Day 70 – The Puzzle – You Have A New Competitor, How Can You Market Your Restaurant Differently

So, a new restaurant just opened up across the street, what should you do?

This just happened a few minutes from my house and I can already hear the frantic conversations happening inside during staff meetings.  

First, accept that the new spot will kick your butt the next 90 days and they are going to steal some of your customers short term, or maybe long term if you let them.  But there are a lot of proactive things you can do to make sure the impact is much less than it will be, in no particular order.

First – If this new spot has long lines, and you don’t, have a sign you can place out front during these times that says “Current Wait Time = Zero Minutes 🙂 “

Second – Use social media ads to target people currently within 1 mile of your restaurant and put some DELISH looking video ads in front of the people during their long wait at the new spot.

Third – Finally get off you butt and create a customer VIP program that forces everyone in your region to give you their contact information.

Forth – Get way more active in your community.  DO NOT let this new kid on the block jack the high school crowd you’ve nurtured for the past 10 years.

Fifth – Read blog post “Day 69” and do everything I told the new restaurant to do 🙂. Just click the text before this sentence and read away.

Sixth – Last but not least, don’t sweat it.  You can only control YOU and them brining more traffic to your area can’t hurt.

Seventh – I lied, the prior tip wasn’t the last one.  As I was typing that I thought “what if their restaurant looks like shit?”  So the real last tip is to have 3 friends look at your spot from the street and give you tips on what you’re not seeing. Spruce up the front of your restaurant, fix your mulch beds (maybe actually mulch), pull some weeds, refresh your sign and get rid of the banner that’s been up for 5 years!  There’s a very good chance you have changes to make and with this increased traffic you don’t want people saying “look at that dump” because you’re next to a brand new spot. 

Day 69 – The Puzzle – This Restaurant Is Brand New, What Should They Do?

This topic drives me crazy!  Why, because I am the one that hears it ONLY on the frontend and the backend.

First, I’ve been talking to restaurant owners for 16 years who say “we are slammed now that we opened, and we will be for 90 days or so, let’s talk after that.  I don’t need to spend any money on marketing right now.”

Second, “crap, sales have dropped 30% from our first few months, we better start marketing.”

Restaurant owners, get this through your head, YOU ALWAYS MARKET AND ADVERTISE…even when you are in your honeymoon phase after you open. Heck, I’d say that’s the most important time actually.

Here’s what you should do and why

1st – Gather every persons name in your restaurant, visit your website and engage with your social media, next is the why

2nd – The #1 reason you need this info is to use to reach back out to the customers who STOP coming in 90 days due to the bad experience they are going to have with you having a new product, team, long lines, etc.  It 100% happens to every new restaurant and if you don’t have a list of people you can reach out to, to say “I’m sorry, give us another try, then you have to spend money to re-acquire them.”

3rd – You need their data to keep the honeymoon going MUCH LONGER!  The long lines and buzz are going away, and people will forget about you.  

4th – A HUGE free appetizer or dessert promo right out of the gate for “their next visit.”  WHY?  Because these new people need a reason to not only come back but, try something they did not try the first visit.

5th – Facebook and Instagram ads running to target everyone within a mile of your restaurant so that when they are eating at your restaurant they will see your content, possibly engage and then you have then in an audience through Facebook to target at a later date.

6th – A REALLY great reason for them to visit your website while they are inside the restaurant.  You MUST have a QR code that is 100% dedicated for in-house traffic.  This way you create another custom audience you can target through digital ads in the future of people who’d been INSIDE your restaurant.

7th – Buy a beacon that allows you to target customers in your restaurant in the future through Facebook ads.  These devices are great to put at your front door, so when people walk through the device pings their phone and you can target them after they are gone with Facebook and Instagram ads.

That’s it for now, I may add more later, but those are a few things I’d do if I was opening a new restaurant. And honestly, all of those apply for really EVERY restaurant 🙂

Day 68 – The Puzzle – Why I Don’t Do Social Events

If you know me, you know Matt Plapp doesn’t attend many social events, if any.

