If you’ve ever thought about opening a new restaurant, it might feel a little like assembling Ikea furniture – daunting. New restaurants can be a big venture with long hours included, and many steps and confusing tasks to walk through. Design a new menu, choose a location, hire staff; It takes time, patience, will most likely cause aggravation, but the important part is to not settle for ‘close enough.’ Because, when you put all the pieces in place, the reward is great and you will be so satisfied when it is finally done.

Unlike the traumatizingly laborious Ikea instructions, we’ve created a noninclusive list of items you’ll want to make sure to check off for your restaurant’s opening.

1. Marketing, Marketing, Marketing

You’ve got a great menu planned. Hospitable staff hired. Unique concept in place. Well, unfortunately, none of that matters if no one knows about your restaurant. Marketing is a very important part of your business plan.

Opening a restaurant requires a marketing plan that will help you connect to potential customers in the community. In your plan, you’ll want to include everything from opening day incentives, to your specials, to your social media plan.

2. Create/Claim profiles on Yelp, TripAdvisor, Facebook, and Google My Business.

Our previous blog How to Claim Your Business Profiles will guide you through how to do this the simplest way possible, but you’ll also want to make sure to set up notifications for any new reviews. The opening days of your restaurant are vital, and any customers you get will be ‘new’ customers so first impressions are everything – and that includes how they’re responded to online.

3. Get Your Online Presence Ready

If potential customers see or hear about a new restaurant in the community, they’ll google it. It’s a fact. Be one step ahead by having a landing page live online at least 30 days before opening day. This landing page should include your social media feeds, a spot to collect job applications, information about opening day, and MOST importantly, a place to allow customers to sign up for your E-club. In addition to a landing page that represents your style, start posting on social media regularly. By regularly, we’re talking 3-4x/week. You’ll also want to start utilizing those emails you’ve been collecting, so start sending weekly emails. These posts and emails should include updates about the status of your opening, any news stories covering your opening, and even offers and incentives to get people in the door early on.

4. Share the Good News

A new restaurant opening is always exciting news in a community. There’s nothing worse than a silent grand opening because that puts you at risk of deflating morale in the community and with your staff. One important tip to prevent this from happening is to create a press release to send to local media once you’ve chosen a date and time for your opening. Talk up your new restaurant – this is your chance to share about everything you’ve worked so hard for. Make this an event no one wants to miss.

5. Start Thinking About How to Keep the Customers Coming

In a competitive industry like the restaurant business, word of mouth isn’t always enough to sustain a busy restaurant. Unfortunately, many restaurants fail in months 18-24, so you’re definitely not going to want to rely on your “honeymoon” traffic when you first open to guarantee your longevity and success. Now is the time to make sure you have systems in place to collect guest information. This should include things like handout cards/contests, table tents, or posters. It takes multiple visits to create habits, so you’ll also want to consider handing out some kind of “Bounce Back” offer during your launch window. This can be a coupon valid after your opening ends, and even extends another couple weeks.

Typically, the “honeymoon” phase wears off after about 6 months, and unfortunately many restaurants don’t think about marketing until that point, then regret not having a customer list to reach out to.

6. Online Reputation

We’ve already hinted at it, but that just goes to show how important it is. Having an interactive and intentional online engagement during the first six months of being open is the most important time. Unfortunately, this is also the most difficult time operationally speaking as you hire new staff, create new recipes, etc. The first 5000 guests that walk through your door will make or break your restaurant. Be sure that a single customer doesn’t leave the building without knowing how to give feedback on their experience. This is a great opportunity to utilize review cards, and an online survey platform. Take a peek at our Combating Online Negative Reviews blog to gain some insight on handling reviews you may not love.

Looking for more tips for your new restaurant business plan?  

The post Insider Tips for Opening a Brand New Restaurant appeared first on Restaurant Logic.

The answer is simple. You’ve been out-marketed. I know what you’re thinking — of
course, they have a much bigger marketing budget than I could ever have. While
this may be true, it is easier than it ever has been to compete and win against the big brand marketing
wave. The internet and social media have equalized the playing field. The real
question is, are you taking advantage of it? 

The key to winning the marketing battle is to have a balanced marketing plan &
calendar. If you’re like most independent restaurants your current marketing
plan looks mostly like this:

Don’t fret – we’re here to
help. Today, I am going to show you how to make some simple adjustments to
create a winning marketing calendar within 6 weeks. The goal – have your
marketing planned out 60 days in advance.

Week 1: Carve out an hour in
your schedule to get your marketing calendar set three weeks out.

