Slow Start to the Year? Read Our Essential Marketing Tips
Marketing needn’t cost you an arm and a leg. Guy Holmes, director of marketing services provider Captivate Restaurants outlines some of the cheaper options here:
Make sure you are ready to market
Firstly you need to ask yourself ‘Are you entirely happy with the food and service? Are there a few issues that need to be dealt with?’ Then get those out of the way before marketing. Make sure that your staffs are trained and standards are consistently high so that no time or effort on marketing will be wasted.
Going through the Hospitality Assured programme, the quality standard created by the Institute of Hospitality is a good way of getting very valuable feedback on food, service and atmosphere from the customer’s point of view. Click here for further information or call 020 8661 4932.
Vouchers
One of the most popular ways of offering discounts is through vouchers. Ideally these will be in PDF format that contain extra information such as a map as well as full contact details. Vouchers also help you to build the database.
Add a form asking for the name, address and email for anyone redeeming the vouchers.
There are a lot of websites, these days where you can promote these vouchers free of charge. You can add the voucher to the website where no one will find it without knowing the address. We promoted a 50% off lunch offer throughout August for a client, Kitchin N1. We phoned local businesses and then emailed them a link to the location of the voucher on the restaurant’s website. This resulted in over 300 covers in one month!
Win £1,000 of Free Marketing
Website
Give discounts to those that book through your website. The advantage being that you collect the customer’s details for your database and that walk- ins don’t get the discount.
Targeted discounts
Offer discounts to certain groups – for example the employees of a large business in the area. Speak to the HR department and ask them to promote the offer internally, then when anyone shows a business card they get the discount.
Contact local businesses
Phone or visit them in person. If phoning, try and get an email address and send them menus and other promotional material such as a 2 for 1 voucher.
Joint Ventures
Joint Ventures (sometimes called Strategic Alliances) are where you form a marketing partnership with another business that doesn’t compete in the same industry as you. The purpose is for both businesses to market themselves to the other company’s customers. For example, set up a Joint Venture with a local gym and it could work as follows. Gym members get a 20% discount at your restaurant when they show a valid membership card – this is promoted with posters in the gym changing room etc – and your customers get a discount on gym membership.
Build your Database
The majority of businesses in the hospitality industry don’t make a concerted effort to build customer databases and use them effectively – but those that do reap the benefits. There is an old marketing adage that “it’s easier to get an old customer to return than persuade a new customer to try you for the first time.” Below are just some of the ways that we help our clients to build their customer databases:
Customer Comment Cards
Not only a good way to get valuable customer feedback but also email addresses as well.
Collect Business cards
Customers that put their business cards in a bowl on the bar get entered into a competition to win a meal for 4.
Get an email address from bookings
When taking a booking via the telephone ask for an email address and email them a booking confirmation including a map, parking details and other relevant info. Not only is this good customer service that will impress before a customer has even set foot in your restaurant but also means you get their email address for the database.
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