A Guide To Reducing Advertising Costs For Restaurant Owners
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.