Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Your best customers live within three miles of your restaurant. They drive past your building every day. They shop at the same grocery stores. They send their kids to the same schools and participate in the same community events. Yet most restaurant marketing tries to cast the widest net possible instead of dominating the immediate neighborhood. Today we're talking about hyper local Marketing. How to become the restaurant that your neighbors can't live without on. On today's episode of Restaurant Strategy, there's an old saying that goes something like this. You'll only find three kinds of people in the world. Those who see, those who will never see, and those who can see when shown. This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:01:03] Hey, everyone, Chip close here. We are diving deep into hyper local marketing today. Strategies that will actually help you dominate your immediate market, area your neighborhood, and build relationships with your neighbors. This isn't about reaching more people. It is about reaching the right people and reaching them more effectively. The people who can and want to become your regular customers, your advocates, your evangelists. They are your community. Before we dive into this, let me remind you that I run something called the P3 mastermind. It is my community. It's a group coaching program where I help independent restaurant owners make more money from their restaurants. If this is something you're struggling with to make what you deserve to make from your restaurant, I'm here to tell you you're not alone and we can have a conversation. 30 minutes, absolutely free. Grab time on my calendar. You'll chat with me or someone from my team. We get to ask each other a whole bunch of questions. And let's see if you're a good fit for that program. You go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule grab time on the calendar again. Restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule as always, you're going to find that link in the show notes.
[00:02:18] What's the food cost for your third bestselling entree?
[00:02:21] You don't know. With Margin Edge, you could know instantly. Margin Edge is a complete restaurant management software that I like to recommend to all of the P3 members, all the clients I work with. Why? Because it helps them improve profitability. With Margin Edge, you just get to snap pictures of your invoices as they come in and you get real time data in every area of your business. You can see plate costs in real time. You get daily P&LS. Your inventory count sheets are automatically updated. It saves you a ton of time and lets you make informed decisions. So I got a client P3 member gather brewing down outside of San Antonio. They started using Margin Edge a month after they joined my program. And within one month of them bringing on Margin Edge, their food costs went from 38% to 28%. It was incredible savings. That's 10 points that drop straight to the bottom line. There's a reason I recommend Margin Edge to so many of the P3 members. It's because I know it works. If you're interested in learning more or you want to see how Gather brewing went from 38% to 28% food costs, head over to marginedge.com chip there's an incredible video there that talks about their story, talks about their journey with the platform. Again marginedge.com chip, see a really great. See a really great story about the folks at Gather Brewing. Go do that now. Of course, that link is in the show notes.
[00:03:45] Let me start today with a story about a P3 member. I'll call David. David runs a casual dining restaurant, right? Full service. It's in a suburb of Atlanta. They get good food, reasonable prices. It's a nice atmosphere. But David was frustrated because he felt like he was invisible in his own neighborhood. Chip, he said to me, I've been open for three years and do you know, I still have neighbors who don't know I exist. They come in and they say, I didn't even know you were here.
[00:04:11] Meanwhile, there's a chain restaurant about half a mile down the street and it's always packed, even though our food is better and our prices are actually lower.
