Restaurant Marketing Zone

You don’t see a lot of small independent restaurants out there recently. The reason for it is bad economy. Small restaurant establishments have been dropping like over-fatigued worker bees in the last couple years thanks to the economic recession.

But the worst part is over now. If your restaurant is still up and running, congratulations. But you still need to be on your feet, still have to constantly be thinking about expanding, if you want to be able to grow your restaurant business.

Food may be your hobby or passion, but a restaurant is still a business, and running one is definitely serious business. Here are some tips for a first-time entrepreneur on how to go about growing your restaurant:

1. Be focused at all times
As your restaurant grows, strangers are going to be knocking on your door offering you products and other miscellaneous services. Your success will ride on how you deal with these kinds of offers.

Partnership is always a good thing in business. You’re getting the chance to expand to a broader market, reach out to people you couldn’t even talk to before. But at the same time I’ve seen a lot of restaurants go down because their owners lost focus and invested in stuff that, in the end, didn’t help their food business at all. Bottom line: Be careful and protect your investments.

2. Remember who you are and where you came from
A few small independent restaurants do well in specific areas because their owners are probably part of the local community. They have local appeal and can identify what the people need and want. So the business grows, and expands. Problem is the restaurant now tries to appeal to a much larger audience, and fails and goes bankrupt. End of story.

Think about your success up to now and how much the “local feel” of your restaurant has contributed to it. If you really have to expand outside your locality, then you need to put that factor into consideration.

3. Be a cheapskate
Another downfall of entrepreneurs who achieved a little success from their restaurant opening is they start spending so much on products and services they probably don’t and won’t ever need. The initial rush of income gives them a false sense of security that their restaurant is already doing well. But after a couple months and most customers have moved on to other, newer establishments, the owner is left with a huge hole in his wallet and a lot of products and services he has no idea what to do with.

So be a cheapskate, a tightwad, be stingy with money. Remember the first rule I mentioned above. Keep earning money and don’t spend it on things you don’t need.

The Japanese have a lot to say about business. But it all boils down to this: profit > expenses. Otherwise there is simply no point in doing it. Same goes for restaurants – your restaurant. If you can keep the income higher than your expenses, you can go through another year of recession and still survive. The techniques mentioned above were designed to do just that: help you save money so you can continue to grow your business.

Lenny Kravitz is a great musician, and he once said that nothing is original any more, everything has already been done before at least once.

The guy may be telling the truth. Or he has absolutely no idea what he’s talking about. But one way or another, his words definitely ring true in the world of restaurant marketing. There are thousands of different ways to tackle this problem of marketing one’s restaurant business. But it still boils down, in the end, to a few select essentials – three, to be exact. You need to get these down if you want to be successful at restaurant marketing.

They are…

1. The marketing must pay for itself
A lot of restaurant owners and entrepreneurs need to shake up their idea of a marketing plan. How many times have you heard someone say that your marketing budget should comprise a certain percentage of your earnings? For example, if you make $50 a day, then $15 of that goes to marketing expenses.

But here’s the deal. Restaurant marketing is an expense, for now, but most importantly marketing must be an investment in the long term. Meaning it has to bring back more than it took for you to pay for it. If your marketing efforts are bringing back less than the amount you paid for them, it’s time to start considering other options.

2. Always look to break new grounds
Why do some restaurant businesses thrive while others are forced to shut down? There clearly seems to be a magic ingredient at work here, and the good news is, there is! Successful restaurants are always looking for uncharted territories, unexplored plains to break and discover.

McDonald’s has been around for as long as anyone can remember. How many food items have come on and off the famous franchise? Dozens, if not hundreds, even. McDonald’s is an international brand name, and yet it is constantly testing new food items to be added on the menu. What’s a better way to market your restaurant than to tell customers you have something new to offer them? That is the secret of a successful food establishment.

