I’m working on building the Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide.

Imagine a straightforward, one-page marketing plan that you can easily build on, followed by a weekly 1-page plan. That’s the essence of the Ultimate Restaurant Marketing Guide I’m developing.  

I’m doing this a little differently than you might expect, though.  Everything I’ve created that’s worked well was something I built for my own use.  As an example, back in 2015, I needed a tool to build a database for my client’s restaurant that showed trackable results.  I didn’t make it to sell; I built it to fix the problem we saw with the marketing plan.  Well, that tool, the ROI Engine, launched this company nationwide and worked exclusively with restaurants. 

When I started on this project, I was building a plan for you, restaurant owners.  Then I thought, “I’m not happy with our marketing plan; it sucks!”

With that in mind, I thought, what if I outline this plan and then relate it to what I need for DRYVER and America’s Best Restaurants?  

I’m not going to lay everything out in this one blog; this is simply my start.

First, I start with a mission, “Massive Attention & Excitement.”

Attention is what every one of us needs.  If our ideal customers saw our brands 100x times more than they do now, they’d spend more money with us.  And on top of that, if they were excited about what we were doing or what we could do for them, they’d spend more money with us.

And let’s face it, our customers spending more money with us is ALL WE ARE AFTER!

Second, WHERE can I get that attention & create excitement?

From here, I list these opportunities in order of importance and ease because EASY makes things more repeatable. 

#1 In-Store – By a mile, this is your #1 opportunity to grow your sales.  These people have made the most significant commitment to you, yet you all ignore them.  Research shows that 95% of consumers are never engaged verbally with an “ASK” to get their information.  And to make that even worse, 95% will give you whatever you want when propositioned correctly.  Why is this data so important?  Well, you know they’ve at least visited once, and it’s the only way you can guarantee a future conversation through email, text, and messenger.  

#2  Website—I’ve been preaching website optimization since 2010, which is how I got into the marketing consulting and agency world. In 1999, I created a website for an online-only boat and RV dealership that my brother, dad, and I started. We took that website and built a three-location $15 million per year dealership. That was over twenty years ago. The importance of the web today is one million times more important. 

#3 Email List – I was told in 2010 that email was going away.  During this time, I was doing seminars monthly on the power of email marketing and this thing called “Facebook.”  We all know that email did not go away, but it is alive and doing well.  Email is your lowest-hanging fruit with regard to reaching your customers; you have to use it carefully.  

#4 Text List—We all live on our phones, and text alerts are. the easiest notifications to see daily. The textthrough rates are insanely high. The only issue with texting is that you must use it with caution. Consumers don’t want texts as often as emails, and you should limit texting to high-value CTAs (calls to action).

#5 Messenger List—Messenger is the same as texting. The issue is that most of you don’t have software hooked up to your Facebook and Instagram accounts that will help you take advantage of it. I’d say Messenger is a cross between email and text because you can get away with more than text, but not as much as email. 

#6 Organic Social Media – It’s free, easy, and a MUST!  But you can’t post your damn food every day. I’m creating an easy-to-implement plan that offers you the variety you need to build a social media following that’s paying attention. 

#7 Paid Social Media Ads – Facebook and Instagram ads are the BIGGEST innovation in marketing EVER!  You can target anyone, anywhere for any reason.  The cost per engagement and lack of waste make this a GOLD MINE!  Plus, no one uses it, so you’ll dominate it quickly for a few hundred dollars monthly. 

#8 Community Marketing—My friends, this is as important as #2, but it’s not easy and duplicatable. And for many of us, it’s not something we can do every day. So that’s the only reason it is way down here. 

The second column below is for my company.  I don’t have “in-store,” but I do have a sales team, so that’s the closest thing I have.  After that, we are both the same.  The third column will become YOU!

Stay tuned,

MP