25+ Creative Ways to Effective Restaurant Growth and Marketing Strategies

Luis Galarza
Aug 26, 2017 · 7 min read

Innovative Guerrilla Marketing Strategies Lessons From A Crazy Restaurateur!

Updated August 25th, 2017: After having a great chat with Google+ marketing evangelist Yifat Cohen and well known SEO expert David Amerland, they want it to know how in heaven I promote five successful restaurants without using direct actions with social media, without a website, without standard online marketing, no print advertising, no TV, no traditional mediums… Here is what my answer was:

1. Location, location, location.
Nothing much to say here…

2. Set up business processes for fast turn around.
This means your staff (kitchen and storefront servers) are ready to handle busy times, special customers, etc., also your menu needs to have just enough to provide great choices but not too much that will over whelmed your staff!

3. Create an outstanding product.
Have people try it until you get the WOW factor! Anything less will fail!

4. The right mix of value and price!
Remember that what you think is the best value sometimes isn’t what your audience believe is great value, so test and simply ask them, they’ll tell you!

TIP: Making the food look like a piece of art is good, but if the portion is too little or it doesn’t taste as good as it looks you are going to lose business!

5. Loyalty program.
Target has it, Sears has it, top restaurants have it… why? because it works, apply it to make customers come back for more…

6. Referral system that creates instant butterflies.
Is OK to ask for referrals, but that’s not what I mean here… you need to strategically make every customer into your instant referrer… I recommend you to read ‘The Referral Engine’ book by +John Jantsch for great advice about this method.

7. Personalization.
This is simply making your restaurant as comfortable for your customers… Make them feel like home, but a cool new home!… :o)

8. Be the purple cow in your market literally!
Like +Seth Godin explains in his book ‘Purple Cow’, nobody ever stops in the middle of the highway to see a cow because all cows look the same, but if they see a purple cow they will stop, in fact almost anyone will stop to check it out, take pictures, etc.. Be the the purple cow in your market by becoming unique and remarkable!

9. Become number one dominatrix.
Many business owners want to become number at one thing at least, what I recommend you is to aim to gain number one status in as many aspects of your business as you can. This way your brand will naturally become popular!

10. Innovative ways to enhance customers experience.
Put your creativity hat and start thinking in ways you can make your customers experience a remarkable, one they want to tell everyone about, one that they will not wait to get home to share on their social profiles… Example: Give them a reason to take pictures inside your restaurants that they will feel proud to post on Facebook or Google+. :o)

11. Strategic contests.
People love contests especially if the game is funny, or have something of high value for them. Run as many contests as you can (in my case on a weekly and daily basics depending on season).

12. Use technology as much as you can to bring the cool factor.
I know you might think this is just for the big budget companies but is not. When I started I didn’t have a big budget, and because of a challenge made by another business expert (long time friend) we couldn’t use the web like everyone else. a good example of using technology is like providing free WiFi access to customers or having a mobile app with your menu (my company can do this for almost nothing) or iPad based menus, etc..

13. Become the contest.
What do I mean with this? Well, simply use your logo, restaurant name, location, website, company history or anything like that to create contests that will make the contestants remember your brand.

14. Top customers rewards.
I do many rewards to my top customers, one of those thing is to make theirs birthday a restaurant special event, they feel like the president, sometimes I even send a limo to look for them, you get the idea. (my customer won’t celebrate their birthdays anywhere else, is that simple) Remember strategy number 9. :o)

15. Help them spread your brand, online and offline.
As you can see I didn’t say let them, you already know that, what I said is to help them by offering a coupon or discount if their share a picture, or check in on Foursquare or Google Places, etc.. I also give free t-shirts to people on their birthday, have them download my mobile app, to parties with more that 8 or ten members, etc..

16. Use the power of mobile marketing.
What has worked for me so far is:
- Custom mobile app.
- SMS promotions.
- Creative QR code actions.
- Mobile website.
- Proximity marketing: Bluetooth and WiFi promotions.
- Foursquare.

