If you want to grow your business and develop your brand then you need to market yourself. Customers that visit restaurants like to talk about their experience, and they like to talk about restaurants that create a buzz, make them feel valued and care about their custom. Launching a new restaurant? Promote the hell out of it in your local community. Let the local press know, get on Facebook and shout about it! Launching a new menu? Make sure your customers know about it when they arrive at the restaurant. Again, use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and your website to make your customers aware. If you give your customers a good enough reason to talk about you then they’ll do just that and spread the word for you! Marketing and public relations are key ingredients that help keep your restaurant running. However, to make sure that any marketing campaign is successful, you first need to define what your brand story is. What makes your establishment truly unique? How are you different from your competitors and what do your customers think about you? Your business has got to stand for something and for people to buy into you they must first understand what you are all about. Marketing a restaurant requires a unique mix of online and offline strategies that when done correctly will attract new visitors and increase repeat custom.
We’ve all been to restaurants where the food has been great one week but on the next visit it’s been poor, or have encountered great customer service on one visit but then inattentive on the next! Getting things consistent throughout the restaurant is vital. Some businesses can trade for years by offering OK food with an OK service and will get by on this without too much trouble. So why do they survive? Because they are consistent in what they provide and the customer knows what they are going to get from the food and the service, but they are ok with that! They accept that they are going to get nothing more – nothing less. But can a restaurant ever grow if it doesn’t strive to improve on every little aspect of its business? You want your business to grow, to increase your customer base and to be known for the best restaurant in town....so why be consistent in being just average? When it comes to being consistent, every element of your brand should tell the same story. Don’t just concentrate on making your food or customer service skills the best they can be – think about all the little details that the customer comes into come contact with your brand (called your touch points). The best restaurants in town consider all the little experiences that add up to one big memorable experience from the moment a customer picks up the phone to book a table, or looks to make a reservation online through to the way in which the toilets are presented, your napkins are folded and menus are printed. If the effort is put into the little things, then it will increase the power of your brand and its memorability. If your customers remember their experience, it’ll create that buzz and get them talking.
Whether you are using social media for your business or not is your choice, but remember this – your customers certainly are using it, and they are talking about you! Unfortunately, this becomes something that is out of your control. If you want to know what your customers think about you then go online, their views are there for you (and the whole world) to see! Good, bad or just plain average, people will tell people about their experience and these days they’ll do it on Facebook, take a picture of it on Instagram and rant or rave about it on Trip Advisor. So what are you going to do about it? (Hint: Don’t ignore it!) If you turn a blind eye, think that the comments will disappear in the Facebook/Twitter timeline avalanche then you are wrong! Instead, embrace the comments (good and bad) and get involved. Look at what people are saying. If something is broke, then use the facts to find a way of fixing it. Talk to your customers, respect their comments and find ways to make them happy. If you’ve done something wrong then acknowledge it (don’t ignore it!) and ask for another chance to make it right. If someone has had a bad experience, then do what you can to turn it around – they’ll thank you for it later. So what about the negatives? Unfortunately, people get upset. Fish too salty, steak too fatty or not fatty enough, burgers too large or not big enough – you can’t please everyone all of the time. There may be a genuine reason why they are complaining. If the food wasn’t cooked to their liking, the waitress is chewing gum, or the menus are held together with Gaffa Tape (I’ve seen this happen!) then the criticism is justified and it’s down to you to rectify it. On the other hand, that person complaining about the air conditioning unit being angled a degree out of line, or that their rare cooked steak is too red may just being having an off day, it happens! Whether you are Jamie Oliver, Marco Pierre-White or Ronald McDonald, you have to understand you can’t please everybody all of the time. But, as long as you focus on quality, consistency and have an honest approach, you won’t go far wrong with the customers that love your brand.
