Marketing by Design
The marketing of any restaurant starts at the conceptual stage with the question who are the target markets that your restaurant wants to cater for. Not only will this affect your pricing policy but also design. A young trendy affluent crowd may want a modern slick interior; a restaurant catering more for families may want a more rustic design with garlic, onions and salami hanging from the ceiling over an open plan kitchen. Whatever the final design looks like obviously it must make effective use of the space available, getting as many customers in as possible without diners being on top of each other. One last comment on design, it has been proven that colours such as red and yellow stimulate appetite whereas blue suppresses it. This is why McDonalds and Burger King favour red so much.
Know thy customer
Knowing what your customers really want is essential knowledge for any restaurateur or bar owner. Most managers think they know their target customers very well but never dream of conducting any market research unless sales fall dramatically. However, restaurants and bars are opening all the time and the market has never been so competitive - so if you don't know what your customers want there are plenty of other places for them to spend their money. Conduct a survey of people walking past your restaurant; have you eaten here before? How can we improve? How can we get you to come (back more often)? Are there any additions that you would like to see to the menu?
Customer database
Once you are up and running make it a priority to build a customer database as you should find it is easier to get customers that have previously visited your restaurant to return than get new customers. Therefore it is essential that you encourage customers to give their details when visiting the restaurant. Customer databases are used very effectively in many other industries but only a few restaurants use them as part of their marketing strategies.
The more information you can get the better, however you have to strike a balance between what you need and what will be too time consuming to obtain. But a database must contain a customers name; address; contact number; email address and date of birth.
The best way to obtain the desired information is have printed cards on each table that can be filled in during the course of the meal. Alternatively you could have a bowl where people can leave a business card, then every month or week offer a prize such as a bottle of wine. However business cards do not contain information such as postal address and date of birth. Your website can also help to build a database by putting on a new page or a pop up that enables visitors to enter information so that they can keep abreast of promotions, menu changes and competitions. This online form would then get emailed to you. Lastly, when people phone to request a menu be sent via fax or any other enquiries try to get information from each caller for the database.
There will be an urge to over use the database and get in contact almost every week. However this will probably irate people and result in them asking to be taken off your database. Below are a few suggested reasons to get in contact with the people on file.
- Birthdays - One month before someone's birthday, post a card or drop them an email wishing them a very happy birthday and mention the fact that your restaurant is a great place to hold a birthday party. Another option here would be to offer them a birthday present of a bottle of house wine when they have their birthday party at your restaurant. Even if that person does not book a table for their birthday send a card or email anyway on their birthday which will obviously be an act of goodwill and encourage future visits.
- Special events - Special days throughout the year where you do something different, such as a special menu for that particular day. These will include Christmas; New Year; Valentine's Day; Halloween.
- Promotions and menu changes - Obviously if you have any new promotions let your previous customers know.
From a click to a convert - basic internet marketing
The internet is now firmly established with most people as an essential tool for finding what they need and it's not just big things like holidays, places to eat and drink are also frequently searched for.
But how can your restaurant make effective use of this medium to increase awareness and custom?
A website is a must in this day and age even if you are a small independently owned restaurant. It should be an integral part of your marketing and saves the time and hassle of faxing through your menu as potential customers will be able to view it on your website.
There are a number of key ingredients to an effective website for a restaurant. These are photos, menus, a map, other information about how to get there such as bus numbers and full contact details. Some kind of mission statement on the home page is also a useful thing to have. In it a brief summary of what you are trying to achieve with your food and atmosphere can act as a selling point that will help to get bums on seats. An addition to a restaurant website is to have a small form for details such as name and email address to join your database to be kept abreast of specials and special events.
Getting seen
There are many websites that act as online guides to eating and drinking, some of which are free and some you have to pay for. However, in some cases you may be able to negotiate a free trial to see whether a listing on their site results in more bookings. But to start off with take the time to get your restaurant listed with the free sites, many of which allow you to include photos and a menu as well as all the standard information such address and style of cuisine.
There are other websites besides the online eating guides that will be of interest if your establishment has any special nights such as live music or a wine tasting evening. These are online listings guides and what's on diaries that allow you to list, as well as give the details of special events along with your restaurant's contact details.
Other ways of increasing traffic to your site include 'optimizing the site so it's more easily seen by search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Include key words and phrases somewhere on the site such as 'Oxford restaurants' or 'eating out Oxford' so when that phrase is searched for you are more likely to be found. These keywords can be written on the website in white on a white background so visitors to the sign don't see the list but it will be seen by the search engines. Obviously the more keywords and phrases you can think of and include the better then once the website is up and ready then submit it to as many search engines as possible. For a more detailed account of how to optimize your site speak to your webdesigner.
Local marketing for independently owned restaurants
At The Restaurant Ingredient we believe the vast majority of customers to any restaurant either live or work in 2 mile radius of that restaurant. With that in mind you should target the workforce in your area by going and visiting them in person. Design and print a poster yourself on your office PC. Include a photo, full contact details, a map if you are hard to find and a few of your unique selling points. Print the posters on A4 photo paper for the best results. When you visit the businesses in the area talk to the members of staff, leave menus and fliers and ask them to put the poster up in the staff room. In addition to local businesses it is also worth visiting all the hotels in your area and doing the same thing. Reception staff and the conciege are always being asked by hotel guests for recommendations on where to eat out, so make sure that they know about you.
Joint ventures
Another very effective local marketing strategy that costs next to nothing is joint ventures which are sometimes referred to as strategic alliances. This is where you aim to share your customers with another business that does not compete in the same market as you. For example if there is a garage near your restaurant then a joint venture could work along these lines: customers of the garage get 10% off their restaurant bill on production of a receipt and vice versa. Both businesses can promote the joint venture by using posters in their premises, special fliers about the offer can be handed out with the bill and customer databases used to publicize such a joint marketing scheme.
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