Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Picture this. Two Italian restaurants open on the same street just a few weeks apart. Same rent, similar menus, comparable food quality. Fast forward one year. Restaurant A is packed every weekend with a three week waiting list for Friday and Saturday night reservations. Meanwhile, Restaurant B just laid off half their staff and is considering closing. So what's the difference? Restaurant A implemented automated SMS campaigns that converted 34% of recipients into customers. They used AI to identify at risk customers and won them back with personalized offers. They're using paid strategies on social media that actually bring in new customers every single week. In Restaurant B, they're still running newspaper ads and hoping people walk by. This isn't a hypothetical scenario. This is happening right now in markets all across the country. And today I'm going to give you the exact playbook. The specific tools, platforms and strategies that Restaurant A is using to dominate their market. The same tools, platforms and strategies that you can use to to dominate yours. My name is Chip Close. This is the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. Don't go anywhere.
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 foreign.
Welcome back to the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. I am your host, Chip Close, and today we're diving deep into the five marketing trends that are separating successful restaurant groups from the competition. If you've been wondering why some restaurants are thriving while others are struggling to fill seats, maybe you're looking at this, you're looking at competitors and you see other people thriving and you are still struggling. And the answer often comes down to how they're marketing themselves. Based on the latest data from successful US Restaurant groups, I've identified five what I think are game changing trends that every restaurant owner needs to understand. And here's what makes today's episode different. I'm not just going to tell you what these trends are, but I'm going to give you the exact tools, platforms and websites you can use to implement each one. By the end of this episode, you'll have a complete roadmap for modernizing your restaurant's marketing approach. So grab your coffee, pull out your notepad, and let's talk strategy. For that, though, I just want to remind you I host events every single year. I give talks, I wrote a book. I also run something called the P3 mastermind. This is a group coaching program specifically dedicated to restaurant owners that struggle with profitability. So if you've got a couple of locations or maybe just one and you're doing one, two, three million dollars a year but not seeing enough drop to the bottom line, meaning you're stuck at single digit profit margins. I'm here to tell you that doesn't have to be.
I help people make 20% plus in profit every single month and I'd love to show you how. We have an Incredible community. Over 150 members currently enrolled in the program spread across four different mastermind groups. The bottom line is the program works. It's the coolest thing I have ever had the privilege of doing. The way to start that conversation, just to see if you're a good fit is to go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule. That link is in the show notes as well. You grab time on the calendar, you chat with me or someone from my team and let's just see if you're a good fit. Absolutely no pressure. It's a 30 minute call, totally free, where we just get to know each other again. RestaurantStrategyPodcast.com schedule and that link is in the show notes.
Avi, you love to go out to eat. So as a guest, what's your biggest pet peeve when you're trying to choose a place to eat?
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Yeah, as the father of two children, I can't leave the house for less than $30 an hour. My wife has celiac. So when we're going to make a dining decision, I live and die by that menu. I'm in there researching what's available, what can my wife eat, what can we share, what do I get to eat off of her plate?
And so that menu is just a crucial part of all decision making for me as a consumer. It's why at Marquee we focus so much on our menus, our menu integration, so that as operators, your menu that lives in your point of sale that you want customers to see is available and up to date everywhere.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: To learn more about Marquee, go to marque.comm a r q I-I.com to learn more about this and all of the incredible features they have.
