by: Massimo Montone

Marketing is defined as a communications-based process where individuals and people discover that their existing or new needs and wants can be satisfied with products and services of others; in your case, your restaurant.

The question is – do you need a marketing plan for your restaurant or are you waiting for guests to come in?

If you are full every shift, maybe not. Unless you want to achieve greater profits, however a marketing plan means thinking in advance. Don’t wait until the revenue goes down to do it. Do it before and fill your seats.

In order to get the marketing plan for your restaurant right, you need to have a good understanding of your potential customers and be clear on why they make decisions to buy from you and not from someone else.

Subsequently, to get it right, you want to look at all of the following factors:

• Nature of the market.

• Customers.

• Competitors.

• Financial and marketing history.

• The industry as a whole.

• Any external influences, such as events, festivals etc.

Obtain a good analysis of what and where your guests are coming from and how often customers are visiting your restaurant.

When writing a restaurant marketing plan, you have to consider the seven Ps of marketing – plus one of mine.

• Product.

• Price.

• Place.

• Promotions.

• People.

• Process.

• Physical evidence.

• Positive.

Let’s focus on the last four for a moment.

To have a good competitive advantage, you need to focus on people, therefore get the right staff and training to deliver what people expert from your business. Aptitude and service knowledge needs to be equal to what your customers are outlaying.

The process is the system you have to implement and follow. Consistency is essential in order to get it right and supply what you are offering. Every step in the process is important – from the few words spoken to a guest when they call to make a booking, to the conversation during a guest’s departure.

Physical evidence is a critical ingredient of the restaurant service mix; your guests make perceptions based on their view of the restaurant. Make sure you keep your restaurant clean, friendly, fun, organized and an enjoyable place to be.

People are attracted by positive statements and positive organizations. Do everything in your power to keep your business and everyone who works for you POSITIVE. If you have great power and energy, eventually this will pass on to your guests.

http://www.restaurant-success-course.com/

The strategy

A restaurant should spend at least somewhere between 6% and 8% of the total sales in marketing, but the idea is to do marketing when you are busy. Don’t wait until you are quiet. Remember, for a restaurant it is more, much more difficult and more expensive to do external marketing.

What you want to do is to invest in your current guests, and build loyalty and relationships. However, most restaurants spend 85-90% of their budget trying to get new customers.

What we are going to look at now is how to do that effectively by using simple tactics.

Signage:

You want to have branded signage that is the best on your street, considering relevant laws.

Flyers:

Don’t be scared to distribute flyers if you are opening, reopening, or launching a new dinner menu. It is the most powerful mode of direct marketing and if done right can result in a fantastic return on investment.

Newsletters:

Before creating a newsletter, list on your website reasons for visitors to register, by giving out a receipt or a free drink if they book online. Once you have your mailing list, do a newsletter every week, informing guests of your news, menus and once in a while offer something to them as a thank you for being on the list.

The internet has become one of the most powerful marketing tools for restaurants. So, make sure your restaurant is up to speed.

Food testing:

Have your positive staff members offer samples in places where your potential customers congregate.

One to one:

Go around town, or in front of your business dressed in a themed costume (for example, if you sell pasta, dress up as such) and hand out your flyers. I know businesses that have used that tactic in bad times who are now extremely successful.

Themed Dinners:

On slow nights offer diners a reason to come to the restaurant. For example, on Mondays offer wine at cost price, lunchtime specials or a specific set menu that is cheaper during slow times. Remember, give your guests reasons to come in.

Prize Draw:

Have fishbowls for collecting business cards and offer chances to win prizes, for example, dinner for two.

Website:

Make sure your website is interesting and well presented, but most importantly, make sure your information is CORRECT. I see many restaurant websites that feature old menus or outdated information. Many people before they buy something make a decision to check the internet for information and reviews. This includes restaurants. More than 50% of adults aged between 18 and 44 have used the internet to gain information before going to a new restaurant.

Comments Card:

Ensure that if you decide to have one, it is professionally presented and offer a prize for completing one, for example a bottle of wine. Obtain the guest’s information, for example, e-mail or phone number to increase your customer database.

Loyalty Program:

You may want to create a loyalty card for regulars by giving 20% off the bill, or offering a free bottle of wine with every fifth dinner.

Happy hour:

Make people stop for a drink after work by offering a two for one drinks or free starters.

Live Entertainment:

Select a specific night to do live music. Be specific about what you are playing, could be jazz, or another genre of music.

Some restaurant operators have on the back of their personal business card the message, “please come and have a drink on me.” This is a very powerful strategy!

Remember that you must offer great customer service and warmth to your visiting customers. Make them have fun and have an exceptional experience, so that they tell their family and friends about their positive experience.