3. What makes your restaurant yours?
There are hundreds of thousands of restaurants all over the world. Do we really need another one?

As a restaurant marketer, it’s your job to prove that question wrong. Like human beings no two restaurants should be completely alike, especially if you’re starting your own franchise. You need to make your restaurant yours. What makes it unique? Why should they go to your restaurant for burger and fries and softdrinks when Burger King could feed them the same thing? If you can’t answer these two questions, you aren’t giving customers any reason to visit your restaurant.

Restaurant marketing is more than just telling people to eat your food because it’s cheaper and it tastes better than others. It’s about developing relationships that last a long time. This is the kind of marketing you want. If you can establish a strong rapport with your customer base, your restaurant business will be around for quite a while.

I’ve always talked about opening a restaurant website. For good reason, too. There’s no better place to advertise a business, a restaurant, than on the internet. Even when people are hungry and looking for a quick bite, they look it up online to see if there are any good places to dine around their area.

But here’s the next logical step – how do you promote your website? First and foremost you need to consider two things.

1. Is there anything special about your restaurant you can use as a marketing push?
2. Do you offer discounts on orders coming from the web?

Why do you need to figure out this “special” thing about your restaurant? Because you need it to use for your keyword.

A keyword is an essential element for negotiating with search engines. Let’s say you operate a restaurant with a Japanese theme. So the keyword you’re going to use is “Japanese restaurant” or “Japanese restaurant Ontario” to be more specific. This brings up your website every time someone enters those keywords on Google or Yahoo or any other search engine. Handy, isn’t it?

It must be noted that even on the internet, there’s going to be tough competition. How do you put your website on top of other restaurant websites with the same keywords—that is, “Japanese restaurant”? I know and you know that you aren’t the only owner of a Japanese restaurant who’s trying to advertise his or her business on the internet. This is where restaurant website optimization comes in.

Here are some tips.

• Make good use of H1 tags and putting the keyword “Japanese restaurant” in there. An H1 tag serves more or less as a heading on your website.
• Make sure your pages load quickly. No hungry person wants to wait while the website loads a dozen images and videos from the server.
• Create a specific page where you can abuse your keyword. For example, why not cook up a page on the history of Japanese restaurants?
• Find restaurant review websites. Submit yourself for a review in as many websites as possible.
• Establish a presence on social media. Make sure your forum signature includes a link going back to your website.
• Leave comments on relevant blogs mentioning your restaurant name and URL.

Check back on us next week for more online restaurant marketing tips.

Share your insights on restaurant website promotion by leaving a comment after this post.

I have a friend who is a restaurant owner. He runs a fairly popular restaurant in his local area. But thing is, 2009 left him with a small hole in his pocket, and now he’s interested in hearing ways how he could cut down on his advertising costs without compromising his restaurant brand awareness.

He used to enjoy advertising in food magazines, etc. But when those publications demanded higher fees, my friend knew he needed to look someplace else if he wanted to keep advertising.

I was lucky enough to talk to him one afternoon over coffee, and he happened to share his dilemma. I asked, “Have you tried marketing online?” He said, “No,” and shook his head. “You’re missing out on a lot,” I said. Those were my exact words.

Seriously, what restaurant owner wouldn’t advertise online and not miss out on a lot of good things? So I told him, “You should think about advertising on social media like Facebook and Twitter. That way you’ll reach a broader set of audience without feeling the expensive costs of print media.”

My advice to restaurant owners, start with the most popular social media websites around – Facebook, MySpace, Multiply, etc. Of course, Twitter. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, online restaurant marketing, then you can move on to deeper stuff like blogging. You could write for the blog yourself if you’ve got the time. Otherwise, you could hire a blogger or assign one of your chefs to blog on his or her spare time—of course, with proper compensation.

My friend was worried about the same thing. “I’m not a computer person,” he said. “I know my way around the kitchen, but I can’t tell one side of an iPod from the other. Isn’t hiring an online marketing company going to cost me more than what I used to spend on magazines?”