Okay, so today's episode, I'm sharing the five biggest marketing trends that I'm seeing right now across the industry. Let's dive into it. Trend number one, AI powered marketing automation. Right. So this is the big one. And now I know what some of you are thinking. AI is expensive and it's complicated and I don't know what to do. But here's the reality. Restaurants that aren't using AI are already falling behind and the tools available today make it more accessible than ever. Let me give you some specific examples of what this looks like in practice. For automated review responses. Platforms like Marquee are using AI to craft personalized responses to Google and Yelp reviews in your brand voice. So instead of spending an hour every morning responding to reviews, you're spending five minutes a week, 10 minutes a week, reviewing and approving. The AI generated responses for customer sentiment analysis or guest feedback. Tools like Ovation are analyzing not just what customers are saying in reviews, but how they're feeling in real time about the experience they had in your restaurant. The service, the food quality, the atmosphere. This gives you actionable insights that you can act on immediately. And here's where it gets really powerful Predictive marketing. So platforms like Fishbowl and Thanks are using AI to identify customers who are at risk of churning. They analyze patterns like frequency of visits, average spend and the last time they they they came. So they can predict which customers might not come back anymore. Then they automatically trigger personalized win back campaigns. So I recently spoke with a restaurant group out in Chicago that implemented thanks and they saw a 23% increase in customer retention within six months. The AI identified customers who hadn't visited in 45 days and only had a 15% chance of returning if they didn't intervene. So they created automated campaigns specifically targeting these at risk customers with personalized offers. And it's working. Here's the thing. You don't have to send a blast out with a really cool gift to everybody. You can just target it, segment your list and just send it to the people who really need to hear it. For email automation specifically, I've talked about this. Platforms like mailchimp now have restaurant specific AI features in constant Contact has partnered with several POS systems that are able to trigger automated campaigns based on customer behavior. So if someone orders takeout three times in two weeks, the system automatically adds them to a frequent takeout customer segment and then starts sending them relevant offers when it makes sense. The key here, and this is, and this can't be overstated, is to start small, just pick one AI tool. Maybe it's automated review responses because we know how powerful reviews are when it comes to Google search results, right? Pick one AI tool. So this would be marquee, implement it, see the results and then expand from there. That's the first one. AI powered marketing automation. There's a lot that you can set up that can just happen in the background which frees you up to do all the other stuff you got to do. So trend number two, customer data platform integration.
This brings us to trend, right? This the second one. CDP customer data platform integration. Here's the problem most restaurants face. Your customer data is scattered everywhere. So you've got WI fi signups through platforms like Viva Spot, right? Online ordering data through DoorDash, Uber Eats or your own system, right? So chow now or your POS ordering, right reservation data from Open Table or Resi or seven rooms, social media followers on Instagram and Facebook, loyalty program data wherever you have that housed. And then of course, POS transaction history. It's a mess. And this is where CDPs come in. And there are several options specifically designed for restaurants. Toast if you're already using their POS system, has integrated CDP capabilities that automatically pull data from all of the connected platforms and services.
Seven rooms, which I've talked about before, which is, which is probably the best at this that I've seen. A lot of fine dining restaurants use this for reservations, but it's expanded into this full CDP that connects reservation data with POS transactions and social media interactions and email engagement. So you can actually get a sense of who your people are, how often they come, how much they spend, so that you can make determinations about how to continue to nurture that relationship.
So for restaurant independent restaurants or smaller groups, you got platforms like Fishbowl and Loyalty and more offer CDP functionality at a more accessible price point. These platforms can integrate with most major POS systems and pull in data from your WI fi provider, from your email marketing platform, social media accounts, all of that. Now let me give you a real example. So a restaurant group in Austin recently implemented 7Rooms CDP and discovered that their highest value customers weren't who they thought they were. They assumed it was the customers making large reservations for business dinners. But the data showed that their most valuable segment was actually couples who dined twice a month. They spent moderately on wine and rarely made special requests. Armed with that insight, they created a date night marketing campaign targeting this segment with wine pairing dinners and intimate table settings. Revenue from this segment alone increased the 34% just over the course of the quarter. The CDP also revealed that customers who engaged with their Instagram posts were 40% more likely to make a reservation within 30 days. So they started using tools hootsuite and there are other tools out there. They started using hootsuite to schedule more engaging content and track which posts actually drove the most reservation activity. And for data integration, specifically, you've got tools like Zapier that can connect all the different platforms. So if you don't want to invest in a full CDP right away, it's okay. Okay. You can create an automated workflows that sync customer data between your POS email platform and reservation system. With the power of a CDP is that it's an all in one. It brings all the data under one roof and you can just work within there. But that's the other thing. That's where we're going. And if you're not already there, you are already behind.