[00:04:20] That's what he said to me. Does that sound familiar? This is of course the challenge of most restaurant owners these days. It is the challenge of hyper local marketing. In a digital world, just being in the neighborhood isn't enough anymore. You have to actively work to become part of the community fabric. So let's start with the foundation. The way you get started with this Google Business Profile and you optimize that profile, right? So Google Business gbp, right? Google Business Profile. How do you optimize it? It's the most important thing you can do for your local marketing and most restaurants do it terribly. Your Google Business Profile is often the first impression potential customers have of your restaurant. Why? Because Google is where people go to find things. Google is the number one website in the and now, especially with Google Maps and people using that to navigate, there's two different tools, right? Either Google Search Bar or Google Maps where they go to find things, right? So when someone searches for, I don't know, Italian restaurant near me or best Brunch in the West Village. Your Google listing is what they see first when you pop up. That's what they see. It's their first impression. But most restaurant Google profiles are incomplete. They're outdated or they're optimized with the wrong keywords. Or get this, no keywords at all. They have inconsistent hours, they have poor photos up there and no strategy for actually generating these all important reviews. So I worked at the breakfast cafe outside Denver and they completely overhauled their Google business profile at my recommendation. Simple. They just updated their hours. They added 20 high quality photos of their food and their interior. Right? And they add 10 new photos every month. They optimize their descriptions to use local keywords and they created a system for generating reviews. I've talked about it on this show. All of the P3 members know the system, the tools, the tactics that I recommend for generating more reviews because they're so important. After doing all that, the result, their Google profile views increased by 340% in just two months time. More importantly, what you care about, their phone calls and their direction requests increased by 180%. They went from being basically invisible on Google to being the first result for breakfast near me in their area. They were already crushing breakfast. They did it well, but now they wanted to make sure that people found them on a site like Google. Here's what most restaurants get wrong about Google optimization. They focus on generic keywords like restaurant or Italian food. But people searching for restaurants are usually looking for something specific like family restaurant or date night restaurant or business lunch or brunch with mimosas. Your Google profile should be optimized for the specific searches that your ideal customers are making. So if your sports bar optimized for sports bar, yes, of course. But also game day or wings and beer. If you're a fine dining restaurant, yes, you want to optimize for romantic dinner or anniversary or special occasion. Right? Now let's talk about review generation. Because this is where most restaurants fail. And it's something so easy, they wait for reviews to happen naturally, right? Which means they get maybe one review a week, maybe a couple a month. But reviews are crucial for local search rankings and customer decision making. You need a systematic approach to generating reviews and not fake reviews. Real reviews from real customers who actually had excellent positive experiences. Here's the other mistake that I see people do wrong all the time. They run contests with their servers. And so a server asks every single table for reviews and guess what? Then it feels perfunctory. It feels like just something they have to do. They have to do it because you told them to do it.
[00:08:19] But I don't want reviews from everybody because not everybody had an exceptional experience. Not everyone is going to rave. And I don't need the mediocre reviews, the lukewarm, the, yeah, we liked it reviews. I don't. I want the people who said, oh, my God, I just discovered this place. They have this and this and this. And they took such great care of me, and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So I'm working with a Mexican restaurant right in the heart of Phoenix, and they implemented a simple review generation system. After every positive interaction, right? And this is what I tell all my people to do, right?
[00:08:55] What we had. What we. What we did is we had the servers go find a manager and say, hey, table 10 is loving it tonight, right? So these are the people who complimented the servers. They clean their plate. They asked to send, you know, their accolades to the chef, right?
[00:09:12] What happens is the server goes over to the manager and says, Table 10, man. They are loving it. And the manager goes over and says, hey, I'm so sorry to interrupt. My name is Chip. I'm one of the managers here, and it looks like you guys were having a good time. Is that right? Amazing. What did you guys have? What did you guys love?
[00:09:32] Tell me what you thought. Was there anything you didn't love? What happens is they're gonna say, oh, my God, we had this and this and this, and that was so good. And our server was amazing. And no, there was nothing.
[00:09:42] And at the end of that, all you have to do is say, that's incredible. I'm so glad you had such a great time. Would you do me a favor and just take two minutes right now and leave us a Google review and. Or a Yelp review. Usually, what I could recommend is having business cards or postcards made that has your logo, your logo, the Google logo, and a QR code that takes them to the Google my business page, and then on the other side, your logo, the Yelp logo, and a QR code that takes them to your Yelp page and just say, we're making it really easy. If you could just take two minutes and do that right now. If you took any pictures over the course of your meal, throw them up there, too. Pictures worth a thousand words. And then what you do is you step away, you do a loop, and you come back three, four, five minutes later. It's at the end of the meal when things are winding down, and you're just asking them to do this really quickly. And it works. So you're not just waiting for the reviews to come in. You're not having your servers ask every single table.
[00:10:38] You're having your servers look out for the people who are loving it. And you just approach those. Think of it like you're only trying to get one or two rave five star reviews every single day. That will mean 30 to 60, right? Probably more like 40 to 50 every single month if you do this and it works.
[00:11:01] Now, let's talk about neighborhood partnerships, because this is where you can really build community connections. Your restaurant, right? Your restaurant exists in an ecosystem of local businesses, schools, nonprofits, churches, community organizations.
[00:11:15] So tap into that ecosystem. Partner with the yoga studio down the street to offer post workout smoothies. Offer them discounts. Work with the local elementary school to host fundraising nights, Help out the pta, sponsor the neighborhood little league team. Provide coffee for the local business association meetings. These partnerships do three important things. Number one, they obviously introduce you to new customers, which is something you care about. I know they position you as a community supporter. You are a keystone. You know, you're at the center of the community.