I’m lucky that I own my own digital marketing firm in Massachusetts which makes it easy, but I do the same for many other businesses and it works.

17. Make the online conversation be on their social profiles not on our page…
Well, we don’t have a page for the restaurant because of the challenge, but we don’t need it because we bring the conversation to their profiles where all their friends and family get to see it!

18. Offline link baiting or what I call ‘Word Of Mouth Baiting!’…
Just create something worth talking about in your place and you will see how easy people will spread your brand. And if you do it right you will get free local and national PR exposure.

Now for the web!

19. Niche Based Social Networks and Forums.
Find social sites that are related to food and travel, those two have worked very good for me and create your profile, provide cooking tips, recipes, etc., or just engage in the conversation.

20. Have a website that converts.
Your website should inform but also it should help visitors make the decision to come eat now, not later. Now I’m not saying to be pushy, but you should showcase all the wonderful events, contest, food, and atmosphere they gonna experience if they visit your restaurant. Also, your site should be optimized to appear in top search engines result on Google for your main key-phrases. My friend David Amerland can help you with that.

21. Claim Your Local Site On Top Online Directories And Search Engines.
This one alone can help you increase your website and store traffic, so claim your local page at Google Places, Yahoo Local, Bing Local, Manta.com, Yeld.com, etc..

22. Optimize Your Social Presence.
First, create a brand page on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+. Also, create a Twitter profile for your restaurant.

Some expert you want to reach for:
- For #Facebook reach out to +Mari Smith.
- For #googleplus reach out to Yifat Cohen the+G+GoTo Gal
- For #Twitter reach out to +David King and John Paul Aguiar
- For #blogging reach out to +Jack Humphrey

Also read “A Social Media Marketing Formula that Works Every Time” at: http://goo.gl/nqht5

23. Start a Blog or Dynamic Content Site.
You can’t forget to start your own blog if you want even more constant exposure. It takes time and to create content but if you follow all the other steps you will never run out of content ideas. Because every event, contest, etc., can be turned into a blog post or video.

In my case, I can’t blog about it yet, but I’ve been collecting so much content that when I start blogging I gonna have 2 years worth of posts!

Here is a post that might help http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-become-a-blogging-superstar

and http://luisgalarza.blogspot.com/2012/03/changing-nature-of-marketing-to-content.html

24. Use Video Constantly.
you should use video to promote your establishment locally, to inform, to educate, and to celebrate!

Why video because people love it and have a good viral effect. Here is an article and video with more information http://luisgalarza.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-videos-go-viral-marketing-effect.html

25. Let Amazon Promote You!
Why you gonna be a Google slave if Amazon already has all the love you need from search engines. One of the things you can do is to write small recipe or cooking tips book with the ‘By Your Restaurant Name’ tag and submit it to the Kindle store. I offer some for free and some for the lowest price Amazon let me test conversions. I’m not an expert on #selfpublishing on #kindle but my friend +Shira Gal is and she can really help you publish and market your book on Kindle.

26. Master the art of getting Positive Reviews and Testimonials.
Here is a post I wrote for my good friend +martin shervington from +Plus Your Business! that explains this in more details: http://www.plusyourbusiness.com/get-reviews-will-improve-local-search-rankings/

27. Make your customer interaction it fun and engaging.
Here are two videos that are the perfect example of what I mentioned in this post. Ice-cream video found thanks to +Paul Ramsay & +Crystal Olivarria and the Fish Shop video thanks to +David Amerland:

Ice-Cream Vendor Video: Scream for Ice Cream | Turkish Ice Cream Man Trolls Customers

Fish Shop Video: SEATTLE “PIKE PLACE FISH CO.”

There are many other things you can do, but I don’t want to overload you with information.

This article was first posted on Google Plus.

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Extra help: Marketing For Small Businesses | Online Marketing Services.

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Written by

Digital Marketing Strategist at http://www.LocalMarketingVoice.com and http://www.GrowthHelpers.com — Local SEO | Facebook Ads | Social Media Evangelist

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