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Create Partnerships with Local Schools
Howard Tinker • March 13, 2015
Do You Have a Relationship with your Local School?
So this one seems like a generic thing to say to create partnerships with schools, but it is very useful.One of the things that you’ve got to realise is that, MOST of your clients will come from 3-5 kms of your restaurant. If you draw a circle on a map around your restaurant that reflects 5kms, then look at all the primary schools in that area and you create relationships with those schools and encourage those schools to advertise the fact that you have a restaurant and that you do things with them, then you are going to drive the exactly the right sort of people to your restaurant.
There are a lot of ways you can do things with schools. (This is not just about giving a voucher away that they can raffle at the end of the year). There are lots of different strategies that we’ve used with our clients over the years.Schools have lots of things that they want to raise money for such as, student going away on overseas trips, doing sporting events, repairing buildings or renewing equipment as well as events, celebrations, achievements etc.
We do a lot of things with schools and on behalf of our clients, so make sure that you look for schools that could be your JV partner.
Take aways:
- This is a new business strategy.
- Schools serve your clients (within that 3-5kms. area).
- Parents support those who support their kids.
- There are lots of ways to work with schools.
- Teachers and Admin staff will also support your business.
Want to know more about marketing your restaurant? Book in for a quick, no-obligation chat with Howard by clicking the button below.
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bearing in mind that this might push a few buttons. I'm sure that some
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Goldfish Bowl Draws are a simple and effective way to collect data for your database. People drop their business cards into the fish bowl, you draw a card out once a month or once a week and you give away a prize.
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Once you're collecting a database, you can start communicating with it. Talk to the people on your database as VIP Members and then run events where they are invited solely because they are a VIP Member.
If not, then you should! They're a really great way to make money for your restaurant. All you have to do is promote them on your website, in your bill-folds, in your restaurant; just let people know that you sell gift certificates.
If you are doing Wine Nights, start to segment your database for those people who come to wine events and create your own ‘Wine Club’.When people are dining in your restaurant, tell them about your wine club and ask them to join.
Some of the wineries are going through tough times right now so, why not get on the phone, ring the local wineries and see if they want to get involved with you and run wine nights? If they have their own database too, they can invite their customers to come to your restaurant.
I often talk about who you can partner with in business in your local area. If you have gyms within 3-5 Km of your restaurant, they will be attracting the same people who you want to dine at your restaurant.
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Well, when I am travelling around to go visit restaurant owners often I don’t know where the restaurant is. We will have had a phone call or somebody has emailed and said "Can you come and see us at our restaurant?"
