Day 46 – The Puzzle – Another 48 Years, That’s How Long

HOW LONG WILL I WORK?

That was the question that hit me this morning as I was leaving a business meeting and observed an older gentleman jogging through Loveland.

When I saw him jogging, weights in hand, I thought “I wonder how old he is?  Probably 70-75, he looks good.  But I wonder, what’s he do all day…what would I want to do all day then?”

And with that the thought popped into my head “how long will I work and what’s possible?” 

I just turned 48 last week and I can see the effects of not working, not thinking, not grinding has on people.  When you stop or even slow down YOU GET OLD!  And I don’t want to get OLD like that.  

Plus I freaking love the conversations I get to have with restaurant owners and other entrepreneurs. Just yesterday I got to spend some time with a good friend of mine, Jim, who was in town for a conference.  We spent about 90 minutes together and the conversation was amazing. The insights he gave me, the energy I pulled from him, ALL TOP NOTCH!

Then later in the afternoon I hopped on a call with my team and two restaurant owners.  During that call I got the exact same feeling.  I WAS ALIVE!  Talking about what I love, restaurant marketing, and helping small business owners get what they want out of it.  Plus, the collaborative conversation we had is what really fuels me.  

So with that thought this morning it instantly hit me “How old is Warren Buffet?  That dude is a freaking rockstar and he’s got to be pushing 90.  If he can be that damn sharp and impactful at that age, so can I.”

So off to Google and BOOM, he’s 93…according to Google (sidebar, crazy how we instantly trust one source these days right).

Now the question some people will have is “why would you want to work until you are in your 90’s?”  My answer, TO STAY SHARP!  To keep my brain running full speed and squeeze every ounce out of life.  Now will I be putting in 60-80 hour weeks and traveling all the time at that point, of course not.  But I will be contributing to the vision of this company, YES YOU HEARD THAT RIGHT, this company!  Selling to the highest bidder doesn’t appeal to me, building a legacy like Warren and Charlie did DOES!  I want to drive down streets and see campuses with our company brands on them.  I want to fly to conferences that we own. I want to see millionaires come out of our companies, and I want to do it for the next 48 yerars.

See you tomorrow. 

Day 45- The Puzzle – My Biggest Puzzle Piece EVER, Employee #1 Ashley

12 years and 11 months ago the plan CHANGED!

In 2008 when I decided to start this company I was adamant on being a “one man show” and have NO EMPLOYEES!  At our boat dealership the prior 9 years I’d seen first hand how hard it was to manage people and more than that, how bad I was at hiring the right people.  So when I started the goal was simple, just me.

WELLLL within 2 years I could see how that was a terrible idea.  I could start to see the cracks forming, the work piling up and wall that I was about to hit.  So in early 2011 I decided Batman needed a Robin.  I knew that in order to over deliver to clients and help more small business owners that I needed someone by my side, someone that could keep up with me and honestly, PUT UP WITH ME 🙂

One of the big reasons I dreaded hiring an employee was from my prior bad experiences of hiring at our Boat Dealership.  Everyone I’d ever hired, basically got FIRED…literally.  I don’t know what it was about my past of hiring, but I seemed to not be too good at it.

That was until NOW!  

Or maybe I got damn lucky.

In the Spring of 2011 I stood up at weekly BNI meeting at asked for what would become the MOST VALUABLE REFERRAL EVER!  The ask was simple “I’m looking for someone who’s computer savy, understands Facebook, learns fast and who would like to work 5-10 hours per week starting off and work towards full-time.”

As luck would have it Peggy Sparks, who was one of the top members in our group and a rockstar referrer said “I’ve got a referral for you, it’s my daughter Ashley.”

And like that, I had a lead.  I had someone who might end up being my Robin, but could she keep up and handle my interesting nuances 🙂

The meeting was set, Tuesday May 31st, Panera Bread in Crestview Hills Town Center. 

The meeting was simple, she was actually on her way to the pool to relax for the day and the meeting went great.  I wasn’t concerned with resumes or past experience, the proof would be in the pudding as they say.  I emailed Ashley logins for a few clients Constant Contact email accounts and instructed her to look at what I’d created in the past and give it her best shot.  