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Now the third trend I wanted to bring up is SMS marketing and the dominance that it's playing that it has right now across the market. Right. So we have to talk about SMS marketing because the numbers are, let's just say staggering. Uh, we're seeing open rates as high as 98% right. With an average response time of just 90 seconds. Which means you're gonna get to a lot of people and you're gonna get to them fast. And compare that to email marketing where you're lucky to get a 20 or 25% open rate. And you can see why smart restaurant owners are making SMS their their more primary direct communication channel. We could talk about the best way to use that, but you just this has to be on your radar. Here's the thing, you can't just start blasting text messages to customers. You need the right platform and strategy. For restaurant specific SMS marketing, I recommend looking at tools like Ovation. They do this textedly which integrates directly with most POS systems. Right. Postmates, they have an SMS marketing tool if you're already on their platform. Simple texting is another popular choice because it offers restaurant specific templates and integrates with OpenTable, Toast Square, you name it. They've got pre built campaigns for things like reservation confirmations, order ready notifications, birthday messages and all that. For more advanced SMS marketing, you've got platforms like Klaviyo and Attentive offer sophisticated segmentation and automation. You could set up campaigns that trigger based on specific customer behaviors. For example, if someone orders delivery on a Friday night three weeks in a row, they automatically get added to a weekend regular segment and receive special Friday night offers. Or at the very least a reminder when Friday comes around.
Because just because they've done it in the past doesn't mean they're necessarily going to do it again. We can remind them. So again, let me share a specific example. So there's a pizza chain out in Denver they implemented textedly and it doesn't matter which one you do. They use textedly and created several automated SMS campaigns. So when customers place an online order, they automatically receive a text when the order is confirmed. Right. When it goes in the oven, when it's ready for pickup. Just a simple automation reduced customer service calls by over 60% and it improved customer satisfaction scores. Right? Just them knowing the consumer, knowing that like they were on it is enough, right? But guess what? They didn't stop there. They then created a rainy day campaign using weather data from AccuWeather's API. So whenever it's raining in Denver, customers within a three mile radius automatically receive a text offering free delivery. This campaign has a 34% conversion rate, meaning 1 in 3 people who receive the text actually place an order. That is insane. And I think it's really easy for you to see that if you send 3,000 emails, you're going to get a thousand or 3,000 texts, get a thousand orders. That was basically it. They worked with a much smaller order, much smaller list because they were just starting out, but they got something like 140 orders over the course of like an hour. And it was insane. They shut everything else off. They were like, we're good for compliance, obviously. Make sure you're using a platform that handles SMS regulations automatically. Twilio and Text Message textmagic are another two more platforms. They both have built in compliance features that manage opt ins, opt outs and to ensure that you're following the proper regulations. The key with SMS is personalization and timing. Do not send generic come eat at our restaurant messages, they don't work. Reminders, things like that, like informational texts don't work. It has to have urgency, real urgency and it's got to be a juicy text, right? So. Hi Sarah, it's been three weeks since your last visit. Your usual chicken Caesar salad is 20% off today. Something like that will drive action. So that's the third one I really wanted to talk about number four, right, we're talking about all these trends. Social media as primary discovery channel. Now we're going to get into this, you know, you guys know how I know how I feel about social media.
You'll see when this makes sense, right? So the next trend, right, it's gonna, it's gonna surprise some old school operators who are listening. But social media really has become the primary way that new customers discover restaurants or research restaurants. So get this statistic. 45% of us diners try a restaurant for the first time because of a social media post by the establishment. Not a friend's recommendation, a post by the restaurant itself. So this means that your Instagram, Facebook TikTok presence isn't just marketing fluff, it's your most important customer acquisition tool. But creating engaging content consistently can be time consuming, which is why you need the right tools and strategy. Now to be perfectly honest, discovery does come through word of mouth, discovery does come through Google. Discovery does come from all kinds of other things.
But social media is usually where people go to verify, to confirm what they've been told, to confirm what they already want to believe.
