Succeeding in the restaurant business requires a lot in the way of planning. While it would be nice to think that your passion and dedication as a restaurant owner would be enough to attract diners and garner rave reviews, that’s not always the case. Restaurants have a high failure rate and one of the best ways to avoid the typical pitfalls is to have a well-thought-out restaurant marketing plan.
At Select Funding, we work with restaurant and bar owners to help them obtain the financing they need to attract customers and meet their growth goals. One of the potential uses for our small business financing is marketing, so with that in mind, here’s what you need to know about how to write a restaurant marketing strategy that works.
Attracting customers to eat at your restaurant or drink at your bar is necessary because without customers, your restaurant won’t be a success. There are many ways that you can attract customers, including the following:
Adopting one or more of these ideas can help you attract more customers to your restaurant and increase your profits.
Before we reveal what should go into your restaurant marketing strategy, here’s what we mean when we talk about strategy. A marketing strategy is a long-term plan designed to help your business achieve its growth goals. This differentiates a strategy from tactics, which are typically short-term actions made in support of the strategy.
To be effective, your strategy should define whatever it is that makes your restaurant unique, taking into account the needs and desires of your target audience. You may sometimes hear marketing people refer to a marketing mix, which includes these things:
Together, these are the four Ps of marketing. Any marketing strategy you devise should take all four into account if you want it to be effective.
Now, let’s break down each section of a restaurant marketing plan to help you write one for your own establishment.
Before you start writing your marketing plan, take a minute to identify some areas for improvement. For example, you might not be earning as much on your lunch service as you’d like or you might want to increase your receipts on a slow night. Identifying issues ahead of time will help you with the next step.
The next thing to do is to set some SMART goals for business growth. As a reminder, a SMART goal is:
Increasing your revenue isn’t a SMART goal, but increasing your revenue by 10% in three months could be.
You can’t devise a marketing plan without understanding your audience. There are a variety of methods you can use to better understand your audience:
The information you collect will help you understand who’s most likely to patronize your restaurant and the best ways to reach them.
SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Here’s how a SWOT analysis might look for a restaurant:
You want your SWOT review to be as complete and comprehensive as possible. Keep in mind that your weaknesses indicate areas for improvement and your threats can point you in the direction of new opportunities.
Your marketing objectives should be big-picture things that you can set your sights on and incorporate into your marketing strategy. Here are some examples:
Any of these things could be a good objective. Getting diners to return to your establishment, for example, is an objective that could be achieved by improving the customer experience, doing a better job of managing reviews, and engaging in social media and email marketing.
With a handle on your audience and other factors, it’s time to turn your attention to specific marketing strategies.
Your website is your home base online and if it’s leaving something to be desired, a good first step in your marketing strategy would be to redesign and improve it.
Prospective diners should be able to learn about your restaurant on your website. Make sure to include your location, directions, contact information, hours, prices, and a complete menu.
Social media provides restaurants with multiple ways to connect with their customers. We suggest choosing no more than three social media sites to make sure you can keep your accounts active and have time to respond to your followers.
Since marketing a restaurant requires visuals, you might choose Instagram as your primary social media marketing outlet and then incorporate Facebook, TikTok, or YouTube to attract new customers.
Keep in mind that your social media marketing may include a combination of organic and paid posts such as Facebook ads to help you attract the largest possible audience.
Email marketing is still one of the most affordable and effective ways to grow your restaurant business. Many diners will be happy to provide you with their email if they know they’ll get special offers, so make sure to market it that way.
Going forward, you can use email marketing to announce new menu items, promote events, and provide coupons and special offers to your most loyal customers.
Speaking of loyalty, you may want to consider instituting a customer loyalty program to encourage repeat visits to your restaurant.
Old school loyalty programs might have involved something as simple as a punch card, but today there are apps and software that you can use to reward your most loyal patrons.
The final element of your marketing plan is your budget. The amount you spend may depend on a variety of factors, including how long you’ve been in business and what your goals are. Here are some guidelines:
The last item may surprise you because it’s natural to want to cut back on spending when times are tough. Keep in mind that small business financing may be used to pay for marketing expenses, including advertising and promotions. You can even use equipment financing to purchase marketing software to help you achieve your goals!
Remember that your marketing strategy should be flexible. If you recognize that something isn’t working or you’re not spending enough, we recommend tweaking your strategy as needed.
Marketing a restaurant or bar requires research, planning, and enough working capital to turn your goals into realities. The first step is writing a restaurant marketing strategy as we’ve outlined here.
Do you need working capital to execute your marketing strategy and turn your restaurant into a success? Select Funding can help! Click here to read about our restaurant financing options and apply today.