Marketing is a Long Game Played Daily

[00:00:00] A big part of my job is talking to restaurant owners pretty much every single day and working with them hand in hand. It's the very best part about what I do. It's something that I hear all the time. And there's this, this feeling here amongst owners and operators. They think that marketing is like something you turn on, right? Like when sales dip, when things feel slow, when maybe panic sets in, right? The market in bursts, in sprints, in reactions. [00:00:26] And the restaurants that win, right, the really, the ones that last understand something very different about marketing. They understand that marketing is not just a single campaign. [00:00:36] It is a long game played daily. It is not something you turn on. Your marketing is happening whether you want to be a part of it or not, whether you're deliberate about it or not, whether you are doing it yourself or not. It is happening today. What I want to do is reset how you think about marketing entirely. Not as just promotion, but his posture, all of that. On today's episode of Restaurant Strategy. [00:01:00] 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. [00:01:27] Foreign. [00:01:31] Thanks for tuning in. I am your host, Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy podcast. Put out two episodes every single week. We also put out YouTube content. We're on Instagram, we're on TikTok. I do talks, I write books, I host my signature coaching program. It's called the P3 mastermind. But check it out. We are getting ready to launch the restaurant opening boot camp. It's 12 two hour sessions. It starts July 9th. We are capping this strictly at 20 people. That's it. So if you are getting ready to open a restaurant in the next 24 months, whether this is your very first restaurant or your 19th restaurant, I promise you there are things you can learn from me, from Chris Hughes. He's the other my one of the P3 coaches. He's going to be leading this boot camp. He's going to be co hosting this with me. 12 two hour sessions that cover everything from lease negotiations to critical path to hiring, training, publicity and everything imaginable. This is the thing that will save you tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes made. We've seen so many mistakes made, which is why we put this together. [00:02:35] 12 two hour sessions. The Restaurant Opening Boot Camp. It starts July 9th, strictly capped at 20 people go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com/opening bootcamp. Click the button that says inquire. Now, tell us a little bit about your restaurant that you're looking to open, and we'll set up a phone call, see if you're a good fit. If so, we will get you into that boot camp. [00:02:55] RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Opening boot camp. Go check that out. As always, you'll find that link in the show notes. [00:03:04] All right, so one of the coaches who works with me is a guy named Rev Ciancio. I think he is hands down the smartest restaurant marketer I know. [00:03:13] He works at hundreds of restaurants all over the country and he's an operator himself. He's a restaurant owner. He works with the P3 members. He teaches the weekly marketing call that we do in the program. And then again, he acts as like a fractional CMO for hundreds of restaurants all over the country. Did you know every time he works with a new restaurant, he insists they use marquee, Right? We recommend marquee all the time, but he insists on it. It helps with listings management, SEO and reputation management. With Marquee, you get to manage and respond to all of your reviews, right? From Google, Yelp, OpenTable, TripAdvisor, Facebook, Grubhub, on and on and on in one central place. Because of that, they help you improve your star ratings with consistent review responses. They will even respond for you if you don't have time. Marquee also makes sure that all your hours, menus and information matches across the entire Internet, which places you higher in near me searches, which ultimately helps you get more butts in seats. If you're curious to learn more, visit marquee.com that's M A R qi.com as always, you'll find that link in the show notes. [00:04:20] Okay, so we're talking about long term versus short term. And the deal is short term thinking is, I think, why most marketing feels expensive. So let me, let me start with this pain point. [00:04:32] So many owners say, and maybe you find yourself guilty of saying this right? They'll say like, oh, well, marketing doesn't work. Marketing is just too expensive. Well, we just didn't see the results. [00:04:42] And that's usually true given how most people do it. [00:04:47] See, short term marketing is looking for immediate payoffs. It's chasing quick wins. It's measuring success often too early. It stops when results aren't instant. And that approach then that approach guarantees frustration. I know it. I've seen it, I've lived it. Marketing rarely fails because it doesn't Work, it fails, I think because owners quit before momentum can really take over. [00:05:12] See, marketing really is about memory, not necessarily conversion. Though I will say conversion is an important piece of it. It's just not only that, it's about memory. Let me explain what I mean, right? This is a fundamental misunderstanding here. See, owners want marketing to convert and I get it. I'm a marketer at heart. Guests need marketing though, to remind. See, people don't decide where to eat logically. They decide based on film familiarity, on comfort, on confidence, right? On their mood. It's emotional, right? [00:05:46] Marketing's real job then is to answer one question. [00:05:49] Do I feel safe choosing this place? And see, memory does that. Consistency does that, Repetition does that. So more than anything else, your marketing exists to remind people, to fortify the idea, to confirm what they're being told or confirm