A restaurant marketing scheme describes the collective marketing activities or strategies undertaken by a restaurant during a given year, usually organized and monitored by a restaurant marketing consultancy company. The first step towards creating a restaurant marketing scheme is defining your restaurant’s target audience or group of customers, usually a subset or cohorts of the overall population whose purchasing habits you hope to capitalize on because their tastes and preferences are likely to be reflected in their spending behavior. In most cases, it is a profitable niche that many people already belong to or have frequent access to. For example, diners in fine dining establishments have a common purchasing power, and a restaurant in an upscale locale may have more access to valuable resources such as experts and connections than a local eatery, whose sales and marketing budgets are limited. A restaurant that caters to family-oriented consumers may have fewer overhead costs compared to a fast-food eatery specializing in seafood or Italian food, but if diners value high-quality food and are willing to spend more, the family-oriented eatery will have a distinct advantage. Another consideration for targeting your restaurant’s core or target audience is that a restaurant marketing consultancy firm will be able to conduct market research that allows you to pinpoint strengths in your restaurant and weaknesses, allowing you to adjust your advertising and marketing campaigns accordingly.
Once your target market has been identified, you can then start drawing up your restaurant marketing strategies. Consultancies help a number of different restaurant operators in setting up their own marketing strategies. Some of these restaurant marketing strategies can be developed internally, or they can be outsourced to a professional marketing firm. Either way, the outcome of developing your own marketing strategies depends largely on your knowledge, interest and experience in your target market. Market research provided by marketing firms is particularly useful, especially if you operate a casual restaurant with no special cuisine or extensive gift shop offerings. Marketing consultants can also be helpful in determining which promotional tools would work best and in setting up employee appreciation events.
A restaurant marketing plan is comprised of many different components, including promotional activities, menu planning and promotional gift ideas, marketing strategies and restaurant operations. While it’s easy to put together a simple marketing campaign at the beginning of your operation, the effectiveness of your efforts can greatly improve over time if you maintain a consistent restaurant marketing strategy. The most successful marketing efforts usually come down to effective restaurant operations and promotional marketing plans. Good restaurant management focuses on attracting customers, pleasing employees and providing a pleasant dining experience. A good marketing consultant can help you put together an effective marketing plan, which will in turn boost restaurant sales and boost your restaurant’s reputation among customers.
Developing a restaurant marketing strategy that effectively captures the attention of your target market is crucial to long-term success. In addition to drawing in new customers, an effective marketing campaign can also help retain a customer’s loyalty to your restaurant. A strong restaurant marketing strategy will include a number of elements, such as a brand ambassador, a food special, promotions and special events. Developing a consistent marketing campaign will increase the likelihood that your customers will return to your restaurant and recommend it to others.
Developing a restaurant brand that attracts a specific type of consumer is critical for the profitability of your business. There are four types of buyer personas that you should identify when planning to create a marketing campaign for your restaurant. These four buyer personas are the primary paying customer (the customer that contributes the most money to your restaurant’s profits), the secondary paying customer (the customer that spends the least money at your restaurant), the tertiary customer (the customer that does not spend any money at your restaurant) and the super customer (the customer that provides the most recommendations to your staff). Your marketing efforts will be much more effective if you focus on attracting one particular buyer persona at a time.
Facebook is one of the marketing channels that you can use successfully to build your restaurant brand. The Restaurant Pages feature in Facebook allows you to identify and target the people that you want to reach with the information about your restaurant. You can also create restaurant group pages for your other customers to join. In addition to building your customer base through Facebook, creating an attractive profile page for your restaurant on Facebook can help you to draw in the next-door neighbor, complete a sale with the local coffee shop, or just attract new potential customers that may not have considered going to your restaurant based on your promotional efforts alone.