That’s a good question. But that’s also where online marketing shines. You don’t need to hire a company. You just need to hire someone—an internet-savvy person—to spend just a few minutes in front of a computer everyday to check your email, send newsletters, update your Twitter status. But here’s an even better solution: why not pay one of your servers to do just that for you? Unless you require your servers to be above the age of 60 and possess a senior citizen’s card, they should know how social media works and wouldn’t mind earning some extra income on the side.

More restaurant owners should recognize the power of online marketing on social media. It’s here, and it’s mostly free-of-charge. Why not use it to boost your restaurant business?

Tell me what you think by leaving a comment below.

Who hasn’t tried Facebook? Who doesn’t even know Facebook? I’d be hard pressed to find someone without a Restaurant City or Farmville account. Simply put, Facebook has become one of the most visited—or overcrowded—websites over the last couple years. A study shows that 6 billion minutes are spent every day on Facebook all over the world. The question: what does this mean for your restaurant?

Get that worried look off your face. If anything, Facebook brings a lot of blessings to your restaurant—or any business, for that matter. Facebook is a household name. It’s a place where millions of people hang out. Facebook is one of the most popular websites on the internet. Therefore Facebook is a marketing machine.

But take note there more than 700,000 other businesses are competing for people’s attention on Facebook. Your restaurant is just one of them. But what am I here for, right? Here are 4 effective strategies to advertise on Facebook and gain a loyal following.

1. Add, add, add friends
Facebook is a gem for business owners because it connects friends with friends and friends of friends of friends. The same goes for maintaining an active business page for your restaurant. Keep adding people to your friend list. Add as many as 5,000 friends, or more. Don’t stop adding until you hit that magic number.

2. Create a fan page for your restaurant
A fan page is where your fan and followers can post their ideas and suggestions about your brand name in an open forum. It encourages discussion and brand awareness. So as soon as you’ve created an account on Facebook, proceed to creating a Facebook fan page for your restaurant. And remember – keep the fan page updated as often as you can.

3. Keep the fan page active by publishing interesting content
After a brief biographical background of your restaurant, you need to keep updating your fan page with fresh, interesting content to keep it going. There’s no concrete rule on how many times a fan page requires an update. But a good rule to remember is at least twice a day, usually before the major meals – lunch and dinner. Add mouth-watering pictures of your delicious recipes and offerings. Who knows? You might just attract the taste buds of a hungry friend or two.

4. Find a partner
Two heads is better than one, right? Right.

Go around your neighborhood and search for businesses with a fan page on Facebook. Ask them that if they’d be kind enough to promote your business on their fan page, you’d happily do the same on yours. The more partners you have, the better. This way you could still market your restaurant to people outside your market range without looking like an outsider.

Follow these tips when creating your Facebook fan page, and update me with your results.

Tell me what you think by leaving a message after this post.

These are hard times. Tough economic times for businesses, hard times for restaurants. But even so, this is no excuse not to invest some time and money on your restaurant staff. Take it from me. When a person loves his work, he works harder and provides better service to customers. The customers will love and remember the experience and keep coming back. It’s a snowball that began all the way back with a single, happy server.

Here are three ways to invest in your restaurant staff.

1. Recognize their efforts
Are you familiar with The One Minute Manager? It’s a popular book on business management, and one of its teachings is One Minute Praisings. In other words, praise your restaurant staff as soon as you catch him or her doing something right. Recognize his or her efforts. Salary isn’t everything. There is a special feeling of contentment when your boss at work commends you for a job well done.

2. Stir friendly competition by rewarding your staff
Nothing motivates a bored staff better than a little friendly competition. Most people are willing to work when they’re gunning for something in the long run.

The trick is to stay away from clichés like “Employee of the Month”. Who cares if you’re employee of the month? Instead you should stick to basic and concrete facts, such as the employee who made the most sales, the employee with the least absences, etc.