what they remembered, right? Do I feel safe choosing this place? Think about that. If I'm going to pick a place to take out my in laws, man, there's plenty of places where I'll take them. [00:06:18] I've been there and I'm like, oh man, they're going to hate this, right? There's places where I want to go take my wife for a romantic dinner and I've gone there and been like, oh, this isn't the right vibe for us. There's places to go entertain clients, there's places for a first date, all of that. Do I feel safe choosing this place? Am I making the right decision? [00:06:36] See, most restaurants are actually invisible, right? It's not that they're unliked, they are invisible. And this is an important reframe that I want you to make. [00:06:45] Guests don't avoid most restaurants, they just never learn about them or they forget about them. And see, invisibility I believe is actually the real problem here because if you never hear about the place, then you don't even know it's there. And if you forget about the place, then it's like it's not there anymore, right? Invisibility is the real problem. So that mind marketing isn't about convincing people to love you, it's about staying present enough to be considered. Right? So one of the coaches who works with me in the P3 mastermind is a guy named Rev CNC. He's hands down the smartest restaurant marketer I know and he talks a lot about being in the consideration set, right? Where's the place where you know, where's our favorite Chinese place? What's our go to sushi place? What's the place we always go to after baseball practice, you know, what's the best place for a, you know, breakfast sandwich? What's our favorite coffee shop? What's our, the best, you know, the, the best high end restaurant in the, in the neighborhood. You want to be top of mind when it matters, when somebody wants coffee or breakfast or sushi or a romantic dinner. So being part of the consideration set, which means being top of mind, that matters more than just about anything else. Not blowing people away, but being memorable. And see, when we think of it in those terms, it is about the repetition, right? Daily marketing builds, just like interest compounds. And this is where we tie the short term, day to day activity with long term results, right? Here's where that long term thinking actually matters. Because daily actions compound again, just like interest, meaning showing up consistently, reinforcing the same message, delivering the same consistent experience. [00:08:24] Stay at saying the same thing over and over with confidence. [00:08:29] Hey, sounds an awful lot like leadership. Sounds an awful lot like culture. Sounds an awful lot, if you remember from the last episode, sounds an awful lot like profit. [00:08:37] See, none of it works once. It works because it's repeated. I'll remind you something we talked about a couple of weeks ago, right? Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey is basically saying the same message over and over and over again for decades, right? Spend less than you make. But he says it in all different ways, in all different places. He gives talks, he's on the radio, he writes books, he's got YouTube. He's everywhere saying the same thing. Spend less than you make. But he says it in all different ways. The consistency matters. Variety comes in the way he grabs attention doing it. But I'm telling you, his messaging is consistent now three decades in a row. So none of it works once. Dave Ramsey is not as successful as he is because he says the thing once. It's because it's repeated day after day after day after day after day. [00:09:22] See, campaigns then create spikes. Systems, on the other hand, I believe, create stability. And in a lot of ways campaigns feel productive, right? A new launch, a new promotion, an lto, an event. They spike attention. But guess what? Then they fade. [00:09:40] Systems create stability. Because if you're always just doing campaigns, it's like picking up something heavy and then putting it down. And then when you have to bend all the way down and pick it up again, right? It's heavy again. [00:09:54] Systems create stability. Creates a flywheel, right? It's like once you get, you know, pedaling a bike, it'll just keep going. You don't have to pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal, pedal. You pedal Pedal, pedal, and then you can cruise and then pedal, pedal, pedal, and then cruise and cruise and cruise. [00:10:09] A system, just like riding the bike, a system says this is who we are, this is how we show up. This is what you can expect. [00:10:18] And it never, ever stops. So no spikes, no campaigns, but consistent messaging over and over and over. [00:10:28] Pop Menu has reimagined the restaurant. They're breaking the mold of the menu, taking the kitchen doors off the hinges and serving up their most comprehensive technology solution yet. It's called Pop Menu Max. It comes with all the previous ingredients that we've mentioned here on the podcast, right? So websites designed with SEO marketing tools to keep you top of mind with guests, and of course the patented interactive menu technology. But this new recipe brings automated phone answering to the table, third party online ordering, aggregation, wait listing and more. Pop Menu's phone answering, for example. That technology has your ringing phones covered. It uses AI, right? So artificial intelligence and makes the simple questions that keep your phone line tied up normally now can be handled by the computer without pulling a staff member from your in person hospitality. So no more missed reservations, no more people asking for your hours or missing out on revenue. And that's just the beginning. You have a passion for food. Pop Menu has a passion for technology. Together it's a recipe for restaurant success. And now even more digital ingredients are in that technology pantry. And Pop Menu is helping restaurants