Weddings, NOPE.

Gym canoe trips, NOPE.

Graduation parties, NOPE.

Neighborhood parties, DOUBLE NOPE!

I work, workout, hangout with my family and attend business mastermind events, THAT’S IT!

But why?  Do I dislike people?  Am I anti social?  Or am I just a jackass…probably yes on the last one 🙂

Here’s why.

I don’t want to hang around or talk with people who have broke mindsets.  I don’t want to put myself in situations where I’m going to get dumber.  I don’t want to be around people that enjoy the gossip, drown their sorrows in alcohol and talk about shit that they can’t control.

CASE IN POINT

Last weekend my wife said “Sunday we have XYZ’s graduation party.”  I said “have fun, hard pass.  I’ll pass on the useless conversations that will happen there with people I don’t know or don’t see at all in life.”

That night Christy and I are on a walk and she says “well, you were right, the graduation party conversation was so stupid.  It was a group of parents and kids bragging about how they’d been out until 6am at another kids party the night before and how everyone was drunk.  It was pitiful.”

And THAT my friends is why I don’t go to those type of events. 

#1 – The fact that parents find it funny their kids were hammered at a high school party tells me all I need to hear about those people.  

#2 – How’s that conversation going to help me improve my mind, body or spirit?

#3 – Those aren’t the people that I want to surround myself with.

Instead, I opt to fly out of town every few months to business events like Josh Nelson’s 7FA in Miami (pictured above).  For 3 days, day and night, I’m in a room with like minded professionals.  Our conversations aren’t about politics, someone we don’t like, drinking all night, etc.  The conversations are all about how we can be better spouses, optimize our health, be an awesome CEO and how we can better serve our clients.

To some people what I described above is boring, and those are exactly the people I’m trying to avoid.

My goal is to AVOID at all costs BROKE ASS PEOPLE!  

And broke doesn’t always mean financially broke.  It means broke morally, financially, ethically, mentally.  

My friends, if you want to be the best version of yourself, you MUST protect yourself from these people.

One day soon I hope to start hosting a quarterly event for restaurant owners like I have with 7FA.  An event that will allow us all to fill that social void with the RIGHT people, conversations and energy. 

Day 67 – The Puzzle – How Social Stats Showed Me This Restaurant Owner Was An Attorney And Passive Owner

This is one of those moments you never forget.  One where you want to hop in your car and drive as fast as possible to show anyone, everyone what you’d found.  You see, for years I’d been preaching about the importance of social media to build a database and recently I’d discovered how the effectiveness of some of the campaigns were a product of the ownership and not our campaigns. But it wasn’t until this day that I had the proof.

Earlier that year we had started working directly with two pizza franchise locations on our Facebook Messenger VIP program. The goal of the program was pretty simple, use Facebook posts and ads to build a database and then drive those customers into the restaurant to buy pizza.

After 30 days of crushing it with these 2 stores the corporate office called to add 2 struggling stores to our program and another franchisee called to hire us as well.  Over the next few months all of the program operated at different levels and I could not put my finger on the WHY.  Our program was exactly the same at each location and the stores all had similar demographic and geographic profiles. Meaning, the customers and neighborhoods looked very similar.

Stores 1 and 2 were both crushing it.  The owners of the 2 stores were what you’d want as a restaurant owner.  They were involved in the store every day and very hands on.  They were also exactly the types of clients you’d want for a marketing company.  They had a positive mindset, were growth oriented and collaborative.  

Store 3 was doing decent, but the owner wasn’t like the first two stores.  She was negative, always complaining about customers and broke.  When I say broke, I mean mind and bank account.

Stores 4 and 5 were not doing well at all with our customer acquisition program. From dealing with the owner of store 3 I knew why her program wasn’t doing well, it was her and the way she ran her business.   But on these last 2 stores we worked with the corporate office.  They’d hired us directly to help 2 struggling franchisees, so we didn’t know the owners and they were not involved in our programs.  

