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How to Fill Your Restaurant - Part 3 - Targeting Your Restaurant Marketing Campaigns
You are now reading Part 3 of our 5-Part campaign on How to Fill Your Restaurant. I hope that it is proving useful – feedback very welcome via the “contact us” button on the top of the page.
In Part 2, we took a quick look at using e-mail promotions to fill your restaurant. Today’s topic is “Targeting Your Marketing Campaigns”.
The Idea!
Save money and fill your restaurant by focusing your promotional campaigns on the people most likely to be interested in your restaurant.
Sounds obvious – but read on for some really great ideas.
Winning Steps to a Targeted Campaign
There are many more ways of spending money on advertising and marketing promotions than there are days in the year. Some work and some don’t.
You can increase your chances creating fantastic results by targeting your campaigns. And the great news is that targeted campaigns usually cost less than ones with a scattergun approach.
Iglu Bar & Ethical Eatery in Edinburgh, UK have a clear focus which includes diners who want to eat quality organic food. Their owner Charlie Cornelius recognised that the suppliers who provided food to the restaurant also sold directly to consumers. So he set up joint promotions with his suppliers. These campaigns have proved effective at bringing new customers to the restaurant and, best of all, many of them have become regular diners.
Gill Guerrini of Valentino’s Restaurant, Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight took to the sea to target their marketing. Gill recognised that almost all of their diners travel to the Island by ferry and set up an advertising deal to display information on the ferry. “It has worked for us for years”, reports Gill. “Before they even get onto the Island, many of the visitors to the Isle of Wight are familiar with Valentino’s.
Step 1
Understand who is likely to come to your restaurant.
Possible examples of target audiences could be:
Remember – your restaurant may attract slightly different people at different times e.g. shoppers at lunchtime and couples or groups of friends in the evening.
Step 2
Brainstorm with your staff where these people can be found and/or contacted. My team at Local Service Guide came up with the following suggestions for just one segment:
People who love authentic Italian food
Based on this we came up with ideas of:
We’ve Tried It!
Andrew Ewing from Sapporo Teppanyaki Sushi & Noodle Bar identified business executives and affluent singles and couples as his main target for his Liverpool and Manchester Japanese restaurants. He targeted these potential customers by:
Step 3
Choose a couple of ideas which seem sensible and practical and implement.
Where partnerships are needed, it is often easier to partner with small businesses in your area rather than large chains who may find it harder to get consent from Head Office to work with you.
Step 4
Monitor results and make improvements for the future.
Good luck with your campaigns. In Part 4, we will focus on Party and Seasonal Bookings
BACK
In Part 2, we took a quick look at using e-mail promotions to fill your restaurant. Today’s topic is “Targeting Your Marketing Campaigns”.
The Idea!
Save money and fill your restaurant by focusing your promotional campaigns on the people most likely to be interested in your restaurant.
Sounds obvious – but read on for some really great ideas.
Winning Steps to a Targeted Campaign
There are many more ways of spending money on advertising and marketing promotions than there are days in the year. Some work and some don’t.
You can increase your chances creating fantastic results by targeting your campaigns. And the great news is that targeted campaigns usually cost less than ones with a scattergun approach.
Iglu Bar & Ethical Eatery in Edinburgh, UK have a clear focus which includes diners who want to eat quality organic food. Their owner Charlie Cornelius recognised that the suppliers who provided food to the restaurant also sold directly to consumers. So he set up joint promotions with his suppliers. These campaigns have proved effective at bringing new customers to the restaurant and, best of all, many of them have become regular diners.
Gill Guerrini of Valentino’s Restaurant, Carisbrooke, Isle of Wight took to the sea to target their marketing. Gill recognised that almost all of their diners travel to the Island by ferry and set up an advertising deal to display information on the ferry. “It has worked for us for years”, reports Gill. “Before they even get onto the Island, many of the visitors to the Isle of Wight are familiar with Valentino’s.
Step 1
Understand who is likely to come to your restaurant.
Possible examples of target audiences could be:
- people who live or work close by
- fans of the type of food you serve
- families
- couples
- day trippers
- wealthy people
- business men and women
- people getting married
Remember – your restaurant may attract slightly different people at different times e.g. shoppers at lunchtime and couples or groups of friends in the evening.
Step 2
Brainstorm with your staff where these people can be found and/or contacted. My team at Local Service Guide came up with the following suggestions for just one segment:
People who love authentic Italian food
- Italian evening classes
- Travellers to Italy
- Italians living away from home
- Buying olives at a deli
- Buying pasta machines
Based on this we came up with ideas of:
- contacting the teachers at Italian evening classes and asking them to hand out vouchers for a restaurant
- offering the owner of your local deli a free meal in return for displaying your leaflets
- checking to see if there are any companies with head offices in Italy in your area – they may bring over Italian staff
- checking whether there is a strong Italian community in your area
- approaching local language schools who may have Italian students
- ask the local travel agents to include a flyer for your restaurant in the brochures on Italy
We’ve Tried It!
Andrew Ewing from Sapporo Teppanyaki Sushi & Noodle Bar identified business executives and affluent singles and couples as his main target for his Liverpool and Manchester Japanese restaurants. He targeted these potential customers by:
- placing adverts in free liefestyle magazines delivered to affluent areas of Manchester and Liverpool
- Placed links and banners on websites which attracted his target audience
- Hosted various events for larger organisations such as major companies
Step 3
Choose a couple of ideas which seem sensible and practical and implement.
Where partnerships are needed, it is often easier to partner with small businesses in your area rather than large chains who may find it harder to get consent from Head Office to work with you.
Step 4
Monitor results and make improvements for the future.
Good luck with your campaigns. In Part 4, we will focus on Party and Seasonal Bookings