[00:11:51] Put yourself out there publicly and do it right. Last thing is it creates word of mouth marketing that money can't buy. You end up injecting yourself into conversations that you otherwise had no right to be in. And that matters quite a bit, right? So there's this pizza place out in Portland that I work with, and they become legendary in their neighborhood. Not just for their pizza, which is great, but for their community involvement. They host weekly trivia nights, right? But they actually donate proceeds to local charities and they switch it every single week and they reach out to the charity and they say, just so you know, we run this trivia and this week we're giving all our proceeds to you. Well, guess what happens? The charity spreads the word, right? They also sponsor the local youth sports teams. I know you guys do it. But they're very, very emphatic about it. They provide free pizza for school events and community meetings. Those PTA meetings, they've become the unofficial, like, community center for their neighborhood. And the result is that they have a waiting list for tables almost every night. Not just on Fridays and Saturdays, but they have a wait on Tuesdays, on Wednesdays. And yes, they are still in a competitive market, so they're just like you. But their customers aren't just customers. They have become advocates who actively promote the restaurant to their friends and neighbors. Why? Because they care. Because they are a neighbor. Because they are part of the fabric of that community.
[00:13:14] Local event marketing is a huge opportunity for building neighborhood presence, right? So don't just participate in events, create them. Block parties, outdoor movie nights, charity fundraisers, seasonal events, battle of the bands, whatever it is the. But here's the key.
[00:13:31] Make the event about the community, not just about your restaurant. You are obviously going to be a centerpiece, but make it about the community.
[00:13:39] Your restaurant should be the gracious host, not the main attraction. Because what happens is that people will remember how you made them feel. They will remember that you brought them together, and they will associate those positive feelings with your brand. It's inevitable. So I worked at this barbecue place down outside of Dallas, and they started hosting monthly neighborhood night events every third Thursday. It's the third or fourth Thursday of every month. They close the restaurant all together for regular service. And what they do is they host a community potluck in their parking lot. They provide the barbecue, neighbors bring sides and desserts and beverages. These events cost them about like 300 bucks in food. And yes, some lost revenue, but they generate incredible community goodwill. Most importantly, they've introduced the restaurant to hundreds of neighbors who might never have visited otherwise. And many of those neighbors, yes, have become regular customers.
[00:14:38] Now let's talk about local SEO beyond Google business profile. You want to be the restaurant that comes up when people go into the search bar and type in West Village restaurant or best restaurant near this park or this landmark or this museum.
[00:14:56] And to do this, it means creating content that includes local keywords and those landmarks, those neighborhoods. So what I mean is blog posts about local events or social media posts featuring neighborhood businesses, menu items named after local references. You think this is just something cute and kitschy. But if you are right by Central park, come up with a drink that's about Central Park. If you are by the Strawberry Fields over on the west side, make a drink that incorporates strawberry and call it Strawberry Fields. It's that kind of thing, right? So I'm working with a restaurant near the University of Colorado. They optimize their online presence for all those local search term like I'm talking about. They created content around Boulder restaurants, CU campus dining, Pearl street food, and other local keywords. Keywords that only true locals would understand.
[00:15:49] They also got listed in local directories because of this and neighborhood websites and therefore then community calendars. Their local visibility increased by almost 300%. And yes, they became the top result for several neighborhood specific searches.
[00:16:06] Now, direct mail, guess what? It still works when we're talking about hyper local marketing, but it's Got to be done, right? Generic postcards that go out, say 20% off get thrown out right away. But targeted, valuable communications to your immediate neighbors can be very effective. Send new neighbor welcome packages with information about your restaurant and an invitation to visit. Create neighborhood specific offers based on local events or seasons. Share your story and connection to the community. So I work with a restaurant in Chicago that sends out quarterly newsletters to every household with a 10 block radius. And these aren't just generic marketing materials, but, but they are actual newsletters with neighborhood news staff spotlights, seasonal menu features and community event announcements. Again, now you see how this is all tying together. They treat their neighbors like the neighbors they are, like family, right? And guess what? The neighbors respond accordingly. Their direct mail campaigns generate on average a 10 to 12% response rate, which might not sound like much, but compare that to the industry average of 2% when it comes to direct mail and it's a huge, huge lift, right? The other piece to this, when you are sending out these things, it is so easy to figure out new homes that have just closed, right? The homes that have sold and you know, when it's closing, specifically target them. And maybe this doesn't scale, but if you're just looking at the 10 block radius around your restaurant, it is quite easy to figure this out. Now in a city location like Chicago, no, maybe not, but in a suburban location. I live in a suburb just outside of New York City about 35 minutes west. I live in the North Jersey suburbs and I live in a town. There's two towns very close together. Even if you just, in this case, right. If I ran a restaurant here, just targeted the new homes, the new families that are moving into these two towns, Well, I could do that. That's probably like, I don't know, 100 or 200 people a year or a summer, let's say, right? 100, 200 people, you know, a quarter.
