Auntie Anne’s has the right idea, kind of. They’re investing in digital ordering and tailoring their locations to attract Gen Z, but they’re completely missing the mark on social media. They know people are online more than ever and are moving away from traditional marketing, yet they’re not putting effort into TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram. A pretty bizarre strategy…

Restaurant owners, don’t make the same mistake Auntie Anne’s is making. At ABR, we’ve helped thousands of restaurants across America modernize their marketing and build a powerful online presence. Ready to transform yours? Click the link in my bio.

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What would an extra $200,000 in sales do for your restaurant? In the finale of this 13-week series, Matt Plapp breaks down the sales gap most owners never see — and the exact ways America’s Best Restaurants helps independent restaurants close it and beat the chains.

In this session, Matt Plapp (CEO of America’s Best Restaurants) walks through the full marketing roadmap: the ABR framework, the acquisition system that builds a database you own, the social and loyalty tools that drive repeat sales, and how to figure out what your restaurant is really capable of.

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Growing your sales by $200,000 a year
0:31 The final week of the sprint
0:46 The sales gap most owners don’t see
1:58 Who we are and the four wins
2:20 The enemy: the chains
3:22 Where you can win: the digital footprint
4:21 The ABR framework: Attract, Build, Retain
5:43 The 3 places to win: store, community, digital
6:49 How ABR works with restaurants
7:13 ABR Ignite: the acquisition system
9:00 Real results: return on ad spend
10:57 ABR Accelerate: social, email, text & LTO ads
12:46 ABR Dominate: your marketing roadmap
14:10 The America’s Best Restaurants brand partnership
16:12 Driver loyalty & smart offers
18:52 Knowing what’s possible: now, should, could
19:33 This week’s homework: go live on Facebook

🍽️ ABOUT AMERICA’S BEST RESTAURANTS
We help independent restaurants win more customers with grassroots + digital marketing that actually works — win new customers, win back the ones who forgot about you, and get your best customers visiting more often.

👉 Schedule a marketing consult: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/win-appointment
👉 Take our free restaurant marketing audit: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/audit
👉 See marketing case studies from our clients: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/restaurant_marketing_case_studies
👉 Download our free marketing + social media plan: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/attention-plan-download
👉 Apply to be featured on the ABR Roadshow: https://roadshow.americasbestrestaurants.com/get-featured

#RestaurantMarketing #RestaurantOwner #RestaurantSales #GrowYourRestaurant #RestaurantMarketingAgency

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Your restaurant is packed with stories, so stop acting like you’ve got nothing to post about. Your family. Your staff. A recent win. A wild night from back in your heyday. Anything that only a real, local owner could share.

That’s the one thing the chains can’t copy. They aren’t rooted in your community, and they don’t know the people who walk through the door. All they have is a menu.

So stop just serving food, and start giving your community a story worth coming back for.

Need help telling yours? Head to the link in my bio to see how ABR can help your restaurant.

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Restaurants keep saying no to a promo that can bring back 100x what they spend. I don’t get it. The #1 reason? “It’ll hurt our food costs.”

But think about it. You spend $10 on a promo and give away one free item. If that one customer comes back every other week, you’ve already won. That’s thousands of dollars a year from one $10 ad.

It’s not an instant return; you’ll see results months or even years later, but the best things in life don’t give instant returns; they take time.

If you’re a restaurant owner who’s struggling and you watched this whole video, this is your sign. Visit the link in my bio to see how ABR can change your marketing.

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It sounds counterintuitive, but once you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
A lot of companies, even ones with good marketers, make the same mistake. They email their list to bring in new customers and keep them coming back. Then, when they run the next offer, they send it to the same people who already redeemed the first one.
That makes no sense. Once someone has used the offer, leave them out of the next one.
We do this with Facebook ads, and it’s absurdly easy. It’s one of the reasons Facebook is the best place for restaurants to advertise. We regularly help restaurants run highly profitable campaigns like the one in this video, and if you want in on this (plus a whole lot more), head to the link in my bio to learn more.

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When it comes to promoting holidays, you need to do more than your competition. On Mother’s Day, we tell our clients to extend it to a whole month. Get photos of your employees’ moms, get their stories, and post them. Our clients have had major success with a super simple promotion like this one. And we provide a whole lot more than that. For more information, click the link in my bio.

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The most powerful opportunity your restaurant has to grow sales isn’t your building, your staff, or even your food — it’s the customer database you own. In Week 10 of this 13-week series, Matt Plapp breaks down the top three ways to build a list that drives sales today and retains customers for the long haul.

In this session, Matt Plapp (CEO of America’s Best Restaurants) walks through capturing data in-store (where customers are 3x more likely to return), paid Facebook and Instagram ads, and engagement posts — plus a real loyalty case study of a restaurant that doubled its database and added $20K a month in sales.

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Your most powerful growth opportunity: your database
0:41 The most important asset your restaurant has
1:09 Now, should, could: the sales gap
1:57 Week 10 of 13: building the database
2:49 Who is Matt Plapp / ABR
3:28 Chains everywhere — compete on the phone
4:43 The ABR framework: Attract, Build, Retain
5:32 The 3 ways to build your database
5:48 Way 1: In-store (3x more likely to return)
7:07 Ask every time — loyalty, VIP, point of purchase
8:03 Jack’s cardboard-cutout example
8:25 Way 2: Paid ads (volume vs. quality)
10:05 The math: $125 in ads, a 10-to-1 return
12:04 Way 3: Engagement posts
13:51 The value of data growth: a loyalty case study
17:01 How he doubled his database in 24 months
18:32 This week’s homework: run an in-store opt-in contest

🍽️ ABOUT AMERICA’S BEST RESTAURANTS
We help independent restaurants win more customers with grassroots + digital marketing that actually works — win new customers, win back the ones who forgot about you, and get your best customers visiting more often.

👉 Schedule a marketing consult: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/win-appointment
👉 Take our free restaurant marketing audit: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/audit
👉 See marketing case studies from our clients: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/restaurant_marketing_case_studies
👉 Download our free marketing + social media plan: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/attention-plan-download
👉 Apply to be featured on the ABR Roadshow: https://roadshow.americasbestrestaurants.com/get-featured

#RestaurantMarketing #RestaurantOwner #CustomerDatabase #RestaurantSales #EmailMarketing

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There aren’t always a lot of big opportunities for mom-and-pop restaurants to beat the chains. But in the near future, I see one: the dine-in experience. A boatload of money is being poured into drive-thrus and fast dine-in restaurants. But people will get tired of this very quickly. Because people don’t just go to a restaurant for food; they go for the experience of the restaurant itself and to hang out with family and friends. So if you want to take advantage of this inevitable change, check out ABR using the link in my bio to see how we can help optimize your in-restaurant experience.

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Live content beats polished content every time. People don’t want a character, they want you, authentic.

I used to overthink recorded videos. Stressed me out. But live content? Easy. Just show up and tell your story. No script, no perfection.

That live practice taught me everything I needed for recorded content. The skills carried over naturally.

Start live, build confidence, connect with your customers. That’s how you actually grow.

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Here’s what nobody tells you. People don’t opt out because you texted them too much. They opt out because you sent them something that didn’t have anything to do with them.
Think about it. The people blasting your list are never the people who built it. They see 5,000 names. You see the Friday regulars and the moms coming in after practice.
Having someone’s number and having their attention are two completely different things. One’s a list. The other’s a business.
That’s what we build with restaurant owners at ABR. Link in bio to learn more.

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