What is the most successful and cost efficient form of marketing/advertising you've used?

Love the restaurant industry... Worked in many restaurants in operations, management, consulting, and marketing, here are my thoughts...

My advice after been there and done that is to try everything... (I know it sounds crazy but hear me out)

1) Word of mouth - The Good ol' tried and true method... someone had a great experience on food or service, tells their friend, guarantee to have people visit you... (so how do you get them in or back more frequently?)

2) Social Media - It's a mess out there in the social media world, the more noise you can make the better... not only develop friendships but also invite prominent local bloggers and yelpers to visit your restaurant... giving away food and a great experience is also a form of marketing... (no matter what, marketing cost money regardless...)

3) Create events, favorable deals and coupons for your business, and keep it lively! - Not all coupons, deals, events, freebies is bad for business... it's how you work it and how creative you are! The most important thing here is to cover your cost and have them become repeat customers.. maybe it won't pay off in the beginning, but in the end it will be all worth it.. (You know your bottom line in cost to run your business)

4) Don't be stingy - If you raise prices don't decrease the size of serving... if necessary, give a little more without telling your customers.. If there was a complaint on service, take care of your customers instead of fighting them... yes there are bad customers but you will eventually weed them out, but in the end, it's your graciousness that will shine thru and win over more business! Remember, these costs will build to more business in the future, You may not think it this way but it's also a form of marketing...

5) Beware of Marketing Services but DEFINITELY hear all of them out! (Listening is FREE, just take a couple minutes of your time) - Not all marketing companies out there is trying to make a quick buck off you... (In our case, our MOSE app) Here are some popular ones that I had experience with...

1) Groupon - Community coupon service, favorable for hit-n-run customers, high investment with a low return rate, good for exposure. (I personally thinks that Groupons works extremely well for products and services, but not restaurants... Restaurants simply has too high of a operational cost which will work against the owners (I know a couple restaurants almost shut down because of using Groupon... but if you offer gym memberships, toys, products, etc.. Groupon is a wonderful way to sell your offerings!)

2) Yelp - A Review site, no need to pay for the service... people go to your restaurant because of the reviews but not the marketing services that yelp provides... Ad is way too expensive per click rate.. (Varies from $1.10 - $5.00 from what I've heard) But great company providing lots of searchable results!

3) Five Star Loyalty - Expensive! They provide a fancy tablet for people to enter their phone numbers to get rewarded. Yes.. all reward programs are great, but the cost for Five Star may be the falling point for using them.. (not to mention that they have raised pricing without prior disclosure) But neat idea of using a tablet for loyalty. (which you have to also pay for)

4) FB/Twitter/Instagram/Snapchat, etc... It's the new Word of Mouth!!! Be sure to get on it and have an account for your business on all platforms! However, their marketing service such as ads are just like the billboards across town! Think about it... how many times have you seen a billboard on the freeway, knowing what the message is, but yet you have never spend any money on that advertised goods/services? It's about exposure which is very important, but there are cheaper ways out there to get exposure across to the people... Exposure is a must and cannot be ignored, but just don't expect them to generate lots of ROI just because you have signed up for an ad. Don't forget to keep the noise coming!

5) Paper coupons/ads - One of the proven methods, but high cost in terms of printing and distribution via mail... Paper coupons can also be lost or tossed resulting in a waste of money for the advertisers... Yes.. coupon works well, but there are better ways nowadays to get your coupons thru to your targeted audiences.

6) Delivery services - Eat24/Grubhub/ChowNow/UberEats. These services are great and I think that as a restaurant it's important to offer this service to your customers. However, do remember that there is a pretty high cost associated with each order but to me, it's still worth it because you are not paying a delivery driver + insurance... understand that the % goes to the deliver service and you are simply making a cut off your menu items.. (I recommend to sign up with all the services but talk to them and see if you can work a deal with them), but the more service you are listed on the better! (not everyone use only one delivery service)

Whew... I'm sure that was a lot to take in...but.....

In the end, it's all about trying everything and keep yourself open and available on all platforms, service, methods, etc... (While making sure that the cost to the service is fair to you!) Just remember, marketing cost money one way or another... You will never be able to ignore that!

If anyone is interested in learning what MOSE app is all about and how it can help your business, contact me and let me know (www.moseapp.com)... I guarantee you will be quite delighted and surprised! Hope to talk to some of you owners soon!

Good Luck!

I used to do consulting for restaurants. The most efficient way to increase business is to turn your staff and current customers into "marketing arms" for your restaurant. I would give wait staff and bartenders their own business cards and a "marketing budget" so they could invite people they met out in public to come have a free lunch, or drink, at our restaurant. They would simply write what it was on the back of their business card and initial. They were allowed to comp about $5 per shift hour they were scheduled to work and it was on the honor system. Worked well.

