Big, over the top advertisements are so yesterday (or, as we like to say, last night’s entrée). You have an amazing restaurant and a not-so-amazing budget. We hear you, no – we really do. We’ve developed a plethora of restaurants into local entities with a few pennies and a lot of good marketing tricks, ones we’re sharing with you right now.
Speaking of simplistic shoestring level marketing – we introduce you to ‘growth hacking’. Here’s why you should know what growth hacking does – Ryan Holiday, previous Director of Marketing at American Apparel, New York Times Best seller and mainly a great guy you want over for dinner, says “… a totally new approach to marketing that has taken over the Silicon Valley. You may have heard the buzz word. If you haven’t, surely you’ve seen it’s fruits: Growth Hackers built Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox… even Amazon.”
Basically, growth hackers, as he explains “built billion dollar brands from nothing, with next to nothing. No big budgets, just a new strategy”.
Growth hacking is the way of the future – you may have noticed our multiple posts about social media. This is why growth hacking is so endlessly essential. The power of the word is now in your customer’s trustworthy hands. More than ever, marketing is dependent on word of mouth, reputation and clever “marketing hacks” as opposed to huge budgets and overdone advertisements.
This is good news for any restaurant on a shoestring budget.
Besides the fact that the restaurant industry is the best industry to growth hack. Here are our few tips to unlock the power of the ‘growth hack’ on your restaurant.
Finding and Growing your Customer Reach
The starting point of all marketing ventures, and growth hacking in particular, is in reaching your customers, clients, what have you. Of course it’s the goal. One of the pillars of growth hacking is speaking and knowing your customer’s language – how they engage and what they want.
While you might not be an adept marketer, you already did this when you decided to open your doors to your restaurant. So, stick with us here. You have your niche (food), but you need to reach those that need/love/want your niche. This is your customer reach.
You don’t have to be fluent in Instagram and “swag”, but you have to have something interesting to say. That’s the whole point isn’t it? There is a ridiculous amount of ways to do this. The easiest, and first way that comes to mind, is by starting a blog on your restaurant’s website. That’s a growth hack, right there. Creating engaging content is a whole other story, but having a place to displace growth and reel in potential eyes is best done through a blog.
Psst… check out our blog on making your restaurant website better if your current site is out-dated.
But First, Find your Niche
You may think you already have a niche. ‘Restaurant, food…?’ You’re saying. P.s. that’s not going to fly in the marketing world.
Your niche can be specialized, compartmentalized and simplified until it is in it’s most specific, least-competitive and unique form. That’s what’s going to make you stand out. Find it, and don’t stop until you do.
- E.g. You have a Restaurant (Niche)
- You have an Italian Restaurant (Better niche)
- You have a home-made, authentic Italian Restaurant (Even better niche)
- You have a home-made, organic Authentic Southern Italian Restaurant (Best niche)
Finding your niche is the most important goal of your restaurant marketing venture – as now that you have such a specific, compiled niche you now know what you do in the most specific sense. This is great, because you now know who you need to market to, and what you have to market.
These ideas might seem like no-brainers, but you have no idea how wrong it can be. Once you have your specific niche, you automatically become a specialty and suddenly rival above the competition, as really – how much competition is there for a home-made organic authentic southern Italian restaurant versus just a restaurant or an Italian restaurant? People are much more likely to opt for the first, rather than ‘another Italian restaurant’.
Your specific niche is what makes you different. And you’ll reap the rewards.
Here’s how simple marketing becomes once you have your specific niche defined:
Before: Restaurant Niche
Target Audience (TA): Any and every person that has a stomach. Maybe some food bloggers, maybe a lot of locals. You’re just trying to have too broad of a customer reach – trying to reach every and any person hoping that it sticks.
After: Home-made, organic Authentic Southern Italian Restaurant
TA examples: Native Italians in the area, Italian food lovers, health lovers interested in organic food, Vegans, anyone that shops at Whole Foods, Local eatery enthusiasts and more.
Lesson? Now you have a much more condensed, easy to find TA and you most likely know who they are and where they reside, and that they are MUCH more likely to be deeply interested in what you have to offer, rather than throwing your restaurant ads at anything and hoping it will stick.
Digital Marketing 101: Be Shareable or Viral
We already discussed your website, and blogs. Which are great to share and speak personally to your customers. You now know a little bit more about your customer reach, but you also need your social media.
Pick one or two social media platforms and post, engage, consistent: rinse, wash, repeat.
The possibilities are endless: post anything and everything that is interesting enough to be shared. This includes but is not limited to trends, in house specials, and any kind of thing that might appeal to your customer base. Content is king, remember that. Content venues are second to that – think about guest blogging or becoming a contributor to a local food magazine. Branded content tapping into your exact niche is an almost fool proof way to pull in people.
Restaurants are emotional, and this makes your restaurant ripe for sharing. You need to tap into the ‘influencer community’ in your area – this means those that are food bloggers, avid restaurant critics or anyone in the millennial set (they know their social media). This brings us to finding your product market fit.
Hang on, it’s not that scary once you know what it is.
Find Your Product Market Fit
Once you have that niche, you’re gonna want to make it as perfectly fitting as you can. Now that you know who is going to want your product, and where to find them (digital marketing, customer reach) – you need to commit to your product wholeheartedly and refine it until it’s perfect.
Marketing is about putting out the absolute best product you can, because when and if you do, the results will speak for themselves.
When you’re growth hacking (or marketing) your restaurant, the good news is that you can refine and re-examine your business as many times as you want to ensure and discover your product market fit without spending a cent.
Niche found, TA found, but is it a product market fit?
Receive feedback, look at surveys and what preforms the best to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t. Refine until you have the purest product market fit possible. Until you do something no one else can.
That’s Growth Hacking
Now that we’ve taught you the basics of marketing and growth hacking on a totally tight budget, tune in for part 2 where we go into specifics about methods you can implement today, with case studies from specific brands and successful businesses for garnering an audience and growth hacking your restaurant.