I figured it would take a few days and didn’t expect a lot, to be quite honest I wasn’t really sure what I was going to get back from her.  Up to that point I controlled everything and delegating the marketing of our clients seemed like an impossible task. Then a few short hours later BAM, an email arrives and DAMN is it good.  Actually, it was AMAZING!

It was better than anything I would have done and I DIDN’T have to do the work!  

And with that, Ashley was hired!

She started off at 5-10 hours, then quickly moved to 20-30 hours and by the end of the year she was FULL TIME!  

How I got so lucky with my first ever hire for this company is beyond me, but I’m damn glad I did.  As I sit here today, 12 years and 11 months after she started June 22nd 20211 I am beyond thankful for what she’s done for me, this company, our clients and her co-workers.

To say Ashley is a ROCK STAR would be an understatement.  What she’s become within our company is what building a business is all about.  

And she did this without much direction from me. I’ve never been an overbearing micro manager, I’m quite the opposite.  Which, ironically has caused our only two flare ups in 13 years.  

As I was typing yesterdays blog about what’s happened since the NRA show in 2015 to now, I can’t help but think NONE OF IT would have been possible without Ashley. 

I can still remember my excitement in 2016 when I figured out the ROI Engine and Ashley and I met at the gym office to review it.  I sat down with her to show her the marketing automation I’d built in Zapier and what the future was going to be for our company.  She would later tell me on her drive home she called her husband crying that scared she’d be fired because what I just showed her was not something she understood. 

Well, that was short lived.  Within weeks she was crushing it and that allowed me to put my energy in other places.  And ever since that day, that’s how it’s been.  Matt creates something, Ashley makes it happen and Matt moves onto the next idea.  

Today Ashley leads the entire marketing company and software.  She’s the driving force behind what will become the ultimate restaurant marketing platform.  One that drives sales to restaurants where they need it the most.  

Peggy (Ashley’s mom) THANK YOU.  Your referral that day in BNI is easily the most valuable referral EVER in the history of BNI.

Ashley, THANK YOU. 

Thank you for being a rock star.

Thank you for putting up with my lack of leadership and directions.

Thank you for staying by my side as we’ve navigated rocky waters the past few years.

And thank you for always being willing to learn something new and run full steam ahead.

 

Day 44 – The Puzzle – My Dream For Restaurant Marketing And What We Are Building

The journey of building this company and the services we offer to restaurants has been quite a journey.

Back in 2015 when I realized I’d created something unique for restaurant marketing, I thought “what if I had a brewery in every state using my system.”  You see, back then I had 9 restaurants as clients, 3 breweries and 6 others.  We had 1 deli style restaurant, a 4 casual dining restaurants, 3 breweries and 1 fast casual concept that we were helping to market.  I was their “at large marketing director” and Ashley was my team member who helped me carry out their ENTIRE marketing plan (my 1st employee and only one then).  I bought their mass media, spending North of $1.3 million annually for them, I created the marketing strategy, I kept them ahead of the technology curve, we did their graphic design, sent their emails, managed their social media and at the end of the day IMPLEMENTED EVERYTHING!

You could say that Ashley and I were their marketing department, and we loved it.  

When I say we did EVERYTHING for these restaurants that would be an understatement.  

CLICK BELOW to check out a Facebook Live in did for them in March 2014, yes we were doing LIVES and video 10 years ago for restaurants:)

 I would do every month for each of the 3 Hobrauhaus Breweries we worked with.  I knew the importance of video marketing back then (you know the stuff most restaurants STILL are not doing) and I also saw the power of using Facebook Live to own our own “media outlet.  So every opportunity I had, I did live and recorded videos for our 9 restaurant clients.  This was the Newport location who had a Keg Tapping the last Wednesday of every month.  I would show up and broadcast it live on their Facebook page from my iPad and then download the file and make a quick video in the restaurant that night to post the next day to hype of the new beer and use as the post for a paid ad that month.   And yes it’s grainy, nowhere close to perfect and it’s really poor editing by todays standards.  BUT we were the only ones doing it and these videos would DRIVE sales and customer traffic.

And on April 26th 2015 all of that changed. 

It all changed with one promotion.

That day was national pretzel day and up until that point I’d never had a promotion that gained such TRACKABLE traction.  Meaning, we could 100% see that it drove traffic and sales.  We saw $18,000 in incresed sales only from that lame “show this Facebook post or email” to get this offer promo.