When it comes to content creation because again, you have to put out content, I recommend starting with something like Canva Pro. I think most of us know what Canva is. I'm sure most of you guys use it or your team uses it. Did you know that it has restaurant specific templates and therefore makes it easy to create professional looking posts even if you are not a graphic designer. They've got templates for menu announcements, daily specials, behind the scenes content, seasonal promotions. For food photography specifically, you've got apps like VSCO and Lightroom Mobile. They can make your phone photos look professional. And here's a pro tip. Natural lighting is more important than what app you use. So if you've got an iPhone, you can use the phone app or you can use the camera app. Just get that food up into the light up in the front window. Take advantage of that, right?
For video content, which is crucial nowadays. For Instagram Reels or TikTok, there's Capcut, there's InShot, right. There's also the Blackmagic app which is excellent. A little bit more complicated, but that one works again, same thing. You can use the camera app and use some of the settings like cinematic that give it sort of that, like that film look.
You just need to have good light, but you can make really good engaging short form video, right? The real game changer is showing your process. People love seeing behind the scenes how food Is made. The things that you take for granted, right? You take for granted. Prep.
How many times do you pick up the sea bass? How many times do you pick up, you know, the burger? But watching, you know, letting the people in and watch in real time it get made is really engaging. You can use, you know, time lapse like sped up. So chef preparing the dish. So it's a four minute pickup and it's shows in like 40 seconds, right? That's easy to film on your phone and edit. You know in a film editing app like Capcot, like Cap Cut, you do that. That kind of stuff will get sticky. Now for posting and scheduling, there are platforms like later, hootsuite, Buffer. I always like to recommend Sprout Social meaning you plan it all out, you schedule it across all the different platforms, you set it and forget it, it'll just do it automatically.
It links into all of the features. It'll show you really great analytics. Analytics. It works. Here is where most restaurants mess up. They post random content without a strategy. You need to use the social media analytics to understand what's actually working. So Instagram Insights, Facebook Analytics, TikTok analytics, they show you which posts get the most engagement. So when your audience is most active, you'll know which content drives actual business results.
Again, let me give you a specific story here. A taco shop in Portland started using later to schedule daily posts in Canva to create consistent looking content. But the breakthrough came when they started using Instagram stories with location tags and they implemented user generated content campaigns using a branded hashtag. It was, I forget what the hashtag was but they made one that was unique to them. They encouraged customers to post photos of their meals and then they re shared the very best ones. And this created social proof and gave them a constant stream of actual authentic content. The result, their Instagram following and I don't care so much about followings, but the the proof is in the pudding. Their content went from 800 to over 12,000 in just eight months. More importantly, they can directly attribute 23% of their new customers to Instagram discovery. And they track this by asking first time diners how they heard about the restaurant. Hey, that's novel. How simple is that for local SEO? Make sure you're posting to Google my business as well. This is something we forget about but but consider it like another social platform. So post Google my business appear in local search results and can include photos, events, special offers, whatever it is, it's free and it does directly impact your local search ranking. I would go in there every week and add like five new photos. This way you get to curate the feed and you get to show what you want to show. The power of manicuring your organic feed is that it's, it goes and helps all of your paid side of social, which you guys know. I'm pretty outspoken about that. So having a really strong organic presence and paid presence is crucial. Okay, now we get trend number five. The last one here I wanted to share with you guys. Comprehensive online reputation management, right? Let's talk about it. This isn't just about hoping for good reviews anymore. It's about systematically managing your reputation across Google, Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor and wherever else your people are talking about you. The smart operators out there are using specific tools to automate this process and I'm going to tell you exactly which one works best. For comprehensive reputation management.
Marquee is what you want to use. M A R Q I I. It monitors all your review sites, alerts you immediately when new reviews come in. Right? It aggregates all of them. You can use the AI tools to actually craft responses and then you get to approve all the responses. You can make edits and tweaks there and just hit post, post, post, post.
Here's the advanced strategy. Using reviews to actually improve operations. