If you’d like to succeed in the restaurant industry, a top-notch restaurant marketing mix is essential. Your marketing mix, or the set of tactics you use to promote your restaurant, should be built around product, price, place, and promotion or the 4 Ps of marketing.
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Here at CORE Restaurant Marketing, we encourage restaurants to incorporate the following tactics into their restaurant marketing mix so that they could drive more customers to their restaurant and enjoy increased revenue as a result.
Search Engine Listings
There are a variety of directories that people use when they are searching for a restaurant online. By being listed on Yelp, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Zomoto, Google MyBusiness, Facebook, and other popular directories and social platforms, you can easily connect with potential customers.
Website
If your goal is to attract new customers, a website is a must. In addition to attracting new customers, your website can share open hours and take reservations, create awareness, establish a local identity, and set your restaurant apart from competitors.
Blog Articles
Often times, restaurants forget to update their website with blog articles. Updating your site regularly with blog articles can lead to increased traffic and bring in more customers. Blog articles can also give you the opportunity to describe new menu items, announce special events, and discuss your community involvement.
Email Marketing
The most cost-effective way to communicate with new and existing customers is email marketing. You can use email marketing to offer exclusive coupons, share your catering menu before holidays and big sporting events, send birthday messages, promote your culture, reveal new menu items, and ask for referrals.
Social Media
Social media can give your restaurant the chance to build a strong online presence. With a strong online presence, you can bring in new customers and establish brand loyalty with existing ones. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all examples of social media platforms that can be very useful for restaurants.
Community Involvement Programs
By being involved in the community, your restaurant can reap a number of benefits. Community involvement can help you distinguish yourself from competitors and establish yourself as an admired local brand. Whether you sponsor a local baseball team or host a fundraiser for a local non-profit, you’ll find that your restaurant will experience growth over time.
Loyalty Programs
It’s more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to keep an existing one. Therefore, you should consider designing and implementing a loyalty program that provides your existing customers with incentives and keeps them coming back time after time.
Direct Mail
Although digital marketing is popular right now, traditional marketing methods like direct mail should not be ignored. Direct mail can build awareness of your restaurant and give you the chance to reach current and potential customers in a very tangible manner.
If you’d like to construct an effective marketing mix for your restaurant in 2018, contact CORE Restaurant Marketing at info@corerestaurantmarketing.com.
Joe Welsh
Joe Welsh is a Partner with CORE Restaurant Marketing Solutions which is a national restaurant marketing agency focusing on helping restaurants improve their sales and profitability. Joe has worked with restaurants on a local and national basis. He has developed and implemented programs for US Foodservice, Gordon Foods and Performance Food Group. Joe has his Master’s Degree in Food Marketing from St. Joseph’s University and over 30 years’ experience in the Food Industry covering both the retail and foodservice sectors.
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