Restaurant Business Plan

Restaurant Marketing: Distribution

Frank Salsa

Getting the word out about your restaurant takes more than simply printing postcards and launching a website. You have to get the right message in front of the right audience at the right time. Here are some tips for restaurant marketing distribution:

Direct mail

Direct mail is the best way to reach your patrons. A calculated direct-mail campaign represents an investment in profit and should be approached with dedication. Consult a list broker or use the mailing list building tools available at PsPrint, develop a database of your own customers and define a mailing list comprised of likely patrons.

Repetition is key: Instead of a one-postcard campaign, develop a strategy that incorporates multiple direct mailers during a six-month period. This contributes to your restaurant branding efforts and allows you to develop long-term relationships with your customers. By the time you launch your incredible offer, you’ll have established trust and credibility and will earn a higher response rate.

Here’s a sample direct-mail marketing campaign for your restaurant:

Week One: Send a menu and brochure introducing your potential clientèle to your restaurant. Offer a discount or free appetizer to anyone who visits.

Week Six: Send a flyer that highlights your upcoming entrée specials.

Week 12: Send a postcard advertising an upcoming event and a call to action for your patrons to make VIP reservations fast.

Week 18: Send a calendar loaded with images of your tasty menu selection.

Week 24: Send another menu for good measure.

Week 30: Send a greeting card for the next holiday inviting patrons to a free meal on the house. This will help build customer loyalty and attract new customers to your place of business.

Advertisements

You can deploy advertisements online or in the yellow pages, newspapers and magazines; as well as on the radio, television, billboards and any number of published mediums. You can also take your ads street side by placing flyers and posters on community bulletin boards, and university, office and industrial social hot spots. Word of mouth is the most powerful advertiser for restaurants, so make sure friends, family and colleagues know what you do and are prepared to spread the word for you. You should consider handing out stickers and business cards to everyone you know for distribution (include a mini-menu on the back!).

Following up

Test, track and tweak – these three Ts will help you develop winning restaurant print marketing campaigns. Always test different variations of your marketing materials on small portions of your mailing list before launching the full campaign. Sometimes a single word change can make a big difference in your return on investment.

Track your response rates and record who responds so you can further define what neighborhoods your customers live in, what appetizers and meals they buy, and how much they spend. Tweak your subsequent print marketing materials to cater to this audience. Keep a database of customers and respondents, and evaluate recognizable trends so you can customize your offers. This is just another form of knowing your customers, but from an analytical perspective it allows you to make intelligent business decisions based on honest, proven statistics.

Learn about how your business can take your exposure to the next level of branding through PsPrint’s custom sticker printing and postcard printing. Capitalize upon the variety of printing services that PsPrint offers to maximize your company’s branding efforts and marketing presence.

Simple Restaurant Marketing Tips

Douglas Goupinber

As technology and trends unfold, your marketing strategies should change, too. While many of the common strategies still work today, new techniques, like online and environmental marketing, are becoming key components of any profitable restaurant marketing campaign. Here are the top 10 ideas for marketing your restaurant:

1. Get good publicity.

To receive good publicity, you could try helping the community, creating creative changes.

2. Get visible online.

More and more, consumers across the state are looking to the Internet to decide where they will eat next. If your restaurant does not have its own blog, you might probably lose tons of potential customers.

3. Redesign the menu.

Your menu is your preferred sales device, and an unexciting, out-of-style or dirty menu can cause customers to apprehend a lower value for your restaurant. Make sure your menu is good, to the point and inviting.

4. Implement a customer retention program.

Regular guests are your most priceless asset. Not only do they commonly give you 1/3 of your earnings, but they also help advertise your business through word of mouth. To get the most money, you have to amplify your number of repeat guests.

5. Host gatherings.

Turn your restaurant into a setting for community, business and community meetings, parties, live comedy shows, live performances and other venues. This will help you to charm new customers and give your usual customers a reason to keep coming back.

6. Try up-selling.

Increasing the average sale at your business is one of the most effective ways to improve profits. By guiding workers or cashiers to read the guest and suggest similar side dishes, cocktails or treats, you will concurrently increase your sales and better the customer experience.

7. Offer delivery service.

Providing take-out or delivery does somewhat good if noone knows of it. Use direct mail, up selling, your online site and take-out and delivery menus to advertise these services.

8. Gather subscribers for your email list.

When compared with usual postcard marketing, email marketing is quicker and more effective, saves time, decreases marketing costs and higher probability to convert to a sale.

9. Commit to going green.

Utilizing eco-friendly practices will help your revenue by decreasing utility expenses and giving you an edge over the other competitors. Market your green restaurant to show customers that you conserve resources and reduce pollution.

10. Have contents .

Having guests sign up for a contest or raffle at your restaurant is always a good marketing trick. It will help you build your marketing clientelle, and it will also give customers a reason to visit again.

