In the previous post, I mentioned that restaurant owners give up on marketing, or maybe aren’t effective at it, because they give up on their messages. They run out of things to say, and all they can think of is a discount (which they don’t want to do, and doesn’t usually produce the desired results).

So how can you keep your message fresh without flooding the market with coupons? Consider the marketing mix, then consider your editorial calendar. Then combine the two.

• Facebook and Twitter reach a particular audience and have their uses.
• FourSquare offers a way to reach new audiences.
• Coupons and flyers to targeted audiences (complementary audiences) tailor your message.
• Standing ad buys in local magazines or (very) local newspapers can be altered.
• Facebook, online ads, and search engine marketing can be altered regularly.
• Email is not dead and is still a good delivery channel (btw, can your customers read your message or is all your copy hidden in pretty pictures?).

Whatever your mix, make sure you get enough frequency of message to be effective (more money is wasted by underspending on advertising than on overspending).

Next, consider your editorial calendar. It’s easier to come up with messages in advance, but sometimes they’ll just happen.

• Do Texas Hold ‘Em Night if you must, it’s better than doing nothing, but consider widening your options.
• Host a Toys for Tots drop off during the holidays (this is PR worthy also).
• Choose off-beat ‘holidays’ (think National Bald Day – emails, tweets, FB posts will get forwarded and re-posted).
• Limited Time Offers can be a pain in the butt. But if you have seasonal menus they’re a great kick-off to each season. If you source locally, you can usually get deals on different items each week. They’re well worth it if you condition customers to expect new items.
• LTO’s don’t have to be limited to items that aren’t typically on your menu. Highlight an old favorite, especially if its an app and serves as a loss-leader.
• Plan a community event calendar of your own. The work has already been done for you, just choose the ones that your customers are most interested in and plan in advance. If you promote their event to your customers, they’ll likely reciprocate.
• If you have nothing else to say, give a shout out to some of your customers. “Bill M. bowled a 300 last Tuesday; Sherry S. walked 60 miles for breast cancer; Local firefighter, Tom W., was recognized by the Mayor.” If you don’t know this stuff, why not? Chat your customers up, create a dialog via Facebook.

Then you simply take this month’s message and plug it into each of your monthly channels. Incorporate an offer (one that modifies behavior) for your local flyers and all of a sudden you have a 12 month marketing plan. And you’ll always be sure you have something to say.

I’m finding that the biggest obstacle to getting restaurants to market their business is that, basically, they don’t have anything to say.

How many restaurant Facebook pages and Twitter feeds have been abandoned by their owners after just a couple of posts? Or go 6 months between offers?

If the menu hasn’t changed much, and you aren’t running a special, and you don’t do much in the way of community events…either you or your customers is bored of your message. Probably both of you are.

The most obvious solution to this is the proliferation of “holiday” coupons. Holiday is in quotes because a) they’re of the Hallmark variety or b) they have next to no correlation to your business, it just happens to be celebrated in the current month.

(Did you take advantage of that “Buy two dinners, get a free drink” coupon by taking your fiance to Golden Corral in February? Did you sleep on the couch because the Mother’s Day gift you got your wife was dinner at Piccadilly?)

The next most obvious solution is some mediocre discount that neither alters customer behavior (try a new item on the menu) nor provides much of an incentive (10% off? really?).

If you’re gonna go the holiday route, get creative. Make it buzz worthy. Nobody forwards 4th of July specials because, well, no one goes out to eat on the 4th of July.

Check back later in the week for some suggestions in building a conversation.

I’m assuming you’ve tried to look your location up before on Google Maps. Have you tried, specifically if your location is in the Atlanta area, checking Yelp, Urbanspoon, or Kudzu? These are all directory sites with entertainment, restaurant and service industry listings. Each of these sites are mostly customer-driven and allow users to rate and review businesses. But you hopefully already knew that.

Let’s talk about why it’s important to take ownership of these listings. You want your listing’s information to be accurate, for one. You also want the ability to respond to reviews, questions and comments. Your location may already be listed or you might have to add it. Some of these directory sites (Yelp in particular) will allow you to register as a business owner and add or take over your location’s listing. Once you have this done you can add your listing or make changes to an existing listing, upload pictures, and write a review for your listing (clearly stating you’re the owner or manager, of course). You’ll then be ready to encourage your loyal customers to write more reviews for you.