attract, engage, remarket and transact with their guests on a whole new level. Trust me, if you're a restaurant owner, you need Pop Menu to take your business to the next level. And for a limited time only, get a hundred bucks off your first month. Plus you get to lock in one flat unchanging monthly rate. Go to popmenu.com RestaurantStrategy to claim the offer. Again, that's $100 off your first month by visiting P O P M E N U.com RestaurantStrategy and as always, you'll find that link in the show notes most owners, or at least so many that I am that I end up talking to overestimate short term results and underestimate the impact of this long term marketing vehicle. And I think it's human nature, right? We want fast proof, we want fast feedback, fast validation. Think about Warren Buffett. Warren Buffett says I can teach anyone to be rich. The problem is I can teach you how to get rich slowly. And most people want to be rich today, right? They want to be rich now. They want the get rich quick scheme. And Warren Buffett says, I don't know how to do that. I can't teach you how to do that, but I can definitely teach you how to be incredibly wealthy a long time from now. I can show you how to get rich slowly. It's the same thing here, right? We all want fast proof, fast feedback, fast validation. We want the results right away. [00:12:57] But marketing, just like anything worth doing right, you know, when you learn to play piano, you do it over and over. When you're learning knife skills, you do it over and over and over. When you invest for your retirement, when you learn how to ride a bike, when you do anything right, including marketing, patience is rewarded. Six months of consistency, I promise, will beat six days of crazy intensity. A year of repetition will beat a single viral video. Video, I promise. I have been both consistent with my own marketing, and I have also had, you know, videos, you know, I have hundreds of thousands of views where the others get, you know, 5,000, 10,000, and then you get one that gets 800,000. I know what it's like to go viral. It's sort of doesn't matter. It's the consistency and the repetition that matters more than anything. At the end of the day, I think marketing should feel boring to you. [00:13:52] If it's boring to you, it's comforting to your guests, and it's a paradox, right? I mean, if marketing feels exciting to you, I think it's probably changing too often. If it feels boring to you, I'm going to guess it's probably working. See, because guests don't get bored. Guests are getting a lot of messaging, and yours hardly registers when it does land, your guests are reassured and reassurance drives decision, drives action. [00:14:23] Again, back to that. People want to know that they're making the safe choice, the right choice. Is my date going to like it here? Is. Are the clients that I'm trying to entertain here going to like it here? I need a sure thing. [00:14:37] Daily marketing is really a leadership practice. See, here's where everything connects that we've been talking about. Daily marketing requires, just like leadership, just like anything we do, it requires discipline, clarity, patience, and to a certain degree, restraint. [00:14:55] And again, those are leadership traits. Guess what? Just like we talked about last week, right? You see the. The mirror here, right? It's that I didn't do this accidentally. Profit is a skill that can be learned. Marketing is a set of skills that can be learned. But really it has to do with leadership and discipline and consistency. [00:15:12] Marketing done well, I think, reflects leadership done well. [00:15:17] So marketing is a long game. I think everything calms down. Owners stop panicking, they stop chasing, they stop reacting. What happens is they commit, they repeat, they refine, and they get really clear on who they are and who they're for. And slowly, predictably, that's when momentum builds. [00:15:39] So again, here's the shift, right? The final reframe here. [00:15:42] Marketing is not how you save a struggling restaurant. It is how you build a durable one. Durability beats hype, momentum beats noise, and consistency beats creativity. It beats cleverness. [00:15:58] So here's what I want today. I want you to ask yourself this question, not emotionally, but honestly. [00:16:04] Right? [00:16:05] What would marketing look like if I committed to it for the next two years instead of for the next two weeks? [00:16:12] And I promise the answer to that will change everything for you. Everything. [00:16:17] What would marketing look like if I committed to it consistently for the next two years instead of just for the next two weeks? No more fits and starts, no more sprinting. We are running one long marathon again. I appreciate you guys being here. Thank you so much. One final reminder, the restaurant opening boot camp. It's reserved for just 20 people. [00:16:40] 12 two hour sessions that begin July 9th. 12 weeks in a row, 12 Thursdays in a row. If you are opening restaurant anytime in the next 24 months, I would love for you to go to our website. Learn more about it. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com Opening Bootcamp. You can get all the information on that page. There's a button you'll see, it says inquire. Now click that chat. Give us your information, your name, your phone number, your email address. Tell us about the restaurant you're looking to open and let's see if it's a good fit for this program. We would love to be able to help you. The whole reason we put this together is because we watch so many people make the same mistakes over and over and over again. We want to be able to save you tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in mistakes. It's 12 two hour sessions, the restaurant opening boot camp. You can find that link in the show notes. As always, guys, I appreciate you being here. Thank you very much and I will see you on the next one.