How A Publication Going Out Of Business Can Impact Marketing Plans For Restaurants
A newspaper going out of business doesn’t really stir a lot of water. That is, unless you’re a restaurant operator, and then it becomes an entirely different story. Every publication that decides to close shop will affect the marketing plans for your restaurant in ways you don’t expect it to.
The Seattle Post Intelligence posted the following message on its website in January 9, 2009.
After 146 years of delivering news, the Seattle P-I faces becoming what it has chronicled: history. The Hearst Corp., said Friday that it has put the paper up for sale, and it will stop publishing unless someone buys it in 60 days.
That’s some bad news indeed. But allow me to skip to the root of the problem. Why do newspaper businesses continue to bite the dust? It’s got something to do with their major source of revenue: print advertising is dying.
Consumers are crossing over to a more accessible medium for information to travel from writer to reader. The Internet. This is what I’m trying to get across when I said you should let the demise of a publication affect the marketing plans for your restaurant. Advertise where the customers are.
The marketing plan for your restaurant should include the following online ventures.
- A streamlined website
A website per se isn’t enough. Make sure your restaurant website is easy on the eyes and user-friendly to attract customers.
- An email campaign
There’s nothing wrong with sending ads through email as long as it isn’t spam. Refer to this article for tips on how to get started on your email campaign.
- Presence in social networking sites
Popular websites like MySpace and Facebook allows you to interact with your customers on a personal level… from a mile away. Even politicians embrace this form of free online advertising.
- A Twitter account
I separated Twitter from the previous pointer because Twitter is as different as it is significant. In other words, Twitter has something Facebook and MySpace don’t: immediacy.
- Online booking system
It’s convenient for your diners. Enough said.
I don’t mean to add fuel to the fire, but if you’re still advertising on newspapers and on the Yellow Pages, you’re probably paying hard-earned money to reach even fewer potential customers. Advertise on Craigslist. Advertise on Yahoo! Anywhere is better as long as it’s online.
Or you can follow those tips I just mentioned. Go online with your marketing plans for your restaurant.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:17 pm
[...] another article, I talked about the decline of other advertising methods—newspaper ads, Yellow Pages ads, etc. I [...]
May 9th, 2011 at 4:25 pm
All great points Jon -
It surprises me just how much money small business operators will invest into obsolete marketing strategies these days. Not only does it cost the operator an arm and a leg, but its hard to track. Most importantly, print advertising is often less effective than the operator would like.
I often ask operators if they have the ability to record TV shows through their local cable service. When they say “yes”, I then say, “Okay, so lets say you record your favorite television show and your watching it. What do you do when the commercials come on?” EVERY SINGLE person says the same thing, “I fast forward through them!”
Radio is heading that way as well with the satellite radio features now coming “stock” on many new automobiles. They give you a year of the radio service for free (with very little commercials) and I would bet that many people renew at the end of their free trial.
Traditional “hard-sell” advertising is simply not something that we as consumers are interested in anymore.