If you’re a restaurant owner that is having trouble thinking of restaurant marketing ideas, just remember the 3 strategies to increase earnings are to: bring in more clients, have your customers visit more often, and have your guests pay more money.

www.myrestaurantmarketing.comVisit my website to receive via email 20 FREE Videos with the Top Questions and Answers about Restaurant Marketing. In addition, you will also receive my free 40 pages Restaurant Marketing Strategies Book Summary and a subscription to my Restaurant Marketing Strategies free monthly Newsletter.

Restaurant Marketing Plan – 3 Key Concepts

Eric Powers

When writing a restaurant marketing plan, it is important to keep in mind why you are writing it. A marketing plan obviously outlines how your company will market its business but it is also important to keep in mind that marketing efforts are all created in order to generate business by articulating what and who your company is. In this sense, the marketing mix that your company chooses to employ should be an accurate representation of your company concept. Choosing a Marketing Mix Choosing the right blend of marketing tools is like creating a good team. Making sure that your marketing efforts are complementary and working together in synergy is essential to your restaurant’s success. If you send out coupons to one group while advertising in high-end magazines, your marketing efforts will be fighting one another, creating separate brand images which ultimately will turn off customers. The marketing mix chosen must reflect the business. For example, if you are a high-end restaurant, excessive promotional discounts may deteriorate your brand and articulate to customers that “this restaurant does not deserve full price”. Catering to Customers Promotion and marketing should appeal primarily to the restaurant’s target market. This may mean giving discounts to college students if you operate primarily in a college town, sponsoring local community organizations if your market is primarily a small tight-knit community, or emphasizing appealing aspects of your business such as a famous chef if your clientele is primarily high-end. Remember that there is no one-size-fits-all formula for a restaurant’s marketing plan; it all relies upon appealing to the particular group of customers that make up your core clientele. Remember What You Are SellingYour restaurant is a business and, ultimately, if you cannot get your food in the customer’s mouths it will be difficult to break even. Though some restaurants’ reputations sell the experience more than their food (ie: Hooters, Medieval Knights, etc.), in general, marketing efforts should center around why your food is appealing, exotic, high-quality, or in some way unique. There must be some reason certain customers will want to dine at your restaurant as opposed to any other competitor’s establishment. ConclusionThe most important thing to keep in mind is that marketing efforts must be cohesive and promote one brand image in order to create an adequate representation of the company’s concept. Choosing appropriate marketing vehicles that reflect your establishment and how your food is unique are keys to an effective marketing plan.

For more tips on how to start a restaurant and for access to a quick and easy restaurant business plan template, call Growthink at 877-BIZ-PLAN. Growthink has helped entrepreneurs and business owners develop professional business plans and raise capital since 1999.

What Is Your Restaurant Marketing Strategy?

Mario Churchill

When you open a restaurant, you will need as many new customers as you can get to make your establishment a raving success. Your restaurant marketing strategy will be the biggest part of bringing in new business. Here are a few restaurant marketing strategies for you to try.

1. Market your Restaurant in Hotel and Motel Rooms- People on vacation and people who do a great deal of traveling, will want to know where to find an excellent meal in your town. An excellent restaurant marketing strategy is to call or visit hotel and motels within a 5 mile radius of your restaurant, and ask them if you can place menus and coupons in their rooms and lobby areas. Some hotels and motels provide a list of area attractions for their guests, ask them if you can add your restaurant to their list. When the guests get hungry they will see your menu or your name on the list and will think of your restaurant.

2. Form an Alliance With Local Event Sponsors. This is another great restaurant marketing strategy! After any local concert or sporting event, people may be ready to have a meal before they go home. Many people come from quite a long distance to these events, and they will be looking for a place to eat before they head home. You can advertise on existing monitors, or have someone stationed at the door and give out menus when the patrons go inside. Remember women are more apt to keep flyers than men. In exchange for the advertising you can advertise the event in your restaurant.

3. Enter and Sponsor Contests- One of the biggest ways to use a restaurant marketing strategy, is to enter and win a contest. You can enter your cook or chef in a cooking contest, or enter contests in restaurant magazines and browse the internet to find contests to enter. You can create contests in your restaurant that will bring in customers.

4. Sell Gift Certificates- As another restaurant marketing strategy, offer gift certificates that your customers can buy for their friends so that they can try your cuisine. Each gift certificate is a referral to your restaurant. Make sure the gift certificates come in several different amounts, so the buyers can decide how much to spend.

5. Give Out Samples in Busy Locations- Have some of your staff go to busy locations such as shopping centers, parks, malls etc., and give out samples of your most popular fare. When someone stops to sample your fare, you can hand them a menu, a specials flyer, a business card, and a coupon for savings at your establishment. This should give you more traffic and so many satisfied customers.

6. Offer Specials- You can offer special prices on great food on special days. You can also offer a buffet of finger foods at special prices from 11 to 2 for the lunch hour. A great restaurant marketing strategy is offering frequent diner cards so that they can get a free meal after buying so many at the restaurant.

Mario Churchill is a freelance author and has written over 200 articles on various subjects. For more information on restaurant marketing strategy checkout his recommended websites.

Joel Cohen gives you a 30 day program to get your restaurant sales soaring.
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