Week 2-5: Take ½ hour to add 2
more weeks to your marketing calendar

Week 6 (and beyond): Add 1 week
to your marketing calendar

Sounds simple enough…but what
exactly do you include on that marketing calendar? Here’s some tips:

·
Start with email. Best practice is 1 email per week. Best things to
email? Glad you asked. Let your customers know about LTOs, coupons, menu
launches, and upcoming events.

·
Next, add some Facebook and Twitter posts. Best practice for Facebook
is 3-4 posts weekly. We recommend the rule of thirds: 1/3 promotions, 1/3
stories, and 1/3 creative posts; pictures of food, pictures of things happening
in your restaurant, staff highlights, upcoming events, community happenings.  For Twitter? We recommend daily posting. These
posts should include your daily specials, pictures of food, weather-related
posts, holiday-related posts (national burger day, etc..)

If you’re looking for a
template to use for your marketing, you could look into building your calendar
on a google doc, an excel spreadsheet, or even by using Google Calendar. If you’re
looking for an even simpler option (that doesn’t force you to waste time
copying and pasting), we highly recommend the use of our marketing calendar on
Restaurant Logic’s dashboard. By using our Restaurant Logic marketing calendar,
you can visualize your marketing strategy in way in advance. And guess what? It
even offers recommended content and ideas so all you have to do is schedule
them out. If you’ve been searching for a simpler option…we found it.

By following the outline above,
you can make a significant impact on your marketing success. If you feel you’re
not able to make time for it quite yet, we believe adding even 10 minutes a day
to work on your marketing schedule can make a huge difference to your bottom
line.  Focus on some small goals to start
off. Transparently speaking, we don’t believe writing a lengthy marketing
strategy isn’t nearly as important as simply sitting down and planning some
real content.

Here’s hoping these bite size
action items will realistically help you gain a better grasp on your marketing
concept.  Your marketing might not start
out perfect, it will probably need some tweaking and adjusting along the way,
but if you start planning now we know that it will become a valued resource
that will not only make advertising your restaurant easier, but more successful
too.

The post How To Create An Effective Marketing Calendar for Your Restaurant Today appeared first on Restaurant Logic.

So what does this have to do
with your marketing? Lots actually. 

It’s important that we make
some regular changes to our marketing plan – especially this time of year. With
back to school now in full play, many families are settling down for the year with
new routines. And even the younger crowd of college students is establishing
their new norms. 

Before we jump into this
pile of leaves, take a step back to see your big picture.  What are your goals
and priorities for your marketing plan? Be sure to take note of things you feel
like you and your staff have done well, in addition to things you feel could use
improvement.

Our last few blogs from RL have focused on preparing in advance for your marketing, and making sure to have a plan for your long term marketing. All great things!

But today, we’re talking baby steps. Don’t get overwhelmed by
taking on too much too quickly. Small changes to your marketing strategies can
make a huge impact on your restaurant’s business. Just be sure that everything
you do take on will further your goals. 

Now, let’s get right to the good stuff. Here’s some quick updates you can make to your marketing, that will make a big difference. 

1. Check the Health of your Website.

  If your potential customers feel like browsing
your website is like walking through a corn maze, then you’re doing it wrong. This is a great opportunity to take inventory of your site.
Broken links? Outdated content? 

It may even be time to update some photos or slides. 

Don’t miss out on customers interested in your
restaurant because your website isn’t updated and doesn’t represent you well. 

2.  Get Social.

We like our social media
presence how we like our bonfires – hot. Take a look at your Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram right now. If you were a potential customer, what would your
impression be? Is the information updated? Are the images vibrant and enticing?
Does the information posted represent your brand? If these things seem
overwhelming start small. Change your profile picture to a fresh and updated staff photo. Add some updated content regarding your fall menu. Share an enticing photo today of your new weekly specials. Make some refreshments to the little things, so when you get your regular marketing going, absolutely nothing will be outdated. 

3. Email Marketing

Like a flannel shirt in
October, great email marketing is an absolute necessity these days. If you’re seeing that your clientele isn’t reading, or even opening your emails it may be time to rethink your strategy. No matter how fancy your emails look, if they’re deprived of well-executed content, your subscribers will probably lose interest. Consider your subject line the gatekeeper of the email – your customers need to feel the email worthy of their time and this piece is key. Keep them concise, catchy, and clear. 

Well, I’m officially running
out of Fall puns, so I’m about ready to wrap up this blog post. As you read through this, I hope you were able to find at least one key idea, small as it may be, that you will be able to utilize in your own restaurant. If you’re able to dedicate even a small portion of your time or budget to one of these tactics, I guarantee you will begin to see a bountiful harvest of customers. (Ok, I lied. I guess I had one more in me.)

The post The Leaves are Falling – An Updated Marketing Plan is Calling appeared first on Restaurant Logic.