[00:18:16] It's not like hundreds and hundreds of homes. Turn over. There are dozens of homes, which translates to like hundreds of people. But if you could be there with a care package, like, I don't know, can you be there on the day that they move in or like within a month of them moving in? I bet you, I bet you could figure this out, right?
[00:18:35] Local media and PR opportunities. Let's talk about this. Because they are everywhere if you know how to look for them. So local newspapers, neighborhood blogs, community newsletters, and yes, local TV stations are always, and I mean always looking for stories to pitch. They are looking for interesting stories that their viewers that their readers will care about. But listen, don't just pitch them generic restaurant stories. Pitch them community stories that happen to involve your restaurant. So the charity fundraiser you're hosting, the local farm partnership you've developed, the anniversary of your restaurant, A longtime employee who's maybe celebrating 20 years with your restaurant. Right. There's a Mediterranean restaurant in Seattle that's become a go to source for their local food reporters. Not just because they have the best food in the city, because they don't. They've got good food, but other places have good food, but because they're always doing something interesting and they draw attention to it. They draw attention to the relationships they have in the community.
[00:19:40] So they host cooking classes for neighborhood kids. They source ingredients from those local farms. They employ refugees and help them learn English. They do these like English classes. It's incredible. And these stories are stories that get covered by local media, by the TV stations especially, and that generates awareness and credibility that advertising cannot buy.
[00:20:03] Okay, now let's talk about loyalty programs, but do it with a hyper local twist.
[00:20:09] Instead of generic punch cards or any of the other points for cash that are out there, why not create programs that reward community involvement and local advocacy? Give points for bringing friends or referring neighbors, or coming out and volunteering at community events, or posting about local partnerships. Why not make your loyalty program actually about building community, not just rewarding transactions? Right. It's coffee shop I work with and they created a neighborhood champion program. And it is awesome.
[00:20:45] Customers earn points not just for purchases, but like I said, for bringing in new neighbors, for participating in community events, for volunteering. And every time they help promote local businesses online through their own social feeds, they get points. And at this coffee shop, not promoting the coffee shop necessarily, but promoting the other local businesses on that block. This program has created a group of super advocates who actively recruit new customers and promote the coffee shop everywhere. On Facebook message boards like on and on.
[00:21:22] These champions, we did the math. They generate roughly about 30% of the shop's new coffee customer acquisitions. Think about that. Of all of the people you get, this is 30% of the business comes from these like 15 or 20 people. It is huge.
[00:21:41] Hyper local digital advertising can also be incredibly effective when done right. So I've talked a lot about this. Facebook ads, Instagram ads, Google Ads targeted to people within a very narrow radius. So maybe it's 10 or 15 miles. But the power of focusing on like a three mile radius of your restaurant. Right. Running ads for customized local events for. For other community happenings. Right. So when there's a whole home game at the local high school, run ads for post game dinner specials when there's a festival in your neighborhood, Promote your restaurant as the perfect place to grab food before or after when it's raising, when it's raining, advertise your cozy atmosphere and comfort food when it starts getting cold out. Talk about why you're a good place when it's cold out, right? There's a burger joint in Austin that runs a hyperlocal digital campaign and it's tied to University of Texas football games. Full disclosure, this is not one of my clients, but one of my clients brought this up to me because they're in the market. So three hours before every UT home game, they run targeted ads to people within two miles of their restaurant promoting their pre game special burger, fries, beer for like 12 bucks. These campaigns cost about $50 per game and on average generate about $800 in revenue. Now that is a 1500% ROI. And many of these game day customers then, as you can imagine, become regular customers throughout the season and they continue into the off season.
