportunity; or anything else deemed valuable by the brand advocate. This type of focus is necessary to ensure you get the most from your word-of-mouth marketing strategies as well as your customer rewards programs.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Chapter 6: Hosting, Organizing, and Attending Special Community Events

At its core, making a memorable and meaningful connection exists as the principal goal of any marketing effort. This is, of course, the simplest way of looking at marketing, and it is certainly the case that there are substantial differences between the goals and objectives sought from one campaign to the next. Despite the vast differences that might exist from business to business and industry to industry, every restaurateur stands to benefit from marketing campaigns designed to facilitate connections with members of the local community. Hosting, organizing, and attending special community events are highly effective in facilitating the kinds of local connections so central to the longevity and prosperity a business is capable of achieving. Participating in special community events elevates your brand in the eyes of the community and provides valuable visibility as well as ample opportunities to face-to-face interactions with local community members -- both inside and outside of the restaurant.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

There are endless local marketing opportunities made possible through events hosted at your restaurant, particularly when it comes to targeting new customers who have yet to visit for some reason or another. Events hosted at your restaurant also provide an opportunity for you to contribute to the community’s shared sense of culture, engendering goodwill amongst all members of the community while sparking conversation about your restaurant and its upcoming events. Each of the following examples creates an opportunity to attract new clientele to your restaurant while also providing something of genuine value to members of the community, so consider the potential cultural appeal of any of the following events you might wish to host at your restaurant, either before, during, or after business hours:

◉ Art shows (featuring local artists is a great way to attract members of the community) ◉ Author meet-and-greet/book launch ◉ Biker events (Start or end a charity ride at the restaurant; offer to donate a percentage of sales to the charity or offer specials and discounts for participants) ◉ Car Shows ◉ Offer cooking classes during off-hours. Invite regulars and media (including print and digital media members), post videos of the event on your social media channels ◉ Craft night/show ◉ Dinner and a movie (movie coupon with every entrée; discounted meal with movie ticket stub) ◉ “Father/Daughter Date Nights” ◉ Food tasting opportunities ◉ Fundraisers for local charities, youth programs, and other community-focused organizations ◉ Lunch specials for local businesses (Encourage, for example, a local architecture firm to order lunch on Friday and offer free drinks or free delivery) ◉ Mom’s/Ladies’ night out ◉ Theme nights (Choose a new theme on a weekly/monthly basis, then feature anyone participating in theme night via social media and offer a freebie/discount)

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Even though this lengthy list might appear comprehensive, there is still plenty of room for creativity when it comes to the kind of special events you choose to host at your restaurant. It is always a good idea to solicit feedback from community members regarding the kinds of events they would like to see in the community, particularly since doing so creates yet another opportunity to showcase your interest in serving the community in any way possible.

Branding Opportunities: Generating Goodwill and Enhancing Visibility Planning for a special event requires a great deal of advance planning, especially when the event takes place at your restaurant. Of course, this advance planning is entirely worthwhile -- particularly when you consider the potential ROI as well as the sense of goodwill you’ll generate with members of the local community -- but you can accomplish many of your marketing goals and objectives by participating in or helping organize other events held within the community, including any of the following examples:

◉ Concerts in the park ◉ Farmers’ Markets ◉ Festivals ◉ Golf Tournaments ◉ Marathons ◉ Park Events ◉ Relay for Life (walk in support of cancer research/awareness)

To find out about upcoming events in your community, it is always wise to check with your local Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber of Commerce typically has details on a lot of local events and can help you partner with those events in any number of mutually beneficial ways, including, for example, offering free food and samples in exchange for a co-branding opportunity. Whether you choose to volunteer or provide samples from your menu at an event, make sure you and your team makes every effort to highlight your brand through signage, clothing, or anything else featuring your name and logo -- as long as it is event-appropriate, of course.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Cultivating Mutually Beneficial Relationships: How to Get the Most Out of Special Community Events The strongest and longest-lasting connections provide substantial benefits for all parties involved, and this is certainly true with regard to marketing efforts through hosting, organizing, and attending special community events. As long as you remain committed to ensuring your marketing efforts offer mutual benefits for your restaurant as well as the local community, you can expect a significant ROI from the time and effort you put into an event. In addition to the immediate value generated through special event marketing, hosting, organizing, or attending local events provide numerous opportunities to create “shareable” content -- pictures, videos, etc. -- for use on your website, social media channels, and in local print publications. Your regular presence at community events will also play an important role in shaping your brand’s reputation as well as its overarching narrative demonstrating your firm belief in community involvement.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Chapter 7: Brand-Building Opportunities: Crafting a Narrative Through Marketing

