If you’re not going on social media with the intent to create posts that engage your audience, you’re already failing. It’s literally in the name, but an easy way to get started is by looking at these engagement posts. We tell our clients to do this every single week: make a post(no matter how corny it may be) that has the simple intention of getting people to comment. It works a hell of a lot better than you might think. The reason we do these is to bring attention to Facebook that this restaurant’s page exists and is able to engage customers. So then, down the line, their normal posts do a lot better because Facebook’s algorithm is helping.

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When you think about doing a promotion, make sure you or your employees actually give a shit!

I once promoted a client, and it completely flopped due to the lack of passion. It was only to copy a nearby restaurant that did it super well, and they thought it would automatically mean they would succeed too. But they didn’t have what the other restaurant had, employees who loved the event.

So when you feel like taking a risk and doing a new promotion, check in with your employees and build it around them!

Need more advice like this? ABR has got you covered and can transform your restaurant’s marketing. Just click the link in my bio to get started.

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Free coffee or 10% off? It’s not even close.
When you’re building a promo, the offer is everything. And nothing beats the word “free.” A free dessert, a free coffee, a free appetizer: customers feel those instantly.
A discount might be worth more on paper, but it doesn’t feel like more. Nobody’s telling their friends about the 10% they saved.
Keep your promos simple, make them easy to redeem, and give people something for free. That’s what gets them through the door.

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One of the best things you can do for your restaurant is turn in-person customers into social media followers. With Halloween around the corner, here’s an easy way to make it happen.

Gather your employees’ childhood Halloween photos and print them on shirts for your staff to wear. When customers ask about them (and they will), your team can point them to your new Facebook promo, where they can share their own childhood Halloween pictures for a chance to win a prize.

Try this with any holiday or event, and you’ll beat just hoping customers stumble onto your page. It’s one of the many ways we help restaurants level up their marketing. If this sounds like a fit for you, visit the link in my bio to get started.

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Many restaurant owners today struggle with social media, especially ads. It’s quite simple, but if you never had to spend a lot of your restaurant career learning marketing, then it’s completely understandable.

ABR Ignite fixes all of these problems; we create simple yet effective promotions that get people in the restaurant with offers that are too good to turn down. We collect their data so we can keep them coming back, turning a $10-$15 investment in targeting a customer, plus the cost of the food, into hundreds of dollars in profit from future visits.

If you are interested in ABR Ignite and more, click the link in my bio to learn how you can get started with us.

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You don’t build a house without a foundation or without the proper experience. So why go on social media with your restaurant and just post some random photos telling people to buy your food?

It makes no sense; literally just take a step back and look at the word ‘Social Media’. It is a form of media meant to be social, so post like it. Talk about things going on in your community or just the world in general; create content your audience cares enough about to talk about.

At ABR, we teach our clients many ways to do this, and we also help build the foundation to integrate this social content with your marketing. So they enhance each other, and you get people coming to your restaurant constantly. So if that sounds like something you need, click the link in my bio to learn more.

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When I think of marketing, I don’t think of commercials and ads; I think of dating…

Nowadays, marketing has completely changed from just paying to get your name out there through commercials and ads and hoping customers see you and buy your product. Those things aren’t completely dead and can still be super useful, of course.

But with so much saturation across industries, you have to do more: you have to “date” your customers. Attract their attention, build a relationship, and retain that relationship over the long term. It’s exactly like dating, just at a less personal level.

If you like these 3 marketing pillars we help restaurants master and perfect, then click the link in my bio to begin working with us.

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Halloween can be a goldmine for your restaurant — but not if you do what everyone else does. In Week 1 of a new 13-week promo sprint, Matt Plapp hands you a turnkey Halloween campaign that stacks social media, email, and paid ads to get your restaurant in front of your whole community.

In this session, Matt Plapp (CEO of America’s Best Restaurants) breaks down the Halloween costume comment playbook — the post, the email, the ad, and the in-store move — and why being social beats selling.

⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 Halloween: a goldmine if you skip what everyone else does
0:36 Week 1 of a new 13-week promo sprint
1:22 The 5 marketing levers
2:02 Who we are + the 3 wins
3:17 Now, should, could: your sales gap
4:07 The enemy: the chains
4:59 Where you compete: the phone
5:29 The ABR framework: Attract, Build, Retain
6:29 Today’s promo: Halloween
7:03 Be more social, less media
8:18 Why Halloween is the perfect hook
10:08 The Halloween costume playbook (3 steps)
11:33 Why you email the post instead of selling
13:06 Stacking organic, email, and ads to go viral
14:03 The in-store bonus move
15:25 There’s a hot topic every single week

🍽️ 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.

▶️ WATCH THIS FIRST — The 3 Pillars of ABR (Attract, Build, Retain): what your restaurant’s marketing plan should be built around — https://youtu.be/VDk3LwjoxTM?si=zFoMVcfi8dHumR_6
▶️ NEXT, WATCH THIS — Spend $10 to Get $1,500: Understanding Restaurant CAC & LTV — https://youtu.be/elDlvvie-qs?si=brpriDYT-C8iZaCZ
👉 THEN head to our website to see if you fit our customer avatar and want to grow by $200,000+: https://www.americasbestrestaurants.com

👉 Schedule a marketing consult: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/win-appointment
👉 Take our free restaurant marketing audit: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/audit
👉 Download our free marketing + social media plan: https://business.americasbestrestaurants.com/attention-plan-download

#RestaurantMarketing #RestaurantOwner #Halloween #RestaurantPromotion #SocialMediaMarketing

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Your customers aren’t staring at your menu board. They’re staring at their phones.
Look at the clips in this video. At dinner, in line, at a red light: the phone is always out.
If your restaurant isn’t showing up on social media, email, and text, you’re invisible to the people you’re trying to reach. The franchises down the street already know this.
You don’t need to be a marketing expert. You just need to show up where your customers already are.
Not sure where to start? Head to the link in my bio, and we’ll help you get your restaurant in front of everyone who’s scrolling right now.

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As a restaurant owner, if you don’t know where to start with your marketing, here’s where you start:

In your restaurant, it sounds so obvious, but you’d be surprised how many don’t do it.
In your community, it’s arguably the most important, as you need your locals to actually know you exist.
On the phone, it’s the most powerful device of the modern era, and everyone is on it all the time, so there’s no reason not to use it.

This is a super basic start for any restaurant struggling to reach its customers. If you want to understand this even deeper, or start working with a team that can take this to a whole new level, click the link in my bio to learn how ABR can transform your marketing.

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