Five quick small business marketing ideas for: Restaurants

Posted: Aug 16, 2011
Author: WordJack Media

Whether you are running a hugely successful restaurant like Spago in Las Vegas or a smaller, more intimate restaurant like Les Nomades in Chicago, you can never rest on your laurels and think that now that you are well-known, you can expect the crowds to roll in night after night. Oh no, every single restaurant has ongoing competition, even if it is just the local McDonalds around the corner or grandmother’s famous Sunday roast. Let’s investigate some interesting ways of keeping your restaurant on the cutting edge of everyone’s taste buds:

• Create a customer database. It is easier to talk to people who are already customers than to try and recruit new ones. Collect their business cards and have a monthly lucky draw. Remember their birthdays, their anniversaries, their favorite dishes and build a relationship with them. A restaurant is the one business that allows you time to stop and have a chat;
• Do not bombard your customers with spam. Work out an email frequency timetable and always include upcoming events or new culinary delights to tempt them – make sure it is worth their while to visit your restaurant;
• Create an email personality and if you cannot do that, then employ someone who can. Make the newsletter a regular event so that your clients forward to it. Research has found that the optimum time to email people is between 10h30 and 11h00 on a Tuesday morning – Mondays are too hectic, Wednesdays are mid-week….;
• Learn to target your particular audience – random emails cost a lot and give little return. Encourage people to visit during the week – have a theme night or offer a drinks deal. Invite all the local doctors one night for a networking opportunity for example;
• Get to know your neighbors and see if there is any way you can organize a promotion together - maybe a free bottle of wine for loyal customers of the beauty salon. Or similar co-operative deals

Remember the golden rule – good service can salvage a bad meal, but nothing can replace poor service. If you don’t know what your restaurant can offer in one succinct sentence, how can your customers be expected to know who you are?