When I saw how well it did and realized “what if I knew who all of those 500 or customers were?”  

Meaning:

– what if I knew their name

– how often they visited

– when they were 1st time customers

– when they went missing AKA stopped coming to the restaurant

– when were their birthdays

– why they came to the restaurant (bier, music, food, etc)

– And WHAT IF I could use social media to gain the customer data needed to build this program….

The ideas started to flood in.  And I wondered HOW could I take this promo to the next level with all of our restaurant clients.  But more importantly I also realized that much of what worked for my restaurant clients was due to massive insights we were gaining every week by having 9 total.  You see, at this time I was a local marketing firm with 34 clients who had 200 or so locations across 31 industries.  So many times, we were re-creating the wheel for each client every new promotion since what worked for a restaurant did not necessarily work for a car dealership.

But when I did something for 1 of the restaurants, it typically worked for all 9 of them.  

So with this idea I figured there was only one place to go to find the solution I needed, the National Restaurant Association Show in Chicago in mid May, just a few weeks away.  I thought that a show dedicated to the restaurant business boasting 4,000 exhibitors and close to 400 marketing/technology booths surely the software I needed build this marketing program.

Below is a picture of my very first NRA show on my Birthday in 2015!

As I walked the show floor I was AMAZED!  

The marketing companies and marketing technology were so far behind.  I had booths bragging to me about their direct mail strategies, ones we were doing 7 years earlier when I started my company.  

There was NO ONE there for Social Media! 

NO ONE talking about customer engagement online!

NO ONE talking about how to gain customer data!

 NO ONE talking about customer acquisition and ROI.

In fact when I mentioned marketing ROI they looked a me like a dog when it turns it’s head sideways. 

I’ll never forget the conversation I had with the only loyalty and technology booth that impressed me.  I told him I was looking for software that could be triggered through a comment on Facebook, which took the customer to SOMEWHERE and we would get them to give us their name, phone number, birthday and email address.  Then we would put them into an email and text marketing campaign that had trackable promotions they could redeem.  Then I could segment the database and funnel the best customers into a loyalty program and the others would be in a marketing funnel based on their frequency.  The guy looked at me like I was on drugs and said “that doesn’t exist and it’s not possible.”  In fact most of the marketers I spoke with at the show could not figure out why I’d want to have a program that showed the sales that came from the marketing campaigns.  They were honestly scared to have their clients understand the ROI.  

I guess the big difference between me and them was the fact that I looked at marketing success and failure the same.  If we were not getting the ROI we needed on a campaign, we optimized it.  They looked at it as “oh shit, this client is going to fire us.”  And now 9 years later I get it, I understand why they were scared to have that level of marketing transparency with their restaurant clients. Restaurants simply did not understand marketing at this level.

So as I headed home to NKY from Chicago I called everyone I knew in the business, excited and bummed by what I’d found out.  First I was bummed since what I went to the show for apparently did not exist. But next I was excited to prove these people wrong and create what I knew could exist.  

It took me 2 years to create it and I called it the ROI Engine. The ROI Engine was a one of kind restaurant marketing customer acquisition took leveraging Facebook and Instagram to build a customer database and then drive them into the restaurant with trackable marketing promotions.  The idea was simple, we’ll leverage the front-end advertising restaurants should be doing anyways (like Facebook ads) to “double dip” and gain customers contact information.  Then we’ll use that to email and text them one off promotions to gain the sales needed on the frontend to recoup our advertising spend and second to prove we had the right customers on our email and text list.  

In fact, my first book, Don’t 86 Your Restaurant Sales, was based on the entire program.  I spent 1st Quarter of 2018 writing the book, 2nd Quarter proofing and tweaking and then it was launched in August of 2018. 

By the time the book was published we had restaurant clients from all over the USA.  From 2015 to 2018 I spent 3 years building a new company 100% dedicated to helping restaurants and winding down my highly successful local marketing firm. It was a crazy tough decision.  I’d become such good friends with my local clients like Evans Auto Care and Jeff Wyler Automotive Group that I didn’t know how to end these relationships and walk away.  Slowly but surely we did it and It was nerve racking. 

