The Restaurant Marketing Plan Is Essential
Perhaps one of the most difficult commercial structures to build is a bank. If you ask any contractor who has built or remodeled a location for a commercial bank, they will tell how complicated the features of the structure becomes due to the need for security and communications banks must have. Yet, the end result is a fine tuned operating unit that functions perfectly.
The only way a contractor can complete something as intricate as a bank building is through detailed plans that give precise instructions. The building plans show every electrical outlet, every heating and cooling duct, every security camera, and every computer terminal; literally each minute detail is precisely laid out on the building plan.
Restaurants must have a marketing plan similar to a contractor’s set of drawings to be effective. It needs to be clear, concise and timed for each goal the restaurateur must achieve to grow and prosper.
The mechanics of a restaurant marketing plan are relatively simple:
- Create a document that specifies a period of time.
- Determine your goal(s).
- Take the elements of marketing and plan how you are going to:
- Communicate your message.
- Sell your product.
- Deliver what the customer expects.
- Measure your results.
In theory, you could have several marketing plans going at any given time or overlapping. However, restaurant owners find that it is hard enough to carve out the time it takes to execute a single good marketing plan, and extremely difficult to attempt to manage multiple plans.
In the sample marketing plan for a restaurant below, a typical marketing plan for a month long period is exhibited. While you could turn this one page document into a book, restaurateurs already have their days full. Writing a long text document for a marketing plan just won’t happen as a general rule. A few descriptive lines of text is better than no plan because you were just “too busy”. The sample marketing plan for a restaurant is a form that allows you to fill in the blanks.
The plan below shows a period of time (June), what the goal is, and takes you through each step of the marketing process. The brief notes list your “To Do” items to accomplish the step. The completed line is for a date compared to the target date.
It is recommended that you post the plan in a conspicuous place for your staff to see. That accomplishes a continuous reminder and forces you to do what you have set out to plan. Your employees will also be able to anticipate each step before the action occurs.
Notice that there are follow up notes you can use to review or document what happens along the way. It is also a place to post your measuring techniques at the end of the marketing plan.
If you want to make your job easier in the future, keep a notebook just for marketing. One section can be the plans created. A year or two from this plan, you may want to duplicate it again in another period of time. That saves the brainstorming to find effective tools.
While the form is easy to use and quick to implement, the real work is determining what tools you will use to accomplish your goals. In The Restaurant Ebook, there are over 100 different marketing ideas that one whole chapter details. The Marketing Plan Handbook has over 50 unique ideas to boost sales and market your restaurant.
Marketing ideas and examples of targeted instructions to match your demographic and type of restaurant are difficult to instinctively create. In the books referenced above all of the tools have been used by other restaurants with success.
Sample Marketing Plan for a Restaurant.
