Developing a Restaurant Marketing Plan
If you have mastered the definition of marketing and what it should ultimately do, you are ready to put the pieces together. The easier part of the restaurant marketing strategy is putting a plan together. The hard part is deciding what goes into the plan. The mechanics are relatively simple;
- Create a document that specifies a period of time.
- Determine your goal(s).
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Take the elements of marketing and plan how you are going to;
- Communicate your message.
- Sell your product.
- Deliver what the customer expects.
- Measure your results.
In theory, you could have several marketing plans going at any given time or overlapping. However, my experience tells me that it is hard enough to carve out the time it takes to execute a single good marketing plan than trying to manage multiple plans.
In the example below, we show a typical simple marketing plan. While you could turn this one page document into a book, my experience is that restaurateurs already have their days full. Writing a long text document for a marketing plan just won’t happen as a general rule. A few descriptive lines of text is better than no plan because you were just “too busy”.
The plan below shows a period of time (June), what the goal is and takes you through each step of the marketing process. The brief notes list your “To Do” items to accomplish the step. The completed line is for a date compared to the target date.
I recommend that you post the plan in a conspicuous place for your staff to see. That accomplishes a continuous reminder and forces you to do what you have set out to plan. Your employees will also be able to anticipate each step before the action occurs.
Note that there are follow up notes you can use to review or document what happens along the way. It is also a place to post your measuring techniques at the end of the marketing plan.
If you want to make your job easier in the future, keep a notebook just for marketing. One section can be the plans created. A year or two from this plan, you may want to duplicate it again in another period of time. That saves the brainstorming to find effective tools.
Review the checklist carefully and you will see the simplicity and ease of use.
Marketing plans can be used for very short or long periods of time. The one above is for a month. My preference is to spread out a typical plan for a six month period of time. Another type of marketing plan may be for a specific event or day like Christmas or New Years Eve.
It really makes no difference how you use the checklist; the importance is the actions and forced step by step deadlines. You may note also that some of the steps above delegate actions to other people within your staff. This places staff activities in plain view for review. Few people want to fail in front of their colleagues, subordinates or peers.
Running a restaurant without a marketing plan is a sure way to permanent empty seats.
Larry Edger
Author, The Restaurant Ebook
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Hmm. Good.