Marketing strategies for restaurants start with the quality of the food, the friendliness of your staff and yourself and the cleanliness of your business. The biggest and bright billboards, the most exciting and promising advertising campaigns will not bring you repeat loyal clients that refer family and friends to your restaurant if those three things are missing.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Albert Einstein
- Decide who you want to cater for and align all you do accordingly.
- Write articles for your local magazine or newspaper on a weekly basis where you give tips, about food, wine, coffee, serviettes anything and everything in your industry that will enrich your community and make you a household name.
- Acquire a data base about your patrons that you can use to create interesting events at your restaurant knowing that you already have a market for it. Example: five hundred of your clients enjoy jazz; your restaurant can accomodate two hundred people at a time, with confidence you can now proceed to have a jazz weekend or day with two sittings knowing that your restaurant will be fully booked if you contact all the jazz lovers two weeks before the time to reserve them seats and pay the deposit.
The more you know about your customers the more you can do for them and your restaurant; use all kinds of strategies to get to know them. A data base is gold to you and you must update it on a regular basis and keep a back-up in a secure place.
Genius, as an explosive power, beats gunpowder hollow. Thomas Huxley
The power or genius of a database
This goes beyond the average marketing strategies for a restaurant, a well kept database is your assistant towards excellence as you grow, expand and build the name of your restaurant.
- When you buy quality red wine at an auction, you will make an informed decision knowing it will sell because you know how many red wine drinkers are on your data base.
- When the fishery has a special on trout you will know what to do, because if your clients do not eat trout it will still be a loss to you even at a fifty percent discount.
As you can see from the examples above that a database takes the gambling out of your marketing strategies and will assist you on your road to success while you create financial security for yourself and your staff. Take the time to obtain as much inside information about your clients and make it fun, it will give you a rock solid foundation that does not fear any future competition that may come to your town, shopping mall or suburb.