I would probably say word of mouth is the single greatest thing you can have. If people trust that you have a good product and recommend you, you can't lose.

To turn current customers into "marketing partners" I would pull a list of our best customers (you have to keep a database to do this, sadly, most restaurants don't bother to even learn their customers names), and I would pick out 10 customers a week... send them a gift certificate that would cover lunch or dinner for two and include a card with this note... "Because you are one of our most loyal customers, we want to treat you to a surprise night out on us. Here is a gift certificate to cover your next dinner visit. If you would like to invite another couple of friends to join you, just call me and I'll have a second gift certificate with their name on it, waiting for you at the hostess stand when you arrive. Thanks so much for being our friend. Sue, Manager."

If you keep a database of your customers, and a running total of what they spend with you, this is one of the easiest things you can do to increase your business. Treat 5-10 of your best customers AND their friends, once per week and, most likely, those friends they bring in will be new customers for you and potentially new loyal REPEAT customers as well.

What IS your average customer worth to your business over their lifetime? Probably THOUSANDS of dollars, right?

Renee,

You got a lot of great answers here. One of the things that I suggest to my restaurant clients is to build a data base with their email, twitter, FB addresses then when you know you are going to have a slow time. Send out a blast promoting a special for that time. The neat part about this is if it's a popular item on your menu you don't even need to discount it if you don't want to.

You can promote it as "Overcome the Tuesday Supper Blues" or whatever you want to call it. You send this blast out either the night before or that day and it's only for that day.

I wish you well and hope your business is an overwhelming success.

John D. Allen

Renee,

I owned a restaurant marketing agency for 15 years. Over 50 plus a few chains.

Now we are a food package design firm.

My expert advice is to narrow down your media purchases. Your using a shot gun style media buy. Does not work. You use to many. Which creates little whispers. You need to break threw the clutter. Spend more money on fewer media. Giving you a better reach and impact. Yelp is effective. We found large billboards worked really well. Cost per thousand was minor. 24 hours a day.

Beautiful in store POS created guest check sales increases. Folks have a hard time deciding what to eat. Photos with incentives work. PR firms where a waste of money. If you have anything to write about. Food writers will find you.

Sponsor out door events.

Make it real for the consumer. Running events, social awareness theme and family runs worked well. It takes commitment, money and time. One merchant holiday event we created has lasted over 29 years now.

SEO is really important. If your site is worth going to.

Train your staff who answer the phone and hostess really well. They are your front line. Train them to be PR experts. Not some outside PR firm looking to increase hours on a invoice.

Offer better food. Local grown. Fresh. Get the chef out talking to local farmers and customers tables. That is real PR.

Great food. Top notch service. Location. Clean bathrooms. Nice staff who recall folks first names. Excellent out door signage.

Hope this helps.

Facebook/Instagram ads are a good bang for your buck. Even better when you encourage people to share. You can do free ads but they work better when you boost them and it doesn't take a lot of money.

Yelp is way too expensive and over rated.

Building a relationship with a local paper/publication has benefits based on consistency. They will give upgrades and extras from time to time for long term advertisers.

People appreciate character. How you present is as important as what you present. Remember, you're talking to people not at them. Chances are you don't have much to work with for advertising money. Professionals can help make a difference but cost quite a bit. Start simple and grow into it. People will enjoy watching you grow and will want to contribute to that growth.

Groupon - DON'T. Although Groupon has some great offers, in a restaurant it becomes all loss. I have yet to see it work in any restaurant. I've heard of some that did okay but you have to know the system and be very very careful of how a deal is written. You end up with no inventory and an empty cash register. I've had neighbors devastated by Groupon programs. Negotiations with them have always had me walk away because I did not go into business to grow Groupon. They do much more for themselves than for you. Don't be a feeder fish.

Joining different organizations and getting involved with these organizations. this is the only way to meet people and that is the main way I have grown my business.

Literally every type of paid advertising was a failure for me. Only three things have really worked to build my business: a super easy and generous referral program; two hour speaking engagements offered to church sisterhoods, sororities and other college groups looking for fun activities; and asking for reviews on Google instead of Yelp. Having said that, there is a likelihood I'll have to get outside help to deal with my social media.

I have two ideas that clients of ours have used with success in the past.

1. Check with the local high school to see if they have athletic booster card discounts they sell. This is a great way to get people into your place.

2. Festivals or restaurant week are great because they are promoted for you.