Every effective marketing campaign tells a story featuring specific thematic elements, ideas, and symbols. The manner in which these thematic elements, ideas, and symbols are presented ought to be structured in a way that consistently and accurately reflects your restaurant’s identity. When done properly, brand-building strategies shape public perception and function as a sort of personal introduction that breeds a sense of familiarity among those who have never before visited your restaurant. Crafting a narrative that resonates with potential customers requires a focused and structured approach along with consistent and accurate branding strategies. As a restaurateur, you must carefully consider the central message you wish to send to the public through this narrative, making sure the messaging is direct and precise to avoid inconsistency or confusion. In addition to thinking about what your core message says about you and your restaurant, consider the ways in which that core message will enable you to share intimate stories about your business, including stories from the restaurant’s early days or more recent stories detailing the time and energy that goes into making the restaurant a success.

Telling Your Story Through Unique Branding Strategies With your core message or central theme identified, you can begin to craft your restaurant’s narrative through any number of unique branding strategies. Given the value placed on locally sourced ingredients, you might wish to consider weaving the following examples into your marketing narrative:

◉ Support local farms and farmers by showcasing menu items featuring locally sourced ingredients ◉ Share pictures of local ingredients being delivered and prepared ◉ Offer a “thank-you” dinner to local farmers ◉ Post a feature (through social media, your website, or newsletter) sharing pictures and background information about local farms and the “farm-to-table” process

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Each of these examples provides an opportunity to create a positive brand association. Using locally sourced ingredients, for example, demonstrates your devotion to quality while also reinforcing your commitment to supporting and promoting local businesses. Sharing photos, videos, or articles about the farms and farmers that serve as the source of your high-quality ingredients shows a commitment to transparency as well as a willingness to express your gratitude to those that contribute to your restaurant’s success.

Creating Personal Connections Between Patrons and Staff Every restaurant benefits from branding strategies that foster a sense of a personal connection to the restaurant. Sharing your personal success story -- including the challenges you faced or the hardships you endured -- certainly contributes to establishing that sense of connection in restaurant patrons, especially when you make a point of engaging your visitors in conversation in order to get to know them as well (and, of course, to ensure they are enjoying their dining experience). A restaurant’s narrative efforts should also include all the people responsible for making the restaurant a success, especially the kitchen and service staff. While it would be impossible to give every patron a personal tour of the restaurant before or after their meal, you can still offer a look behind the scenes through any of the following strategies:

◉ Informative blog posts, videos, and pictures featuring employees ◉ Kitchen videos showing chefs at work ◉ “Chef’s Favorites”: Video series highlighting the chef’s favorite knives, gadgets, and techniques

Sharing a blog post or video feature of your employees helps create a sense of a familiarity with patrons and also demonstrates your appreciation for the contributions made by each of your team members. There is a great deal of value in retaining your best employees, which is part of the reason why this particular branding strategy offers many different forms of ROI. The same is true of your kitchen staff, as high turnover in the kitchen can lead to inconsistencies in the menu items you provide to your customers. Creating a video series featuring your head chef and other members of the kitchen staff can reveal a great deal about your restaurant that would otherwise be left to the imagination of your customers.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

A behind-the-scenes look into the kitchen allows customers to see a clean, organized kitchen staffed by serious professionals. Videos showing your chefs at work showcases the artistry and the level of detail that goes into preparing each dish, and your customers will certainly appreciate being granted access into the inner workings of the kitchen as well as the opportunity to learn more about the chef’s personal philosophies or preferences through a series of videos shared via social media or your website.