Ok, so we’ve learnt that consistent marketing is essential to grow a business and increase your customer database, but once they’ve booked, ate their food and left, how do you then get them to come back? If you can build a loyal following then they’ll help with your marketing efforts and keep you busy throughout the ‘quiet’ season. However, identifying, rewarding and retaining your best customers are one of the hardest challenges for any restaurant. Loyalty programmes are the most traditional and commonly used form of customer retention. A well designed and well executed loyalty programme forms an essential part of a restaurant’s overall marketing strategy. Customers are always willing to give a little something (such as an email address, telephone number and birthday) in return for a little ‘gift’ such as a free side dish, 10% off their meal or free dessert on their next visit. The options are there for you to experiment with, and combined with a pro-active online media campaign, can help boost repeat custom. Everyone has a birthday, and most people like celebrating them (unless you are of a certain age!) so why not send the customer a card through the post, by email or by kissagram (if the budget would allow!) wishing them a happy birthday and that you would love to see them at your restaurant again soon with a free bottle of bubbly on ice for them! The key to customer loyalty is to find the right balance between having a quick hit of customers coming through the doors claim their discounted offers whilst still building that loyalty and regular customer base. Successful loyalty programmes should aim to build long term relationships, find a way to reward repeat visitors but also turn those once-a-month customers into fortnightly ones. What about the ‘quiet’ seasons? The post-Christmas lull can be a tricky one. Come January, customers are either spent out or fully stuffed on turkey and the trimmings and have started their annual detox. One promotional trick to get those customers through the door in the quiet spell is to sell the gift of food via gift cards and vouchers. Sell them in your restaurant and through your website in the run up to Christmas (they make lovely presents for friends and family!) put a date expiry on them such as late February or early March and this should help with the flow of customers in that ‘quiet’ spell.
To keep growing, you’ve also got to keep fresh - fresh in the mind of your customers, and fresh in the way you develop new ideas, new menus and new ways of marketing. Develop new ways to improve the customer experience through loyalty programmes, search for ways to promote your business in the local community and online. Staying fresh also means that you stay ahead of the competition and the copy cats. If you are successful then you can guarantee someone will try to replicate that success in their own establishment. As a business, you need to monitor these competitors, but you also have to remember that customers’ habits and tastes also change. Like fashion, food trends change, alternative lifestyles and cultural shifts can affect how your business develops. Gathering data from your customers helps you respond by offering alternative dishes, better value service and the right environment. Listen to your customers, observe their habits, innovate, create and stay ahead of the game!
Facebook is a great tool to increase brand awareness and for customers to gain knowledge of your brand story, gain an insight into the type of food and drink served and to begin the customer-brand relationship. Facebook is great for sharing images, so cover images and profiles should make use of a mouthwatering image of your food, or great shot of your busy restaurant. The most shared posts on Facebook are those with images in them, so make sure you are including lots of images of your food - you could even create a visual menu of your current dishes on sale! Post exclusive offers on your Facebook page, give deals for ‘liking’ or ‘sharing’ give your fans a reason for promoting your brand. Facebook advertising is a great, and relatively cost-effective way of advertising your brand to a targeted market, whether that is by locality, age or interests.
Instagram is a great social tool for photo sharing and generating a following based on attractive imagery and brand recognition. It’s a useful tool for posting regular updates of dishes being prepared and served, photos from inside the restaurant that promotes a good atmosphere and a friendly, relaxed environment. Instagram is often used in conjunction with Facebook for social sharing customers engage with the brand by taking photos of their food, of themselves and of the restaurant. The ‘#foodporn’ trend and ‘selfie’ phenomenon helps promote a brand on Instagram, with these photos usually being uploaded by the user to their Twitter, Facebook, and foursequare etc. acccounts. To increase awareness of your brand, you could include relevant trending hashtags, or create your own unique ones specific to your campaign.
Twitter is a very popular tool and can be used by restaurants as an effective way of marketing and communicating to your customers.
Trip Advisor is a key source of information for travellers and those looking for recommendations on great places to stay, eat and drink.
Whether you are a small independent diner or large restaurant chain, Twitter is an ideal way to communicate with your customers in real-time.
