Awesome Restaurant Marketing Ideas!

Restaurant marketing with low tech is very effective.  With tools as simple as "a card, a pen and a friend", you can have a very high rate of return.

The downside for personalized marketing is that it takes time. 

Compare two marketing options:

• 20,000 fliers distributed with a 1% redemption = 200 responses.
• 2,000 personalized cards with a 15% redemption =300 responses.

How this will pay off in sales dollars will depend on the average transaction amount and if there are discounts included.

As each month comes to an end, are you calling “Overs”?  Do you hope for a “Do Over”?

• “Overs” – I wish I had not hired that person.
• If only the money I gave that salesperson was still in the bank.
• What if I hadn’t told that employee angry words?
• What if I had not skipped over the profit & loss reports?
• Why did I not listen to those guests who said “bad food”?
• When did the morale begin to slip so badly?  Can we go back?
• Let’s go back in time and do the maintenance on the equipment (Now that it’s broke down.)
• Yes, working 65 hours a week is a lot, but I did it for us honey. Please don’t divorce me.
• Doctor, you don’t understand.  There is no one else who can do what I do.  I have to work more!
• Sure, it seems obvious now that when competition opens next door that it would be tougher.
• The franchisor said “Do it”, so I did.  Now I wish I hadn’t.
• If only I had not let my personal feeling get in the way of firing that employee.
• That guest blog I wrote six months ago was lame.  I wish I could un-write it. 
• How much time did I waste on what everyone else said was important? Now I wish I hadn’t.
• If only I had taken a more long term strategic approach with marketing my business online.
•  If we had used a mystery shopping service all year, we could have had better result.  “Overs”.

Having a copycat marketing plan in place may beat the waiting game marketing plan but why wait?  With the future looming and studies showing how behaviors are changing, why wait?  Who makes the first move?  Which restaurant manager is willing to raise the bar by changing their reputation?  Who will lead the pack and which business will survive with “same-itis”? 

Two restaurant managers with the same basic skill set and experience will many times have two completely different results.  It might boil down to the perception others have of the restaurant manager.  Each restaurant manager performs the same basic tasks and daily routines.  Neither hesitates at work or the constant flux of the restaurant business.  Neither shirks their responsibilities and their is no doubt of their pride and commitment.

If Steve Jobs was the CEO of a restaurant company vs. a software company, what might he have done? 10 commandments Steve Jobs had for his companies you can apply to your restaurant:

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.