And the crazy part was, I found out along the way why all the marketing and tech firms from the 2015 NRA show wanted NOTHING to do with showing proof.  

Since 2008 every local client we helped with marketing viewed us much differently than the restaurants who hired us for the “ROI Engine Program.”  Our local clients viewed us as their marketing partner.  The bad results were not a reflection on us, just the result of trial and error.  And we used good and bad to optimize the marketing plan.  We were a part of their teams and we NEVER LOST A CLIENT!  Firing Matt Plapp wasn’t an option, we were too valuable. 

But that was the exact opposite with our nationwide restaurant marketing program.  You see, these restaurants only viewed us as a vendor, not a partner.  And if there was a bump in the road, YOU’RE FIRED!  In fact we lost all 19 of our first 19 restaurant clients within 6 months.  And what was even crazier about that was their results were great.  

The issue was, restaurant owners did not understand the type of marketing we were doing.  They were so accustomed to either seeing no form of tracking with their marketing or massive shot in the arm results like Groupon.  They were only comfortable with knowing nothing, or seeing crazy results from one of marketing campaigns like Groupon that did not help the restaurant long term, but drove cash in today.  

It was scary as shit for me.  To think that I’d just stopped working with 30 clients that understood our vision and goals to go all in with restaurants that didn’t grasp what it takes to drive sales long term with their marketing.  

In 2020 I got smacked in the face with this harder than ever.  I had a client in Washington who was spending $6,000 per month on radio ads for their multi location pizza chain with zero proof it was working, yet when we showed them how the $30,000 they spent with us and Facebook in prior 12 months turned into $400,000 in sales THEY FIRED US!

Have a look for yourself below at their customer acquisition dashboard.  1 MILLION social media impressions in a year that gained a database of 17,000 and drove 11,000 visits and $400,000 in sales, and that was ONLY THE FRONT END!  I was blown away…sorry the image is kind of dull, it was a screenshot from when the client did a testimonial video on our marketing program while we were in Washington meeting with them after working together for 12 months.  A month after this video they cancelled and my mind WAS BLOWN!  

To be 100% honest with you, it was the biggest gut punch ever.  But not because we lost them as a client. It was tough because I could not grasp how someone would see these results and not think the glass is HALF EMPTY.

The sales we’d driven while also growing a massive database AND getting them the most social media exposure they’d ever had.  CLICK HERE to watch a case study video on their program, it’s WILD.  But like all failures, this was a learning lesson.  This showed me that no matter how awesome our front-end marketing was, we had to be able to show the ENTIRE story, which is why we acquired Repeat Returns in November 2023.  We had to be able to show the customers lifetime journey. 

This was when I truly understood what was wrong with restaurant owners and the industry.  They were so scorn from marketing of the past, so behind the times and so committed to todays results, that they could not understand how to create a long term marketing relationship with a vendor like us.  

Now, here we are in 2024 and my company has grown from Ashley and myself to 64 team members.  And I once again find myself at the NRA Show in Chicago.  It’s 9 years late and the same is true, the marketing companies here DO NOT GET IT!

Yes, there are some badass loyalty programs here.  

There are some POS companies that are highly advanced.  

And yet, no one is talking about customer acquisition.  No one is talking about customer ATTENTION retention, you know NOT being forgotten.  No one is talking about how to leverage social media, email, text and messenger marketing.  

Then it hit me, we are just that far ahead and what comes next from our company will SHOCK the industry.  But honestly they won’t truly even understand that for another 9 years.  

In July we are going to roll out our new company, new brand and crazy new platform.  It will be the product of merging Repeat Returns restaurant marketing software with our marketing services firm Restaurant Marketing That Works. 

We will create an industry first restaurant marketing platform that gives restaurant owners predictable marketing funnels that drive sales EVERY DAY.  They will wake up every morning and have a daily marketing plan built for them that takes customers on a journey to visit more often, spend more when they visit and COME BACK when they forget about the restaurant. 

And maybe in 9 more years in 2033 when I visit the National Restaurant Association Show there will be 10 booths knocking of what we’ve built and restaurants will FNALLY understand what I figured out in 2015.

Day 43 – The Puzzle – This F1 Red Bull Car Is Out Of Gas, Just Like Your Marketing Programs

As we walked the aisles of the National Restaurant Show we couldn’t help but notice a GLARING problem with every marketing and point of sales booth. 

