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.

Industry sales have looked pretty good the last few months, but don’t forget: they looked good in April, May, and June of 2009, too.

But it’s no time for a breather. It’s time to gather new customers from restaurants that didn’t make it, get into the rotation of others, and position yourself as a solution for other buying decisions to existing customers.

The Disenfranchised
Keep on eye on local competition (especially similar concepts) that are struggling. The signs are there: fewer staff during busy times, dining room not bussed so often, charging for condiments, etc. Heck, check them out on Yelp or other review sites.

If their customers are complaining, they’re open to alternatives.

Get on the Short List
Use your unique selling proposition to get into customers’ restaurant rotation. We usually go to the same 2, 3, or 4 places for lunch (often based solely on convenience). Dinner is more situational: we go here for take-out, here when friends are in town, this place for a quiet night out, and always there for special locations.

Get into the rotation by increasing party size or being aggressive within a half mile radius (especially for lunch – folks won’t pass a lot of places to get to you when they’re hungry). Once you have them, WOW them.

The Ignorant
I don’t mean stupid, just that not all of your customers know all that you do. They chose you because you satisfied a need and, as long as you’re good, they’ll keep you in their rotation.

But lunch customers can be dinner customers. Dine-in need to try carry-out. Business lunchers socialize at night.

So while some operators are resting now that customers appear to be back, the channels are clear for you to start advertising, wooing influencers, and gaining market share.

Do it now and you’ll be in a better position if the economy turns again. Even better if it really is back.

I’ve said it before, and folks like Jeffrey don’t like it a lot but the numbers prove him wrong, that putting butts in seats, regardless of how you do it, has long term value. Spike trial, show ‘em how good you are, treat them right, invite them back – get them more often.

You can’t have frequent customers until you have customers. Many a post has been written about why this is and why it’s not crack, and you can continue the discussion at our local store marketing forum, but for now let’s just figure trial / frequency pairs that modify behavior and boost sales. Now might be the only time for a while that people loosen their purse strings. Time to grab a little share.

- Free catering for 5 people. It’s a sampling of your service at a time when businesses are ordering catering for larger groups. It’s pretty common to hear “How much if we have 20 people?”

The result is a 25% discount to someone who wasn’t already a customer, but now will be long term. You can’t take percentages to the bank.

- Free app to groups of 4 or more (increase party size). No restrictions on this – only struggling businesses and tight-wads put parameters on this kind of hospitality.

- Black Friday = Triple Punch Day. Frequency punch cards are crack if used incorrectly, but GOLD if you do it right. This does it right – don’t let people eat somewhere else on the day they are most likely to blow their budgets!

- Every customer for 3 days (Friday, Saturday, Sunday after T’giving) gets a bounce-back coupon: BOGO with a 7 day expiration. If they’re in your place twice within 7 days this time of year, more power to them.

- FREE dessert tray with every catering order. You’ve heard of loss leaders? You make it back. I promise.

- Gift Cards – you can sell $20 worth to someone (a stretch for some fast casual places) OR you can sell 10 – $5 cards to someone who has a lot of people to buy for (people for whom they’d rather not buy)

Think like a customer, not like an owner / manager.

Intown neighborhoods are usually pretty tight groups. They’re a lot like the suburbs I grew up in where neighbors know each other and when someone is sick the social network springs into action to supply meals and support.

Case in point: Dakota Blue in Grant Park. They work with a local church so that, when the church is scheduling meal drop offs to a family that has recently had a death, a birth, or a traumatic experience, they call him first.

He volunteers for the first night. He cares about them, they care about him. (Another restaurant I work with does this same thing and has received at least 3 catering orders specifically because he does this for the church.)

Six Feet Under rose to the occasion when the Grant Park Conservancy was restoring a fountain. Donate $2 and get a cut-out fountain to write your name on and post to the wall (like Shamrocks for MD). Cheesy, a little. But the local press picked it up and the local residents already knew he was doing it.

Lastly, Applebee’s franchisees report increased customer loyalty due to community involvement and events, of which the company did more than 15,000 last year. A company spokesman said that franchisees are “involved for all the right social reasons” but “we also think there’s a very strong strategic reason to be involved.”

If you’re not involved with your community, or you don’t have a local store marketing plan for your restaurant…why not?

A couple of examples of how to surely piss your customers off and guarantee that, if you do make it through the financial slump, you won’t have any customers left when you reach the other side.

Wachovia has apparently started taking payments for lines of credit (unsecured lines of credit), and presumably for credit cards, out of savings or checking accounts without customer approval. If the payment is late, they just reach in and help themselves. Hopefully that won’t mess your automatic payments up too badly.

Not sure I would allow those foxes to be in charge of my chickens.

Example number two: blaming the customer, calling them thieves, liars, or idiots, won’t win friends or influence people.

A local franchisee of a regional chain has posted signs that he will not accept BOGO coupons in his unit. Apparently the coups were distributed by another franchisee and a few of them have made their way south. Customers who try to redeem the coupons, which expired earlier this week, are confronted with angry counter staff.

When you turn away a coupon, you’re effectively telling the customer you think they’re either too stupid to read (wrong unit, expired coup) or you think they’re a cheat (‘you’re trying to pull a fast one on me!’).

You want to engender negative word of mouth, the easiest way is to call your customers cheating idiots.

Behold! The power of word of mouth!