Only then you will have the best form of marketing – free marketing!

http://www.restaurant-success-course.com/
Meet Massimo – Professional Restaurant Coach

Massimo Montone is the author of the Money Making Restaurant Success Course, and founder and creator of the Expert Restaurant Coaching Program EPER module for restaurant success.

He is a successful Manager and Life Coach Professional, creating solutions for restaurants and bars around the world, using innovative consultancy skills to quickly assess new opportunities in-house and externally – to capture market potential in the hospitality sector.

Introduced to the restaurant business at very young age in Italy, Massimo ran his family’s successful restaurant and was educated at one of the world’s best culinary schools. He then went on to work in some of the finest kitchens in London, gaining much ‘hands on’ experience. He holds a Masters Degree in Business Management. Moreover, his professional vision helps him see the restaurant business from the ‘outside of the box.’

Massimo’s unique and positive approach to people management makes him one of the best in the field of personal development training for restaurant managers and owners. His workshops are fun, easy to understand, practical, interactive, informative and full of energy.

An author of the Money Making Restaurant Success Course and creator of the Expert Restaurant Coaching Program, Massimo Montone is a leader in professional restaurant success coaching and consultancy.

http://www.restaurant-success-course.com/

The author invites you to visit: http://www.restaurant-success-course.com

by: Bluedolphin Crow

by: Silas Reed

Florida is one of the prime places to go to if you are looking for a sales job. There are many openings at almost all times of the year in the field of sales and the opportunities are abundant. There are many young people who are going in for these sales jobs and applying for them in hopes of getting placed in a reputed firm in Florida. This is because today, there are many young people inclined towards the whole business sector and want to work in it.

Entrepreneurship and the field of sales and marketing is something that many firms and industries are propagating and this entire field is very vast in terms of opportunities, so there are many people who want to get a taste of that and not miss out on it.

Sales jobs in Florida are abundant but even then you need to look at exactly where you want to get placed and what job in the department of sales you get in the firm. It should be good and not saturate you too much.

You need to have a background in business management and sales and even have a good degree like an MBA in order to get into a multinational and do a sales job for them. Sales work in Florida has a lot of scope and it will be very good for you if you get to experience working with a firm there.

In the last many years it has also been seen that the Florida sales employment has been on an all time increase or high. This is because this sales sector is opening up new ventures all the time and people are trying to come up with more and more strategies as to how to improve the sales of a particular company.

Thus, if you have a fresh and young mind full of ideas waiting to be harnessed and nurtured, then it is your turn to work for one of them. You can easily apply for a sales career in Florida and wait while you get accepted in a firm.

These firms also take great care of their employees. They understand the need for the employee to take rest while at the job, and so they even have provisions for breaks between work hours. They try and set up food stalls, recreation rooms so that their employees can just relax for some time and then get back to work when they feel the energy again.

Thus, all in all, sales careers in Florida have proved to be quite on the rise and interesting as more and more young people are taking on the reigns to come up with better solutions to increase sales and marketing methods.
Silas Reed, Writer for http://www.sellingcrossing.com/lcjobtypelisting.php SellingCrossing, writes articles that inform and teach about different selling job profiles. Please visit http://www.sellingcrossing.com/lcjobtypelisting.php http://www.sellingcrossing.com/lcjobtypelisting.php and sign up for a FREE trial to gain access to ALL of the many exclusive job listings we offer in the selling profession.

The author invites you to visit: http://www.sellingcrossing.com

by: Elizabeth Kirwin

by: Frederic Moraillon

Do you gamble with your marketing dollar? Do you invest it wisely and expect a return?

These simple questions still throw people off and many feel the need to justify and explain why they can’t. The usual excuses are “you don’t understand what we do,” “it can’t be measured,” it’s all about long-term branding,” etc., such answer could easily constitute a book of excuses in itself.

The situation is simple, you must expect positive returns from your marketing, it’s not a gamble. Hope has nothing to do with it.

Marketing is a risk

Every marketing strategy or tactic you implement has the potential to bring in returns or help you close shop. Either, way it’s your choice.

Risk, in a nutshell, can be explained as follows: “You size up the odds, weigh the costs and benefits, and attempt to avoid negative outcomes” (Ben Warwick, Handbook of Risks.) This simple definition of risk should become the modus operandi for marketers who are focused on helping their business grow.

The evolution of marketing

Marketing is a fairly old (but not often respectable) discipline having evolved through many stages from the mum-&-pop shops of old to the gigantic marketing budget many FMCG companies exhibit today. And in no time in its history as it been more important to define its true value than today. It’s interesting that in the days of risk analysis, marketing has largely remained unscathed, untouched. The past few years have seen a revival of Marketing ROI but not an advent, as it existed before. Measuring marketing risk however is fairly new and is still evolving as a discipline.

There are many ways to calculate risk and the formulas are often as complex as the person behind them wants them to be. For the purpose of tightening marketing, we can look at three basic economic principles to ensure that our investment in marketing is near risk-free as we possibly can. These elements are people, time and money.

