Are You Being Proactive With Your Marketing?

If you're wondering how some people can always fill their restaurants, while you might be struggling to fill yours, let me let you into a little secret.

I work with a lot of restaurants, and I've been lucky enough to work with some of the most famous restaurants and restaurant owners in Australia.  Many people look at these businesses and think, wow, it must be so great to be famous and get reviews, you'll always be full.

Well, for a tiny minority, maybe 1% of all the restaurants in Australia. That's true. But I've been in hatted restaurants the day after they've had a review in the paper and they're literally slammed.  But a week later they're back to normal. But what these people do in order that they fill their restaurants again is exactly what I would tell you to do, which is that they collect a database and invite people to dine.  More than that, they give them a good reason to do so!

Now these days, you can easily collect a database from the internet, you can do it via your bookings app, your delivery app, through social media and there's the old school way of collecting data in house too.

This is exactly what we do with and for our clients, and then we proactively market to the database we have collected for them and especially to their current customers. And that is the secret (that really isn’t a secret) that fills restaurants.  The real difference that makes the difference to the bottom line is that our clients are proactive and consistent.

I was business coaching a commercial lawyer who works alongside accountants, and together they look at other people's businesses. He told me that he also sees how many people don't proactively market their business. They sit there and wait for people to come into their business or to buy from them, but they don't do any outbound, proactive marketing. 

This is the same in the restaurant industry, there are so many hospitality business owners who think that by putting a photograph of a cup of coffee on Instagram or somewhere that it will bring people in to dine.  They have been conned into believing that this is marketing.  And sadly because ‘social media’ is free they also have swallowed the idea that this ‘marketing’ is free.  In reality this is not marketing and whilst being on social media is essential, it doesn’t lead to bums on seats in the vast majority of everyday restaurants.

What I've learned over the years is if you want to fill your place, you must make people feel like there's a reason to come in and dine.  You must invite them giving them a ‘reason’ to do so.  A wine dinner, A pasta night, a menu launch, some entertainment, a limited discount, a calendar-based event, a sporting event, a book launch, a local’s night etc.  You have too much competition to expect that you would be the natural choice just because you opened your doors.

So what I'm saying to you is don't sit back, be proactive. Make it important to collect a database, then market those proactive ‘reasons for people to come in and dine’. Then you'll be one of those people with a restaurant that people are talking about, saying, “I don't get it why they're always so busy”, But you’ll know this little-known secret, you’ll know the reason why.  It works for the big boys, it works for everybody, it will work for you. Be proactive and marketing your restaurant.

Want to know more about marketing your restaurant? Book in for a quick, no-obligation chat with Howard by clicking the button below.