3. Get together once in a while
Call it a team building event, [insert restaurant name here] Employee’s Day, etc. Do this at least once a year with your restaurant staff to help further strengthen the bond with employees and yourself, the restaurant owner. Working every single day can be very stressful. You should know that. So planning this kind of event once in a while is a great way to say “Thank You” to your hardworking staff.

Sometimes we have too many problems coming in the front door all at once that we forget the most important thing that holds a successful company together – satisfied employees. So invest in your restaurant staff. Make them happy. You won’t be disappointed.

Share your tips on how to make your restaurant staff happy by leaving a comment below.

A lot of people are getting into this digital matchmaking thing these days. I could name at least a couple friends – or friends of a friend – who met their significant other while chatting online or else browsing a social media website. Twitter is quickly becoming a household name when it comes to meeting someone online. And you know, where there’s Twitter, there should be your restaurant.

The term is Tweetup. Tweetup, according to its online definition, is wordplay between “tweet” and “meet up”. People organize tweetups on Twitter. As a restaurant owner, this is a perfect opportunity to market your restaurant and serve as the rendezvous spot for these folks. You get to be the generous restaurateur who provides them a good place to talk and chill as they get to know each other a little better – one coffee cup at a time.

Here are some tips.

1. Designating a secluded area for tweetups doesn’t hurt. It doesn’t have to be a private room. Think of it as a smoking area versus a non-smoking area. Just make it so your tweetup clientele doesn’t have to put up with your other noisy customers.

2. Design simple nametags for your tweetup customers. Remember these people know each other by their online names. Wearing nametags make it ten times easier to find someone you just met online, compliments of your restaurant.

3. Don’t be a snob. As a restaurant owner, come out and greet your tweetup clientele – say a few words about your restaurant’s history, what type of food you specialize in, introduce your head chef, things like that, etc. Trust me, it makes a big difference.

4. Spare them a dedicated waiter, if you could afford it.

5. Offer them special menu pricing. In other words, discounted prices. You could also tempt them to come back a second time by offering them discounted coupons for future visits.

6. Treat them a free dessert or a glass of wine. I’m sure they’d be surprised, and will remember it when they share their tweetup experience on Twitter the next day. This is free online marketing for your restaurant, for the cost of two glasses of wine. It’s a fine idea, don’t you think?

The thing is to make sure they have a splendid tweetup experience at your restaurant. Afterwards, they’ll keep coming back, and maybe even spread the word about your establishment on Twitter. You know the value of positive word-of-mouth as a restaurant owner, right? So for the sake of all things online, put your best foot forward when tending to your tweetup clientele.

Share your insights on restaurant marketing via Twitter by leaving a message below.

Customers are the lifeblood of any business. Take away the customers, and you’ve got basically nothing going for your restaurant business. So how do you attract more customers? Referrals. It’s the name of the game, which is something that came to mind while I was watching TV the other day.

A few days ago I was watching National Geographic in my living room. I couldn’t sleep. So I turned on the TV and found this Nat Geo program where they featured food bloggers from different parts of the world. The Food Lover’s Guide to the Planet – I think that was the name of the show. In the program there was this food blogger from Vietnam who stalked the night streets of Hanoi in search of authentic Vietnamese-style noodles called Pho, this Hong Kong blogger who led a double life—an office worker during weekdays and sick female steamed crab lover and blogger on weekends. Then there was also this blogger who moved all the way to France to rediscover the country’s distinctive taste for desserts. Then they would come home and write about their food experience on their blogs over a good ol’ cup of coffee.

An idea suddenly hit me. These good folks are out looking for food to write on their blogs. As a restaurant owner, why can’t you be the one who gives them something to write about?

In fact it sounds like a pretty good idea.