The issue they had was the same as the Red Bull F1 car above, NO GAS!

Literally, this car has no gas in it and every marketing opportunity being pushed on restaurants at the NRA show shared that.  There was ZERO focus on customer acquisition AKA gas to your marketing programs.  

As an example, there were COUNTLESS Loyalty programs and restaurant point of sale companies touting loyalty.  But they never talk about HOW you’re going to get members for said loyalty program. You know, your loyalty members.  Because I can tell you this, after the 3 month honeymoon period is over and your hard core guests are all members and your staff has quit or forgot, YOU PROGRAM IS DEAD!

Whether it’s your loyalty program, new customer program or birthday program, they all need traffic.  They need new people coming into that world every day and somehow that’s a topic that companies in restaurant marketing never want to talk about.  

You might say “Matt, why is that?”

Part of me says, damn I don’t get it.  But the other part, the majority, knows why.  They don’t understand customer acquisition and it’s hard to do.  It’s much easier to build a software and sit back and let it do it’s magic vs go out and build a team of experts that help restaurants find new customers every day through Facebook, Instagram, Google, Your Website and inside your 4-walls.  

My point being, they don’t want to spend the time or money to figure it out and it’s not scalable to them.  Which excites the HECK out of me, because we know how to do it and we are going to take the industry by storm over the next few years with our restaurant funnel programs that drive customers into the every single day on auto pilot. 

Day 42 – The Puzzle – Is This Birthday Offer Bad?

Ok, so I finally got what I wanted, A GREAT birthday offer with no strings attached…or did I?

This past week we’ve talked a lot about marketing funnels and the importance of the offer you make to get customers into your marketing programs.  Well, as you also might know if you’re an avid follower, this week was my birthday and my inbox was full and shitty offers!  Most of the birthday “gifts” that restaurants gave me were bad and had strings attached.  Honestly, most were coupons and NOBODY wants a coupon on their birthday. 

On Friday I was excited when a national chain sent me the email above with a solid graphic of a dessert and a pretty clear call to action, a free dessert for my birthday.  

BUT THEN when I clicked the “view reward” button I was redirected to a paid to download their Punch App.  So what I thought was once a free birthday dessert from a restaurant I frequent turns out to not be free offer after all.  

Then that got me thinking, what are the plusses and minuses of this tactic

GOOD

– Forces me to download that app where they can get more data from me.

BAD

– I’m not a person that downloads apps and I don’t visit since the offer isn’t relevant.

Those to me are the main points of each side.  And as I reflect on my past experiences I know that loyalty programs, which is what this app is don’t apply to 80% of a restaurants customers.  And I also know that many consumes don’t like to download restaurant apps, including me.  

My point of todays blog post was to get you thinking about the “friction” in your marketing programs and what’s the best path to take on something like this.  Personally, If I was you, I’d want as many people as possible to visit a restaurant, regardless of if they have the app or not.  So this would be NO GO for Matt Plapp.

In episode 608 of my podcast, Restaurant Marketing Secrets, I talk about this topic as well…CLICK HERE to listen

Day 41 – The Puzzle – How To Work With Charities To Drive Sales & Their Donations

The days of the traditional Dine-To-Donates are DONE!  They don’t work for either party, the restaurant or the charity.  In 2014 these were a novel event that would drive massive traffic to a restaurant through the charity, but that’s when very few restaurants and charities were doing them.  Now, every restaurant in town has one every night and charities are doign them all the time as well.  

So what’s the solution, to me it’s a LONG TERM donation campaign that helps restaurants gain new customers and drive repeat visits from those customers, not one that donated to a charity just because their regulars come in for their normal visits.  And for the charity, they should be rewarded to introducing new customers to the restaurant and they should also benefit from the future sales of those customers. 

In November 2023 we purchased Repeat Returns, known in the industry as a Restaurant Loyalty Program.  But what we found over the next few months was that Repeat Returns was WAY MORE than that.  One program I saw that wasn’t being used by enough restaurants was their Community Connections program.  This was a charitable marketing platform built 100% for restaurants and WOW the results were insane for the restaurants using it.  