It’s important for restaurants to take control of their own Trip Advisor page and to monitor and reply to any comments left. Customers WILL leave comments, whether you choose to manage or not, so that is why it is so important that as a business, you to reply to publicly visible feedback.
Use Twitter to link to your website or your menu page. Use hashtags to promote keywords relating to your brand, type of food or any campaigns you have running. Also, post images of your food, you’ll find that these will get shared and ‘retweeted’ more frequently than just plain text tweets. If you wanted to be really effective, then you could also time your tweets to make them more relative. If you offer cooked breakfasts, then send out a tweet first thing in the morning showing that, or if you have a special lunchtime offer, make sure that is tweeted just before lunchtime for maximum impact.
If you are going to manage your Trip Advisor page, then make sure that your profile is fully complete. Fill out everything, add all the cuisine types you offer and make sure all contact details are correct and present. Make your profile page stand out by having high quality photos showing your food, interior and exterior, this is a simple but effective way of enticing customers to come to you rather than the restaurant ranked next to you on Trip Advisor.
Blogging is a great way of generating regular and informative news, and to keep your customers up to date with what is happening within the restaurant. Creating good blog content can also help reinforce the brand story. Create weekly blog posts using a your website or a blogging platform such as Tumblr to discuss topics any changes in menu or offers that may be currently available at the restaurant. Blogging is also a great way to build your brand story by talking about the restaurant history, it’s beginnings and what it stands for. Aside from the benefits mentioned above, creating great content through blogging can also help SEO (search engine optimisation) efforts, which is always important in a competitive market such as the restaurant industry.
Email marketing can be a great way to build customer loyalty and brand recognition. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s proven to bring customers in the door. Tantalise your customers with deals and special discounts in return for them giving you their contact details. For example, offer 10% off coupons or a free dessert in exchange for signing up through your restaurant’s website. The most important thing to remember when it comes to email marketing is to experiment. Every restaurant is different, and every one has a different type of customer. Try different types of offers and see which ones have the highest conversion rate. Does a ‘10% off coupon on any meal over £50’ work better than a ‘free dessert on every starter and main meal purchased’ deal?
Client: Grill n Shake Cardiff Bay, South Wales Instagram marketing - When a customer takes a photo on Instagram of themselves or their food and uses #grillnshake or tags @grillnshake, the customer receives 10% off their final bill.
In- store promotions - 2 meals for ÂŁ10 during lunchtime opening hours.
Website promotion - When a customer signs up to the newsletter, they receive a 20% voucher via email.
Client: Mowgli’s Indian Restaurant & Lounge, Cardiff, South Wales Direct mail promotions - These flyers were posted to residents in the local community offering 4 main courses for the price of 2. For customers to claim the offer, they were required to provide some personal contact details.
Asking for birth days and social media handles is useful data for future campaigns.
Providing information on how customers can leave reviews can help increase brand exposure on social sharing / review sites.
We work with clients across a range of sectors and we utilise all forms of media to get brands promoted in a way that’s right for them. We are a small but flexible design agency that designs for print and web. Having over 10 years experience in the design industry, we believe that good design is an essential investment for small businesses to rise above their competition and assist in providing the customer with the best possible experience. We’ve been privileged enough to work on some very interesting projects for businesses in the restaurant and food industry. With every client, we have provided them with an effective strategy in terms of branding so that each of those businesses can provide the best possible customer experience. In their industry, customer is king. Therefore, the customer experience is the key ingredient in making sure that when that customer leaves, they have enjoyed the experience enough to ensure that they will come back time and time again. In order to make sure that the customer has had the best possible experience from any restaurant or bar, there are many different design, marketing and administration processes that can be put in place in order to heighten the brand experience for them that’s where we come into the mix, utilising our experience, knowledge and brand development skills.
BrandNucreative Ltd Chadwick House, Chapel Street, Pontnewydd, Cwmbran, Torfaen NP44 1DL +44 0845 900 5828 / 07786 444472 www.brandnucreative.co.uk / hello@brandnucreative.co.uk @brandnucreative
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