[00:23:19] Now, 800 bucks in additional revenue, you know, on, you know, six or eight home games a year, is that going to make or break your, your business? No.
[00:23:28] But again, people start counting on this and they become your evangelists. All right, community bulletin boards, local advertising like that still work in many neighborhoods. Again, like the Facebook pages, right? Coffee shops, grocery stores, libraries, community centers, these are all places where your neighbors go regularly, where they look for local information. So on the Facebook pages, but actually the bulletin boards actually go in there. Make your local advertising valuable though, not just promotional. So what do I mean? Share recipes, promote those community events on those boards, celebrate local achievements, or just provide useful information about not just your restaurant, but about your neighborhood.
[00:24:11] Now let's take a second and talk about what doesn't work in hyperlocal marketing.
[00:24:17] Do not try to be everything to all people in your market.
[00:24:21] You gotta pick a niche and own it. So are you the family restaurant? Are you the date night spot, the business lunch destination, the sports bar?
[00:24:32] Focus your hyperlocal efforts on attracting your ideal customers. Not every person in your neighborhood, but the people who would love the thing that you have.
[00:24:43] Don't ignore online reviews. Don't ignore local feedback. In small communities especially, word spreads fast. One bad experience can hurt your reputation with dozens of potential customers. Address those issues quickly and publicly when you can.
[00:24:59] Don't be inconsistent with your community involvement. So if you're going to sponsor the little league team, do it every year. If you're going to host charity events, make it an annual tradition. Consistency builds trust, it builds recognition, and again, it continues to weave you into the fabric of your community.
[00:25:17] Here's your homework for this week. First, number one way back to what we talked about at the beginning of this episode. Audit your Google My business profile. Update your photos, hours, description and contact info. Research what local keywords your ideal customers are searching for and optimize your page accordingly. Second, identify 10 local businesses, schools, organizations, whatever other companies out there that serve your ideal customers. And reach out to one per week with a partnership idea or with an open conversation of say I'd like to partner. Can we brainstorm ideas?
[00:25:54] You make sure they know you want to figure out something that will benefit both parties and mostly something that will bring the community together.
[00:26:02] Third, I want you to create a system for generating reviews. We've talked about it a lot on this show. You have to train your staff to identify those positive experiences and let a manager know. You have to then train your manager, give them the scripts so that they can get those people to leave the reviews. Now remember, I want to go back to this restaurant, right, we talked about at the very beginning, remember? We for David's restaurant, right, we implemented a comprehensive hyperlocal marketing strategy over eight months. We optimized his Google My business profile for local searches. We partnered with six local businesses, two different community organizations. We started hosting monthly community events. We created the neighborhood focused social media strategy, right? And that social media strategy wasn't a big shift, it's just we started adding all that stuff in there, so it was complementing the stuff that already existed, right? We implemented that systematic review generation process that we've talked about. The results, David's restaurant went from basically being invisible in his neighborhood to being the most talked about restaurant in his area, online, on message boards, on Facebook pages, on the UGC that was created that, that people were creating on his on his behalf. His customer base became 73% local residents all within three miles of his place. His customer retention rate increased by almost 50%. His revenue increased in that time by over 30%. Right? So over like a, an eight month period of when we were working together, right, it went hyper local. His retention rate increased and most importantly, and this is what I know you care about, all that retention helped drive more revenue.
[00:27:47] Most importantly, David achieved his real goal by becoming part of his community.
[00:27:53] His restaurant is now the neighborhood gathering place, right? They are the supporter of all the local causes. They are the business that his neighbors are proud to have. In their area and that is the power of hyperlocal marketing. It is not about reaching more people. It's about building deeper relationships with the the right people. Hyperlocal marketing works because it's based on relationships, not transactions. When you become truly embedded in your community you're not just another restaurant. You become a neighbor, a supporter, a gathering place. Right next week we're going to talk about subscriptions and loyalty models that actually drive profitability. How to create programs that increase customer lifetime value and generate that predictable revenue so we can target predictable profit. I appreciate you guys being here again. I run something called the P3 mastermind. If you want to learn more about it go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule grab some time on the calendar. I appreciate you being here. Appreciate you making time for this show each and every week. Thank you for listening Again. My name is Chip Close. I am your host and I will see you next time.
[00:29:07] Sam Sa sat.