Make time to sit down at your computer and search for popular food bloggers in your area. Blogging is mainstream these days. Especially if you live in a big city, there should be at least one or two food bloggers residing in your area. Then send them a personal message inviting them to stop by your restaurant for a free lunch or dinner. Being food enthusiasts, I’m sure they wouldn’t mind entertaining your invitation.

When they arrive, come out and offer them a personal greeting. If it isn’t a busy night, have your head chef chat with them while your waiters serve the appetizers. It’s always a nice touch to have them offer food advice to your head chef, and vice versa. Afterwards serve the main course and make sure everything is done right. Designate a dedicated server to your guest if possible.

As I said earlier, one way to attract more business is through referrals. What better way to do just that than to get in the good graces of a food blogger? One of the bloggers I mentioned earlier, the one who lives in France, his website gets around five to seven thousand hits a day. If you could get a similar blogger like him to write positively about your restaurant, isn’t that worth the price of a free meal?

Get the Internet talking about your restaurant by appealing to food bloggers in your area.

Share your tips on how to attract more business online by leaving a comment after this post.

Tough competition has forced restaurants to advertise. There are more restaurants than most customers could afford dine in, especially in major cities. So what’s a restaurant owner to do? Advertise, of course, to get the lion’s share of the market. But when restaurant owners think of advertising they think about getting an effective message out and mass appeal. Then they think about expenses, expenses, expenses.

There are simpler, cost-effective ways to market your restaurant. You don’t always have to spend millions to advertise on Super Bowl. Sometimes all you need is a little creativity and a techie friend working at your side.

Here are some tips.

1.    Distribute business cards and leaflets
The restaurant owner must work “on” the restaurant, not “in” it. While your waiters are busy serving tables, you should be monitoring your restaurant and figuring out who your target customers are. In time you’ll form a better picture of your regular clients. These are who should focus on. Reach out to them by distributing menu fliers, leaflets and sample cards.

2.    Stay in the public eye for all the right reasons
It’s important to have locals talking about you, but make sure it’s for all the right reasons. Do this by promoting your restaurant locally. Offer discounts, coupons, and even sponsor charity events. Make sure your restaurant’s presence is heard during festive seasons.

3.    Get into social networking
This is where your techie friend comes in. Social networking is advertising on the 21st century. And the best thing about it is, it’s FREE – or mostly free. Get your restaurant’s name out through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or by blogging, what KogiBBQ did for its franchise. Social networking is the best way to get your name out without spending a fortune.

Tell me what you think about these cost-effective means of marketing your restaurant by leaving a comment below.

In the US, January 25 holds a special place in the hearts of restaurant owners. It is winter, and it is the season when most people like to go out and enjoy a steak or lobster at their favorite restaurant. Still doesn’t ring a bell? January 25 is the start of Restaurant Week in many key cities in the US, including New York City. Yes, you got that right, restaurant week.

Restaurant week in the US began in 1992. It formed from an idea by Tim Zagat, founder of Zagat Survey, and Joe Baum, a restaurant owner. The duo aims to promote both local and national restaurants on a worldwide scale, and so restaurant week was born.

During restaurant week, participating restaurants offer special discounts, coupons and other events you don’t normally see at any other time of the year. Zagat and Baum thought, what they’ll lose in check averages, they’ll get back through sheer sales volume. It was a risk that paid off well – restaurant week is still going strong every year and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

You can organize and start your own restaurant week, even if you don’t live in the US. Here are some tips how.

• Get in touch with your local restaurant operators organization and ask them about starting a restaurant week.

• Get as many local restaurants as possible to participate.

• Plan it so your restaurant week coincides with the slowest time of the year. Restaurant week in New York runs for two weeks in January and then another two weeks in July.

• Show consistency. Participating restaurants should follow the same regulations and guidelines. Agree on a specific price range.

• Last but not the least, offer your best food.

A restaurant week in your local area is good for your business. Don’t miss out on the fun.

Share your insights on restaurant week by leaving a message after this post.