In House
Marketing - The First Step
By Michael P. Cohen
In store
marketing is the most important influence for your restaurant to
build business because it improves the two greatest influences on
your success: your
present customers and your employees.
Your present
customers are your greatest opportunity for increased sales because
they react most positively to your promotions, menu items, extended
hours and catering suggestions.
The two ways to
increase business through regular customers is
-
Increase the frequency of
visits
-
Increase the average check
amount.
Some examples
to accomplish this goal would be
-
Provide samples of new menu
items
-
Table tents with a new
dessert
-
Frequent customer cards
-
In store contest
-
Email marketing
The second part of in store marketing is motivating your
employees and providing them incentives for doing the best job they
can. Well-trained and
highly motivated employees are essential today for success.
You should involve your employees in your marketing efforts.
Ask them for input and reward them for good performance.
Here are examples of Employee Motivated Ideas.
-
Employee business card with
$1.00 off any items. Allow
them to give them to their friends.
-
Door hanger contest – tell
them to sign the coupons on the door hangers before they are
distributed. The
object is to see which employee gets the highest return.
Offer prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd
place.
-
Support your employees’
teams, churches, groups or schools.
They will in turn support your Restaurant.
Break the Rules
– have your drivers wear crazy hats and shirts.
Create some excitement for your staff.
Everybody needs attention.
Buy gas cards for the drivers, give movie rental coupons to
the cooks and make them feel part of a winning team.
The idea is to
make everything you do in marketing a complete promotion.
Think how you can use public relations to advertise your new
dishes. See if the local paper will print an easy to do recipe or
invite the Food Editor to taste your new menu items.
You might consider inviting a local charity to hold a
fundraiser at your restaurant and give a portion of the sales to the
charity.
Don’t limit
your imagination when you promote to your existing customers.
Let them know what you are doing to ensure great experiences
in your restaurant and the result will be loyal customers and
increased sales.
Don’t forget another extremely important aspect available at your
business. Promote your
banquet space and catering services in your in store marketing
efforts. Send a letter
to every club and organization in town to use your catering services
for meetings and special events.
Don’t ever assume your present customers or employees know
you have catering abilities. You
will be surprised how sales will increase with a little creative
marketing effort in house.
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