Bringing Families to Your Restaurant

Families account for about 56% of food service sales and tapping into that demographic is an excellent opportunity for any business to increase its sales and fill more tables, more days of the week.  In order to do this, however, it’s important to keep in mind that bringing families to your restaurant requires—first and foremost—satisfying the kids.  When the kids are happy and content, mom and dad are happy, and will return if you can offer a menu that fits the family budget and an ambiance that can keep kids entertained.  

According to a recent study, an overwhelming majority of parents (75%) place their children’s preference first when choosing a restaurant for the family dining outing.  This means that your restaurant needs to entice the kids—and there’s a variety of ways to do this.  Coloring books, tablecloths they can write on, tabletop games, even video games are all child-friendly attractions that can keep family members happy and entertained while parents enjoy a little relaxation.  

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t also focus on keeping mom and dad comfortable.  Ensuring that your servers know how to be patient with small children, providing high chairs and sippy cups, and giving families tables with a lot of room are all much appreciated by parents and will help make their dining experience comfortable and enjoyable.  

Finally, make sure that you have a menu that offers kid-friendly cuisine at a price mom and dad can be happy with in case their son or daughter doesn’t feel like eating it all (which is a typical scenario).  Make the children’s menu reflect the same health awareness that most parents have about what their children consume, and parents will feel much more comfortable about bringing their family there to dine. 

I have an important event coming up at my restaurant. What's a good way to announce it without spending a lot of money?

Gauging Your Restaurant's Competition

Succeeding in the restaurant industry means staying afloat in extremely competitive waters.  Knowing who your competitors are and why they are your competitors is key information for any restaurant entrepreneur who seeks to grow his or her business.  

The first step in identifying your competitors is to take a note of all of the restaurants or food services providers in a 20 mile radius of yours.  This list contains your most obvious competitors, especially those that serve the same type of food or offer a similar ambiance.  

After dividing your list of competitors into direct competitors (those restaurants similar to yours) and indirect competitors (those restaurants in the 20-mile radius that differ from yours), take the time to watch your direct competitors closely to see what they are doing.  How do they market new menu items, where are they marketing, and what forms of marketing are they using?  

You should also keep an eye on your indirect competitors and see what they are selling, and how closely their menu comes to yours on certain types of foods.  Include grocery stores in this observation, especially since many of them are now offering food service at deli counters, including sushi, gourmet sandwiches, and specialty pizzas or pastas.  

Next, you need to get online and read what others are saying about these businesses. You should be able to find online reviews in a variety of places, including travel sites and forums, and learn valuable information about what both locals and tourists expect when they come to your area in search of a place to dine.  

Finally, look at the points your restaurant has to offer compared to what your competition has to offer.  Ask yourself important questions such as ‘how do our concepts differ?’ and ‘how does our pricing differ?’  Consider factors such as location, parking, accessibility, visibility from the main thoroughfares, etc.  

Tips for Restaurant Event Marketing

Marketing your restaurant’s special events doesn’t have to be time consuming and it doesn’t have to overload your overall marketing budget.  By using some or all of these simple methods that have stood the test of time, restaurant owners can spread the word about special events to the right people at the right time and for the right price.   

Use fliers and posters

When placed on bulletin boards of local college campuses, libraries, coffee shops, gas stations and other retail businesses, fliers and posters can be a very effective form of advertising an event.  For an even more strategic approach, pinpoint specific demographics (for example, hip, 20-something crowd) and brainstorm locations in which that particular demographic is most likely to see your announcement.  

Direct market through online and social content

If you have compiled an email and phone number database, it will be extremely easy and virtually free to announce your event in the way that is most likely to reach an audience: emails or text messages.  As an increasing number of customers are beginning to organize their social events and personal calendars with portable devices, advertising through email or text messages is a great way to make it easy for your customers to “reserve a table” and “save the date”.  

Announce your promotions inside your restaurant.

Make sure you communicate your upcoming event in your restaurant.  Advertise on menus, table tents, posters, banners, card and sign holder to keep customers informed of any special happenings.

Now that I have a customer email list started, what do I send out to get the best return on my time and investment?

Top 3 Ways Restaurants Use Email Marketing

Elite Email, a marketing industry leader, asked 250 restaurant owners about their email marketing campaigns and how they are using email in their overall market reach.  According to the report, email marketing is one of the newer initiatives many restaurant owners are using.  Although personal postcards of “Thank you”, birthday and Anniversary greetings still bring in the best ROI, email has been a key way to maintain relationships and create a cost-effective way to reach out to customers to promote specials and events.

Monthly Newsletter

74% of respondents used email as a way to send a monthly newsletter highlighting upcoming events, new menu features, seasonal recipes and restaurant specials.  Restaurant owners reported that their newsletters were excellent opportunities to include photos of menu items and special events, or photos of customers enjoying dinner at the restaurant.  Most owners stated that the purpose of the email newsletter is to encourage, and through the use of vibrant, professional looking newsletters, restaurants were seeing the largest return rate.

Coupons

63% of respondents used email to send out coupons.  This is one of the main reasons that customers sign up for email lists to begin with—promises of discounts and coupons.  Through email, coupons can be delivered in a timely manner and can be targeted to the customer base that would be more inclined to use them.  They can also be used to bring more customers in on days that tend to be slower and restaurant owners can control the length of time these coupons are valid.  The best part is that most customers now have email access on their smartphones, which means that they are able to pull up these coupons from their phones or portable notebooks and redeem them without damaging any trees in the process.  

Announcements

59% of respondents use email to send out special announcements about new menu items, new chefs, new offerings (such as a party room or menu special) or information about the restaurant’s growth.