The image above are the results for one year from April 2023 through April 2024.  This shows the 19 charities that had signed up for the program and their results.  These 20 charities drove 7,694 new members to the restaurants loyalty program.  Those new loyalty members would visit 14,198 and spend $283,687 in sales to the restaurant all while donating back $8,500 to the non-profits.  

FIRST lets discuss some of my issues I’ve had with charitable programs restaurants have done in the past.

1st – Charities do too many fundraisers per month and don’t OWN many of them. If they are doing 5 dine-to-donates per month, they are looking at the global results, not your restaurants results. So many times very few people show up.  Which doesn’t really hurt your restaurant since you were already open, but it’s certainly disappointing to see a night you’d hope would do we, flop. 

2nd – Telling people what night they have to visit a restaurant is tough.  I know this from being a parent of athletes.  I missed 75% of the dine-2-donates due to having prior obligations.

3rd – We’ve found charities standing out front of the restaurant and passing out their flier to every customer that walks into the restaurant.  So now they are getting credit for all of my customers, and that’s not fair. 

These 3 reasons are why I really like the Community Connection program offered by Repeat Returns.  The program gives the charity a unique link for their supporters to use to join the loyalty program.  If they are already a member, it doesn’t count, but if they are new, BINGO!  Then you set the parameters.  The example shown here allows them to earn 3% from every dollar spent from these members and they don’t put a timeline on it.  The donations added up when these new members spend money.  Now you can change the % donated and you can alter dates, it’s all up to the restaurant.  

One thing to keep in mind, not every non-profit is created equal.  As you’ll see below, the results will vary.  Some drive a lot of new members, some very few.  Some drive a lot of repeat visits, some very few.  The image below are the stats for the past 12 months. 

 

Another thing to keep in mind is that not all “new members” are going to come in and come in often, just like any customer acquisition funnel your restaurant has.  In the example below there are 320 new loyalty club members for this restaurant from one charity.  But only about 150 of those customers are repeat visitors and under 100 were hardcore loyal customers.  But the results speak for themselves.  828 new customer visits and $17,082 in sales.  That’s HUGE and when you find 20-30 non-profits to help like this restaurant did, then you’ve struck gold!

The final point today is to supply these non-profits with the right assets.  If I was you, I’d create custom graphics with them and help them understand how to market this partnership.  And I’d also have a page on my website dedicated to the overall program and each non-profit.  You should even do this inside your restaurant and frequently share the posts the non-profit makes, but not only the ones about your program.  Actually share their normal posts about the great work they are doing. 

I also cover this topic on my daily podcast, Restaurant Marketing Secrets, in episode 607…have a listen CLICK HERE!

Day 40 – The Puzzle – What’s This Blog About & How Will It Help Restaurants With Their Marketing?

This week I was in Las Vegas speaking to a room of 100 professionals in the restaurant business.  Owners, GM’s, Kitchen Managers and Marketing Directors.  were in the room and many had questions.  So I decided to change it up a little.  I sent them a survey to find out what was on their mind and after getting rid of the duplicates we listed out the 14 questions and tackled every one of them.

The 14 questions are WHY I’m doing this blog and my podcast every day.  These questions are the PUZZLE pieces that you need to systematically grow your restaurants sales and FIND the promised land.   My goal with my content is to help you build your PUZZLE as it relates to marketing your restaurant. 

FYI, here are the 14 questions:

1.  What are the first steps in marketing for a new business?

2.  How do we create offers for new customers without discounting the product?

3.  How can we incentivize returning customers to buy more, without skewing our costs too much?

4.  How can we better track customer metrics and target them based on their actions?

5.  What are the efficient ways of capturing data from customers who’ve never eaten at our establishment?

6.  How to create authentic and engaging content, especially on social media platforms like Instagram?

7.  How do we avoid over-emailing & posting on social media to the point where customers ignore us?

8.  Where will AI fit into our marketing strategies?

9.  Is Facebook only viable for older marketing demographics now?

10.  With limited resources, where should I focus my time and money?

11.  How can we track the results of our marketing strategies?

12.  What is the best way to promote a small town local business?

13.  How to market special events like wine dinners and catering effectively?

14.  Can we automatically text people once they give us their number from a reservation, or do we have to legally ask them permission1.  ?