A few months into working with all 5 stores I decided to pull the basic stats of each store for 2 months and compare the social stats to see if their was a story. 

I pulled the following stats for their social media campaigns over 60 days:

– Reach – unique people reached

– Impressions – this is a multiple of your reach based on your ad frequency.  If Matt Plapp saw your ad 3 times he’s only in your reach once, but here twice.

– Comments – commented on the posts and ads

– Shares – Shared the posts and ads.

Then I looked at the results of the campaigns.  All of our campaigns are built to get customers to give us their contact info and then we add them to a marketing funnel to drive them into the restaurant.

– Opt-ins – Email, Cell #, Birthday, Visit Frequency

– Redemptions – Customer came to the store and spent money

– Redemption % – The percentage of the customers who used their promotion

– Sales – Sales generated from the redemptions

The stats above are from the 5 stores.

You’ll notice the reach and impressions are very similar, which makes sense due to us spending the same amount of money on campaigns and the stores being located in very similar types of communities. 

Where the results start to show cracks is the comments and shares.  Both are a sign of the people around the community either loving your brand or not.  You see, excited customers of yours will see these promotions and go crazy. They’ll comment to show love, tag a friend and get the promo.  The hardcore ones will share it and announce their love for what you’re doing and encourage their friends to take action.

The lower your comments and shares are, the worse everything else will be and it’s honestly a true reflection on YOU and your product.

Here’s an example:

Both stores post a “Comment Below & Get A Free Pizza.”  

– Store 1 customers comment “this place rocks, I love the meat lovers pizza.  The employees are always friendly and the service is fast. ” and many of them will share the post with comments just like that. Many times they tag a friend.

– Store 2 customers comment ” I’ll take a free pizza” and don’t share.

What stores 1 and 2 saw is what makes campaigns go viral and what stores 3-5 saw is what makes campaigns NOT GO VIRAL!

Next up is the customer acquisition part.  The better your Facebook campaign works the higher your opt-in % and remption % is.  In this case, we’ll focus on the redemption % since that is what DRIVES SALES…what you all care about right?

See how store 5 is almost half of what store 1 is on the redemption %.  And see how their opt-ins are a 3rd.  Well, that lead to sales that were 4 times lower as well. 

As I gathered this data I thought, what do I know about the owners and what can I assume from this.  Well I knew stores 1-3 and the fact that stores 1 & 2 dominated was a direct reflection on the owners, the level of service they provided, the way they were viewed in the community and the support they had by their best customers.  

Store 3 had a little of that, but the owners toxic attitude was the big difference maker and it was visible in her online reviews.  

But what about stores 4 and 5?  Well, store 4 had awesome reviews, not a lot of them, but they were good.  Store 5 did not have great reviews.  As I said, I didn’t know anything about these owners.  So when I drove to the corporate office to meet with the CMO and owner I made a bold prediction.

Store 4 is owned by a person who LOVES back of house operations and who never steps a foot into the dining room to shake hands and kiss babies.  

Store 5 is owned by an attorney or accountant who bought the franchise as passive income and never comes into the store.

I WAS RIGHT!  The owner of store 4 was a former Chipotle GM who dominated the operations side of things and despised customer interaction.  Store 5 was owned by an attorney.

HOW DID I KNOW THIS?  The LACK of social engagement on their campaigns when compared to stores 1 and 2 showed me they treated customers like a number and had no relationships.  The crazy thing for me though, was seeing how it dramatically impacted the bottomline.  This was the first time I’d see proof at this level across the exact brand with the exact marketing campaigns.

Moral of the story, be an active owner and remember you’re in the sales business.  Sell your vision, your food and be kind!  And apparently it’s worth at least $5,000 per month in sales to do things right!

I also talked about this topic in episode 635 of my podcast, Restaurant Marketing Secrets, CLICK HERE and have a listen!


