Restaurant Marketing 101

Marketing your restaurant isn’t an easy process—anyone who has opened a new restaurant and attempted to market it knows this.  However, creating a marketing plan doesn’t have to be as complicated as many people make it.  Knowing which facts to consider is half the battle, and once you determine the right questions to ask, marketing becomes a much easier task to take on.  

Here are the first questions to ask when creating your restaurant marketing plan:

1.       Who are my target customers?

2.       Who is my competitor? 

3.        What is the status of the restaurant industry in my area? (How are other restaurants doing?)

The reason why the target customer question is the first to consider is because this question will be the most important one to ask – and the one that will require the most focus.  If you want to have competitive advantage in the restaurant industry, regardless of who you are competing against or the area in which your restaurant is located, you will have to always put the customer first.  Regardless of how great you think your service is, it’s what your customers think of it that matters most.  

People are attracted to restaurants that are clean, consistent, positive, and personal.  This means that in addition to providing a clean and attractive environment for your guests to eat, you will need to make sure that this is provided consistently.  In addition to this, every piece of marketing that you send out – every statement you make, whether in person or in print – should be positive and personal.  The more personal you can make your marketing (for example, acknowledging birthdays and names), the more effective it will be.  

Finally, don’t make the mistake of only focusing on marketing when things are not busy.  You should be focusing on marketing every day—even when your restaurant is overflowing with guests and all the tables are full.  Your best and most effective marketing strategies will happen when customers are present, and this is when you should be building loyalty and relationships with them.  Their word-of-mouth referrals to friends, co-workers, and family members will do more to keep your tables full than all of your marketing efforts combined.