Easy and Effective Restaurant Marketing Ideas
Great post to read : Bring 'Em Back Restaurant Coupons
Give all first-time restaurant customers a coupon with a simple offer redeemable on the next visit (perhaps a free aperitif, dessert or after dinner drink). The offer should have no conditions and really should be redeemable within the next 6 months. Tell the customer to create in the restaurant coupon and be sure to ask for information that one could add to your database. Gauge the results, modify the offer if needed, and when it brings you more business, make this section of your marketing system.
Quick Win 2: Cut Restaurant Costs
Even though you are busy, it literally pays to take time to review your restaurant costs every 6 months. An easy way to increase your bottom line is to spend less. When did you last renegotiate your credit card charges? Are you obtaining the best deal from your own wine merchant? Review your menu and check your profit margins - which are the dishes that give you the best margins? Create https://writeablog.net/creditjoin5/restaurants-kinds-and-characteristics-krpy with one of these dishes to market more. Eliminate your 3 worst-selling dishes and those with the worst margins. You will be surprised at how this regular housekeeping can affect your bottom line.
Quick Win 3: Increasing Restaurant Prices
"If your prices are 10% too low you have to do 3x the work to help make the same profit. If your prices are 10% too high it is possible to lose 43% of one's business and still maintain the same profit." - Larry Steinmatz
One of the quickest ways to improve your restaurant profits is to raise prices. Only a few dollars on several well-selling items will give you exponential growth immediately. Which could sound like a frightening idea, but take a closer consider the psychology of pricing and purchasing behavior and you may understand why 80% of restaurant businesses undercharge for his or her services and products.
Except in some particular cases, most people do not make purchasing decisions on price alone. Don't believe me? Just take a look around at the sunglasses folks have on around you. I bet you see a lot of Ray Bans and Dolce Gabbana sunglasses. This just implies that you can find other criteria for purchasing behavior than price.
So whatever you do, don't ever reduce prices, and certainly don't start a price war. You do not want that to be your competitive advantage because anyone and everyone can undercut you. On the contrary, seriously consider raising your prices. Don't let fear of competition or lack of confidence stop you. If you have true differentiation, you have targeted your audience correctly plus they visit a perceived value in your product they are willing to purchase, then you can certainly charge premium prices. Actually, they will expect a premium service and can feel privileged, and you'll find yourself selling a lot more.
In most cases you will find that dropping prices to market more actually loses you money, while raising prices, although you may sell less, raises your margin.
Even if it seems like a difficult thing to do, test different higher price points for various offerings. Tomorrow raise your prices by 10%. You can observe not only the way the price rise affects your business (you will either lose business, gain business or stay exactly the same), but you can then look at your profit margins and adjust accordingly.
Most of the restaurant owners that people work with have observed the next pleasing phenomena: they raised prices and discovered that not only did they will have more customers (the restaurant is perceived as higher quality), but they had a far more reliable and less difficult clientele that also spent more money and had higher overall tickets.
Quick Win 4: Celebrate Birthdays at your Restaurant
Birthdays, by their very personal nature, are a perfect time to send out a very personalized offer. Of all occasions, this is actually the most effective as far as restaurant marketing campaigns go. Make sure you gather birthday and contact information in your exit surveys and start a birthday campaign. Send a contact or snail mail with a restaurant coupon for a free of charge dessert, drink or meal at the end of the month preceding the individual's birthday month. Allow them to utilize the restaurant coupon for the whole month of their birthday.
You may also propose additional birthday services. Think of ways that would make your customers life easier - supplying the cake at a special price, giving a particular group rate, or including party favors.
A special surprise for instance a complimentary easy with a candle and the customer's name and birthday wishes written onto it is sure to interest the child within any customer. You'd be amazed at the invaluable positive word of mouth a simple gesture like this can create.
You can even work with a birthday campaign as a way to recruit new customers by buying lists with birthdays and postal codes and sending out your special birthday offer as a way to introduce your restaurant.
Birthdays have become personal, and as we shall learn, business is personal. Don't pass up this fantastic possibility to reach out to your visitors and make sure they are happy.
Quick Win 5: Referral Restaurant Gift Certificates
Try this activity now for an instantaneous upsurge in your restaurant customer numbers. By the end of a meal, give happy customers 3 different gift certificates with a certain amount off for their next meal at the restaurant (or any other offer that you are feeling is compelling). Then provide them with 2 more of the dining certificates and ask them to share the certificates making use of their friends. The offer should be compelling and have no conditions apart from a time limit. Supply the recipient plenty of time to redeem the certificate. Perhaps make the certificate good for 6 months, or for specific down times you are trying to fill.