Day 66 – The Puzzle – Mistakes Fund Your Victories

I was talking to a restaurant owner the other day about the brutal journey that is, small business ownership.  We were talking about our biggest mistakers, regrets and victories.  

As we talked I couldn’t help but think about my journey from a one man show in 2008 to a company serving 20 local businesses to a company with 60+team members serving 3,000 restaurants in 2024.  It got me thinking about the highs and the lows, but as much as I’d like to think the highs were at the top of the list, it was the LOWS!

You can’t help but think WHAT IF with those lows, those mistakes, did not happen.  And it’s hard not to have throw yourself a pity party and doubt where you are going.  

But then you think deeper into those mistakes, like for me a few that I had in 2023 that ending costing my company around $1,000,0000…YES 1 MILLION DOLLARS!  And as I thought about what happened and where we are, I saw that those issues were 100% unavoidable.  There wasn’t any way I’d be where I am today without them.  So those mistakes had to happen to find the promised land.  

And then the thought crossed my mind, so I lost $1,000,000 but I found the way forward to $10,000,00.  And when you frame it that way, its easy to see the massive value the mistake actually was.  

For years I’ve heard the term “your mistakes fund your victories” and to be 100% honest, I never understood it completely.  But now I do.

It takes me back to high school track when I was learning the hurdles.  I had to fall down and get hurt to really appreciate the purpose of perfect form, and it wasn’t until I busted my ass a few times that I fixed what my coach had been pointing out to me. 

Day 65 – The Puzzle – Just Putting This Somewhere

ONE OF A KIND RESTAURANT CUSTOMER JOURNEY PLATFORM

What started 15 years ago as a strategy to replace direct mail and create a loyalty program has become so much more.  As I learned about why Kamron started Repeat Returns in 2008 I chuckled at how similar our paths were.  Here he was on one side of the game a restaurant owner creating a product to get him to the next level and there I was working with restaurants on the same concepts.  

In 2023 we acquired Repeat Returns with the goals of it becoming our “go to” software for our clients.  Up to that point my marketing firm, Restaurant Marketing That Works, replied on third party software to connect a complex restaurant VIP program we’d built.  I saw buying Repeat Returns as our chance to own the software we used and make it exactly what we wanted for our clients.

Then I did something I don’t do that often, I waited!  I sat back and watched.  I learned what Repeat Returns was and how restaurants used it.  I saw what they loved and hated.  I saw what I loved and hated. And then after 4 months I devised a plan.

These two companies would not run side by side, they would become one.  We would create the ultimate restaurant marketing platform.  By taking both companies and putting them together we could create a solution to every restaurants marketing needs.

So off I ran with an idea to create an “all-in-one” industry first platform. The graphic below was my first shot at what I saw.

It all starts with a customer management software and goes from there.  A VIP program driven by RR’s smart systems, customer acquisition, loyalty, review management, web development, social media marketing and finally high level coaching.  

THIS WAS IT!

I’d cracked the code!

And then reality set in.  Was I really createing the ultimate restaurant marketing platform, or trying to be everything to everyone while giving no one exactly what they needed. Then I looked at my desk, at the piece of paper that I’d taped to my desk that read “become obsessed…DRIVE-SALES.”

(BELOW)

The most powerful products and services created are built from necessity. They are built by owners looking to solve a problem THEY HAVE!

Recently I was in Las Vegas for David Scott Peters 2 Day Restaurant Transformation seminar and heard Bruce Earle tell the story of how Margin Edge was created.  It was created by a restaurant owner looking to fix a problem he had daily that he did not see available on the market.

It got me thinking back to why Kamron created Repeat Returns, the exact same reason.

It got me thinking about my own journey and why I created Driven Media Solutions all the way back in 2008.

Then it got me thinking (I know a lot of thinking) about why Driven Media Solutions evolved into Restaurant Marketing That Works.

And finally I asked myself why I created that flier “become obsessed, DRIVE – SALES”.