Day 39 – The Puzzle – Restaurant Loyalty Done WRONG By A MAJOR BRAND

Here’s what I love about restaurant marketing in 2024, EVEN YOU, the “little guy” can beat the BIG DOGS!

Yes, the mom & pop restaurants and small chains are on the exact level playing field as massive chains like Dunkin Donuts.

This week is my birthday and this morning I got a strange random email from Dunkin Donuts and it got me thinking

#1 – I’m a member of their loyalty program?  Since when and why don’t I recall seeing any past emails.

#2 – This is REALLY my birthday offer?  

#3 – If I am a member and I know it’s been at least 8-10 months since I visited, WHERE are my “win back” emails and texts? 

So that got me hunting for emails and I found 3 tied to this rewards program.  As you can see above from the screenshot of my gmail inbox I have 3.  The first was from 2019, the second on the day before my birthday last year and the third on the day before my birthday this year, TODAY!

Now I’m not here to slam Dunkin for their bad loyalty program, because once I logged into the portal, it looks like it’s really well thought out from a rewards stand point.  BUT who the hell is WATCHING?  Who’s paying attention to make sure it’s working.  And this is relatable to me since we are in the process of adding a brand new account analyzation team for Repeat Returns.  A team that looks for issues like this inside of restaurants programs to make sure they are running correctly and programs are optimized.  

You’d think Dunkin would have a MASSIVE client success team handling this.

Marketing isn’t always about wins or losses, it’s about if you’re even watching.  And in this case a member of Dunkin’s loyalty program is a GHOST, or a MINO….

 “Member In Name Only”

Meaning, my name is in there but nothing happening.  If I did in fact join in 2019 then there should have been at least 20-30 emails the past 4 years.  They have my birthday and they have that message programmed, where’s the rest?

NOW onto the lame ass Birthday offer.  

The offer they sent me was for 3x points for 2 days around my birthday.  Now there’s a few ways to look at this and honestly, no matter how you look at it, IT’S BAD!

First, I’ve not used ANY POINTS in 5+ years as a “member” so why would points even matter to me?  You should be working your butt off to simply drive a visit and a FREE DONUT is what’s going to make that happen.

SECON, let’s imagine I was a hard core Dunkin customer, then yes TRIPLE points is legit, or is it?  If I’m that loyal of a customer that I care that much about triple points, why in the hell would you not give me a FREAKING FREE DONUT!

My friends, the streets are lined WITH GOLD!  The big brands have no clue what they are doing and this levels the playing field for all of us. 

Day 38 – The Puzzle – Restaurant Loyalty – How To Drive Sales Increases

Loyalty marketing for your restaurant, let’s talk about a deeper WHY and HOW to use it correctly. 

First – Loyalty programs apply to a very small, but powerful segment of your customer base.  Research shows that only about 15% will become members of your loyalty program and within that group of customers 50% of the members will make the vast majority of the spending. 

Second – Your going to see a HUGE spike in signups when you start, massive momentum in months 1-3 and then THE BRAKES!  Loyalty programs early members are your best customers.  They are commonly called “early adopters” and the bad news you run out of them fast.  PLUS your staff loses excitement to get new signups and 

Third – The second point above leads to the biggest reason restaurant loyalty programs fail, lack of consistent traffic.  Your program is like a Ferrari, but just like every other car…IT NEEDS GAS!  At the end of this blog post we’ll talk about that more in depth. 

Forth & todays main topic – Loyalty programs should NOT be used to push discounts and promos.  It should be used to push your best customers to spend more money per visit and visit more often.  They should be incentivized to support you in more ways than other customers.  And COUPONS are not the right incentives.

The screen shot above tells a really cool story.  The right side of the image is a report dashboard inside of Repeat Returns Smart Offers system.   Smart offers are a segment of the loyalty program within Repeat Returns, and honestly one of most powerful parts. 

Smart offers are designed to take the very best customers and get this to take a VERY specific action.  In this case, a dynamic email was sent to a segment of the loyalty members.  

DYNAMIC EMAIL = This is an email sent to a list of customers that is DIFFERENT for each segment of customers. Meaning, this email had a segment of customers who typically spend under $30 and a segment that spend under $40.  The “spend bump” incentive that each of them saw was different, it was based off of their past. 