In the same vein, there are some definite DON’Ts with these directory sites:

• DON’T fake any reviews for your location. This can be very obvious and will make you look dishonest.
• DON’T incent customers to write favorable reviews. You want honest opinions only.
• DON’T ignore unfavorable reviews. Turn these bad experiences into good ones by contacting the customer privately and listening.
• DON’T become openly defensive about bad reviews. They happen. DON’T remove them, either. The point of this is to be transparent. But pay attention – you may have some changes to make.
• Lastly, and this should be obvious, DON’T write unfavorable reviews about the competition. Even if you think they’re doing it to you. This isn’t elementary school.

Taking ownership of these listings is just a small part of making sure people know who you are and what you are. It’s just one more tactic for your localized social media strategy, and shouldn’t take long to set up or maintain. You will probably want to do some research to find other local (and not-so-local) directory and rating/reviewing sites and make sure you’re listed there. Here’s a great list to start with, but your community may have sites of forums you’ll want to become involved in as well.

As always, feel free to comment below with your stories about online directory marketing. How have you joined your customers’ conversation?

Got a Facebook fan page for your restaurant? Super. Don’t? Then read no further. Go directly to Facebook, build a fan page, and get back to us.

We’re not saying that using Facebook is a strategy – but it’s a more personal way of communicating your other tactics (events, specials). Having an FB fan page won’t necessarily get you more business. Using Facebook to promote specials (or make someone feel good by making specials just for fans), highlight your community involvement, whatever – that’s how you make yourself Mayor of the Village.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s talk about Facebook marketing. I’m going to lay down some ideas here. You may have used a few of these before and if so, leave a comment and tell us how it worked. I will also list some that are hopefully new to you. So without further ado and in no certain order:

1. Once you have over 25 fans, go to facebook.com/username and reserve a unique name and url for your page. Let’s say your restaurant is Fannie’s Cookies. Then reserve “fanniescookies” as a username. Your page’s unique url will now be facebook.com/fanniescookies which obviously is easier for directing your customers.

2. Everyone should know this one: promote Facebook-only specials. There are a ton of ways to go about this. Post a keyword or phrase like “Fancy Fannie likes funnies” or something that people wouldn’t use in normal conversation. Tell your fans that if they come in and dance for 15 seconds, they get a free drink with their meal. Hold a contest for all fans, giving something free and OF VALUE to a random fan or two when they sign up before the end of the month. Run a photo or video contest and have fans upload them to your Facebook page. The list goes on and on.

3. Do you have a presence at local events? Make sure you mention your Facebook page and specials. Maybe even make a quick business card or coupon with your Facebook url to send home with folks, because I don’t know about you but my memory sucks.

4. Another idea for Facebook and events. Let’s say you’ll be at the local high school’s football game this week. Use the Events app on Facebook to create an event. Invite all your fans to the event. Promote the event via posts to your page. Maybe even give a little something extra to customers who mention that they saw you on Facebook. Like American Express says, “Membership has its privileges.”

5. Promote peer-to-peer discussions. That’s what social media is about, right? So don’t just talk to your fans but facilitate discussions on your Facebook page. This can also be a contest situation, depending on how many people answer your discussions. Starting questions will depend on your audience, but could be anything from pitting 2 local football teams against each other (“Who has the best team, the Red Rangers or the Purple Penguins?”) to asking about fans’ favorite pizza toppings. No hard selling here, of course. Talk about what the fans want to talk about.

Stay tuned for more Facebook ideas soon. In the meantime, post comments here and tell us your Facebook success stories – and your fails. Those can be helpful, too.

Corporate America and chains have taken over what used to be the purview of mom and pops, namely community involvement.

Starbucks, Ben & Jerry’s, and now, Citgo? Yes, Citgo. The gas station. Nominate yourself as a community hero and win a free gas card worth $2500.

So why wouldn’t you, as a local restaurant owner, do something similar? It doesn’t have to be grand, because you still have a leg up on corporate America: you can put a face with the gesture.

- Have your target audience (principals, HR directors, charity directors) nominate their employees and volunteers.

- Recognize a different person each week (in-store); their co-workers come with them to celebrate

- Recognize them in a wider forum in your email distribution (Bob G. of Smyrna was last week’s Hero – raising over $15,000 for Children’s Hospital, for example)

- At the end of the year, donate $1,000 (or more) to the charity of one of the year’s 52 winners

Total cost: 52 x lunch (@ food cost) + $1,000 (about $100 per month)
Benefits: an easy conversation with community leaders (fire chief, principals, pta, volunteer coordinators), a strengthened relationship with their organizations, increased frequency of message and (hopefully) email sign up.

If you’re the mayor of your village, you can steal these ideas, make them your own, and do them way better than the corporate monoliths. (BTW, corporate monoliths do these things for a reason.)