Effective Storytelling: How to Get the Most Out of Your Brand-Building Strategies As a restaurateur, you have surely dedicated a tremendous amount of time and energy to building a truly unique restaurant featuring an exceptional cuisine and an enjoyable atmosphere. The brand narrative you cultivate should focus on highlighting all the qualities that make your restaurant so distinctive while also sharing details about how the restaurant has evolved or grown over time. A brand narrative also offers plenty of opportunities to express gratitude to all the people who contribute to your success, including customers, employees, and anyone else who has provided invaluable support at one time or another. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, including through many of the aforementioned strategies or, to provide an additional example, through a promotional giveaway in which branded items (anything branded with your logo, including everything from a spoon featuring the logo to a stamped business card) are handed out at the restaurant or at a special event. Following the giveaway, those items can then be returned during a certain week -- perhaps announced via your social media channel -- in exchange for a free dessert or appetizer. This strategy is therefore useful in increasing brand recognition, expanding your social media audience, and attracting new customers to the restaurant. Given the many different ways in which branding strategies generate diverse opportunities for ROI, it is clearly worthwhile to develop a thoughtful message that accurately reflects your brand identity in the most precise way possible.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

Chapter 8: Embracing the Digital Age: Should You Be Using 3rd-Party Applications and Other Digital Services?

The innovation boom emanating out of the tech industry has created a seemingly endless number of web-based applications designed to offer consumers the opportunity to make a reservation with or place an order for delivery or takeout from their favorite restaurant -- assuming, of course, their favorite restaurant is included among the list of participating businesses. These third-party digital applications can indeed help you fill empty tables or increase the number of takeout or delivery orders, but it is important that you conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis to ensure this type of third-party marketing offers the potential for a worthwhile return on your investment.

Digital Reservations, Deliveries, and Promotions As a restaurateur, you surely understand that a dining room featuring too many empty tables and chairs is not exactly an ideal situation. Recognizing this, a number of third- party companies have created services to help fill those tables and chairs through a platform capable of providing advance reservations at participating restaurants. OpenTable, the most well-known digital service provider, typically charges an average of a dollar per seat filled through their platform. These costs can accumulate rather quickly, so you’ll have to carefully analyze whether participating in such a service is worthwhile based on your restaurant’s individual needs. Of course, it is important to remember that there might be an adverse consequence caused by choosing not to be included among participating restaurants, especially if the service provider continues to grow in popularity among users. Quite a few web-based companies offer services beyond advance reservations, providing consumers with a platform enabling online ordering and delivery/takeout services from participating local restaurants. Again, you will have to consider whether these third-party services make sense for your restaurant’s needs, especially if you already have your own web-based platform for takeout and delivery in place.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

In any case, an array of options is available to you to choose from, including each of the following web-based companies:

◉ Seamless ◉ Eat24 ◉ Foodler.com ◉ Delivery.com

While these companies offer online ordering and delivery services from all participating restaurants within the local area, a host of other web-based companies work with restaurants and other businesses to provide special deals, coupons, and discounts to consumers, including each of the following:

◉ GrubHub ◉ Groupon ◉ EatDrinkDeals ◉ LivingSocial

Working with these third-party sites can provide significant brand exposure while also attracting new customers who might not have otherwise dined at your restaurant. As always, the key to ensuring a substantial ROI lies in offering something potential consumers perceive as genuinely valuable and mutually beneficial for all parties involved.

A Service-Oriented Approach: Getting the Most Out of 3rd-Party Digital Services As an increasing number of consumers begin to solely rely on third-party digital platforms for all kinds of information -- Twitter, for example, serves as a primary or central source of news for an increasing number of Americans -- a lack of visibility on these platforms becomes increasingly detrimental. As these platforms increase in popularity and attract more and more users, being one of the few local restaurants not included among the service listings becomes increasingly costly. This is why it is so critical for you to carefully analyze the potential costs and benefits associated with participating in any third-party digital service platform, including whether or not your participation will improve the level of service your restaurant provides to patrons. Depending on your individual circumstances, participation might be no-brainer due to the substantial ROI potential.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

On the other hand, your restaurant might not reap enough of a reward at this time to make participation worthwhile. If the latter is true, simply commit to revisiting the potential value of a third-party service platform again in the future.

The Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide – 78+ Practical Ideas For Boosting Traffic and Revenue was produced for Capital Alliance.

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◉ Remodeling your restaurant to modernize your dining room ◉ Buying new kitchen equipment and appliances ◉ Upgrading to a POS system ◉ Launching a marketing campaign to promote special events ◉ Strengthening your cash flow to cover both operating expenses and unexpected business expenses ◉ Opening an additional location ◉ Building a website that enables your customers to order online ◉ Why Choose Capital Alliance? ◉ A lightning-fast application process. ◉ Quick approvals.

Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide

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