SPEND BUMP = The email for the customer that spends $30 would have said “When you spend $40 or more this week get double points.”  Whereas the email for the customer that spends $40 normally had the incentive bumped up to $50.  The idea behind this type of loyalty email is to get them to buy something on their next visit that they may not normally buy, like an appetizer.  That gets them to a higher spending thresh hold, which then gives them their “bonus loyalty points.”  PLUS you’ve now introduced a new menu item that you hope they really enjoy and start buying more in the future, which drives up your check averages. 

In the example above the Repeat Returns Smart Offer got 94 customers to visit that week (2 came twice) and $3,810.  These EXACT customers normally would have spent $1,700 on the same visits, but with this new incentive they now spent $2,121 MORE!!!!

That my friends is LOYALTY!  

We drove our best customers into the restaurant to spend more than they normally would and WITHOUT A DISCOUNT!

That $2,100 is aprox $1,500 in net profit to your restaurant. 

Now last but not least, I mentioned I’d talk about gaining more traffic to your loyalty program. I want you to imagine that this same restaurant had DOUBLE the members it currently does. Common sense says we would have gotten double the net profit.

That my friends is why you must have your 8 restaurant funnels running, so you can put gas in this Ferrari. 


Day 37 – The Puzzle – How You Can Dominate Birthday Marketing At Your Restaurant

This one is tough for me to digest, how can we as an industry stand to benefit so much from an event like a customers birthday, but SUCK at marketing to get more of them?

There are a few days every year that many consumers mark on their calendars to go out to eat.  

One that budget’s don’t exist.  

One where the party size is much larger than normal.

Yes, you guessed it, THEIR BIRTHDAY.

What’s even more timely for me is the fact that my birthday is this week.  So with birthdays being top of mind, lets build the ULTIMATE restaurant birthday marketing funnel

1st – The OFFER!  This is your marriage proposal to the client, it’s you asking for a 1st date…it’s can’t SUCK!  

This week I’ve gotten 6 Birthday emails and 4 have had a STRING attached.  It’s my damn birthday, don’t give me a coupon.  Below are two emails I got that were 100% free, exactly how it should be.  Heck, one email I got was a free dessert when I spend $50 or more, at a restaurant you can’t talk out of for under $75.

 

2nd – Your digital nurture.  You should have email and text messaging hitting the customers 3-4 times during the month around their birthday.  I wouldn’t stack these on top of each other though. I’d think about an email 14 days out, then a text 7 days out, text the morning of and email later afternoon.  This way you touch the at different times.

– FYI, the text the day of SHOULD not promote your offer.  I think it’s best to have a great Happy Birthday graphic, say enjoy your big day and sign off the restaurants name.  

3rd – Targeted Facebook ads. You can target customers the week of and the month of their birthday.  You can use these ads to double dip.  First, they serve as a reminder for the customers who are already a member of your program.  Second, they gain new customers into your birthday program. You could spend as little as $1 per day on these ads, though I’d recommend $5 per day.

4th – PICK UP THE PHONE!  Scroll down and check out the message from a clients manager about a birthday call he’d made.  Let’s say you have 5,000 members of your restaurants birthday program who’s phone number you have.  That’s 100 or so calls per week, 20 per day. If you spread that across a few people it’s LIGHT WORK!  And 75% of the calls go to voicemail and it’s a simple voice message “Hey Mary, It’s Matt from your favorite pizza spot, Matt’s Pies. Just calling to say happy birthday.  We hope you have a great Bday and if you decide to celebrate with us we’d love that, you have a free dinner with your name on it.  Happy Birthday.”

It’s as easy as that and I will tel you this, the customers will be BLOWN AWAY!  You will be the only restaurant calling them and many times the ONLY PERSON calling them at all.  

5th – You’re NOT DONE!  Once they are in the restaurant, WOW THEM!  Every guest who’s celebrating a birthday should get a birthday card which includes a gift card for their next visit.  I’ve had restaurants tell me when they started doing this, others at the table would say “holy crap, how do I join?”  It’s a WOW experience and that simple gift card will go a long way for your best customers.

ALSO, don’t forget to check out the text below that a clients manager put in their internal system about the response from simply CALLING a customer on their birthday week.

In episode 603 of my podcast, Restaurant Marketing Secrets, I dive into this topic more…have a listen CLICK HERE