I did it for two reasons, I knew that my company would only go as far as it could if I became obsessed with the sales of products, but more importantly the SALES of our restaurant clients.  Since 2015 we’ve been focused on helping restaurants prove their marketing is working by showing them trackable evidence, AKA sales that happen when we send an email, make a Facebook post, etc.  

And that brought everything full circle.  What do I hear customers say every single day.

I need sales.  Lunch, dinner, catering, upsells from appetizers, desserts, etc. 

Matt WE NEED SALES

So I looked at that big fancy cool looking chart of the services I wanted to offer and said “YOU NEED TO DRIVE SALES TO THESE RESTAURANTS.” And I thought long and hard, what really does that.  Meaning, what have I learned the past 16 years in running the marketing for hundreds of small businesses and what have I seen from the Repeat Returns side of things?

I looked at what I know to be true.  It starts with building a customer database and having a tool, a customer database software, to help you use the database.  One that tells you the whole story, not just pieces of it.  A software that is built 100% for restaurants and designed to leverage technology to take these customers on a journey so they SPEND MONEY in your restaurant.  Whether that’s through a VIP program, a catering funnel, a loyalty program, a birthday program, etc.  By any means necessary how can we help restaurants DRIVE SALES through their marketing.

Then I thought about the biggest issue I’d seen through the years with any marketing program, attention.  And attention comes from PEOPLE.  Which means that no matter how awesome this software was, it needed fuel. It needed our customer acquisition program that we’d fine tuned since 2015. 

And last, and probably least, it needed what I loved but it’s 100% needed NOW, BRANDING!  

I thought, what if we created a platform that was 90% focused on driving sales and accidentally building brand along the way.  Then we’d have the best of both worlds. We’d help these restaurant owners short term with the sales they need to thrive and survive and along the way help them build a brand that is unstoppable. 

So with that, our new initiative was launched.:

DRIVE SALES

& 
BUILD BRAND

Then I looked at that massive list of offerings above.  

8 products that we were going to offer, and I asked myself and my team “what do we all dominate now and know 100% we can do to DRIVE SALES?”

And with that, our services offering was narrowed to 3 items.

– Repeat Returns would go from a 3 level restaurant marketing software to ONE, IGNITE!

– Restaurant Marketing That Works Acquisition program would become ONE, ACCELERATE!

– And our high end 1-2-1 collaborative coaching program would now be, DOMINATE!

And with that I give you the new company name, this is what Restaurant Marketing That Works and Repeat Returns have become…

DRYVER

Y with a Y?

Because as I said above YOU need to drive sales and we are going to help you do it, we’ll be the DRYVER!

Stay tuned…

Day 64 – The Puzzle – Documenting Your Journey

Twice in the past 24 hours I’ve repeated this statement “stop using social media as todays money mailer and a place to puke your menu pics. Instead tell your story and become the reality show your community is craving.”

I want you to do me a favor so that you can understand what I’m talking about.  Look up the 3 local restaurants near you right now and go to their Facebook.  

Chart how many posts they made since May 10th and then how many were selling something, not selling something, solid community posts or telling their unique story.

DEFINITIONS

– Selling = Post about WHY to come eat and drink there.

– Not Selling = Happy Memorial Day & NOT SELLING “come celebrate with us”

– SOLID = Community oriented post (ex. one of the posts on Restaurant #1 was a little league team celebrating their big win).

– Telling Your Story = Exactly what it sounds like

The picture above is mine, on the back of a piece of mail that arrived today.

Restaurant #1

– # Of Posts = 32

– Selling = 22

– Not Selling = 6

– Strong Non Selling Post = 4

– Telling Their Story = 0

Restaurant #2

– # Of Posts = 14

– Selling = 12

– Not Selling = 1

– Strong Non Selling Post = 1

– Telling Their Story = 0

Restaurant #3

– # Of Posts = 16

– Selling = 15

– Not Selling = 1

– Strong Non Selling Post = 0

– Telling Their Story = 0

I’m not going to go any deeper than the numbers above.  If you can’t see the opportunity that exists and how BAD your competition is then that’s your fault.