People

What could you do without people? Where could you go?

The problem today is extremely acute: We can find good marcom people but not business-focused, true marketers.

In the past ten years, the quality of marketing people has increased tremendously and it is now fairly easy to find good public relations managers, direct marketers, event managers and even strategists. It is however difficult to find people with enough business acumen to turn their skills into true business weapons for your arsenal. There are two missing elements to this equation:

– Few of them have ever sold anything directly
– Most of them have never run a business

The good news if you are a marketer is that both skills are easier to get than ever before. It is now easy to set-up a small business and if you are early in your career, you should consider it, it will make you a better, more rounded business person and your contribution to any future business will increase proportionally. As for selling, it would be useful for all marketers to either start in sales or do a few years stint there before moving to marketing. Once you understand the hunger and fear that comes with missing your quarter, as well as the elation when you meet it, the better you’ll be at setting-up strategies and tactics that matters to the business, not to the award committees.

On that note, if you are looking for marketing people today, add these two points to your recruitment list, it will increase your chances to succeed.

Time

If there is one element that we’re all in short supply of, it’s time. The funny thing is that we are also all given the same amount every day.

Time squandered will never come back, we don’t have the time to do it right but always find the time to do it again, etc., etc. Time is both infinite and in short-supply and in the heat of action moves at the speed of light but when business is not coming in, it moves at the speed of a snail. We could go on. You understand the metaphors.

Time is your second big risk factor. You need to use it in the best you can as it moves without fail towards a result (one that you might not even like.) Don’t get me wrong, it’s not about controlling time, it’s about controlling your use of it.

There are mainly two ways to control it better: reach and frequency (one just doesn’t go without the other.)

Reach is simple, do you have access to the people that matter in your sales cycle?

If the answer is no, then you need to redesign your database strategy as ‘no great database, no great business’. It is the life blood of your marketing operations and now includes analytics where you develop more and more relevant segments based on statistical behaviour. This level of segmentation allows you to develop the right campaigns which, coupled with sending them at the right time, can turn your marketing into a powerful business force.

So implementing a campaign at the right time is the first aspect of leveraging time to the fullest. The second is sending it frequently enough so that each campaign has an impact (but not too often so that it doesn’t become a nuisance.) That balance is crucial in an opt-in world where customers have more opportunities to complain, or walk-away, than ever before.

Money

Where would business without money?

It’s best not to answer that question, the rhetoric would take too long.

If you are like most businesses your marketing budget (and others) will be finite. So what can you do to maximize (or optimise) it? Answer: Treat your budget just like any other financial investment and conduct a risk analysis.

A typical risk analysis will comprise both a qualitative and quantitative aspect forcing you to look at each element and ask what would happened if we didn’t invest it? What are the internal and external factors influencing this investment? What are the threats? Etc. One of the most important question is what would happen if we invested this amount in another project?

The last question is crucial as we all take for granted that investing in marketing is necessary. It’s not. If you do it badly, you’re better-off investing that money into a more secure project where the returns outweigh the costs. This is a crucial issue and no marketer should expect to have his or her budget simply because the department exist.

Fundamentally, marketing is a necessity in today’s environment but not matter how big the investment is, it should be subject to scrutiny just like any other business investment. The funny thing is, it is not and often marketers expect their budget to grow from year to year without really questioning its relationship to other parts of the business.

There you have it. Marketing is a risk and you can’t go on happily thinking that whatever you’re doing is working for the best of the organisation. By the time you do so, the market will have shifted from under your feet.

One last point, when doing a risk analysis remember that marketing is often an opinion. An opinion tainted by the marketer’s worldview, or his boss’s, an opinion based on campaigns that worked and are expected to work again. Let’s face it, marketing evolves even though some of its fundamental precepts are eternal. So the risk here is not just people, time and money, but to be closed minded, not be open to testing, not trying new things, that is the biggest risk of all.

Frederic Moraillon leads marketing for Business Objects in Asia-Pacific & Japan where, with his team, he develops and implements profitable marketing strategies aimed at helping customers and prospects develop their business through the awareness, use and development of performance management solutions. Frederic brings with him 15 years of diversified industry and functional experience enhancing revenues, profits and market share of multinational businesses operating in Asia Pacific. He has managed hundreds of regional business and consumer marketing campaigns delivering solid financial results. To that effect, Frederic has developed and implemented the ‘Simple Marketing Strategy’ and has published several articles in regional publications (Marketing ROI: A case of corporate survival; Do you need Customers?; Is Loyalty Profitable?; Sales Cycle Marketing, See http://sound-principles.blogspot.com/ ) He regularly gives speeches on Marketing ROI and Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) to further the cause of the strategic role of marketing in an organisation’s business arsenal.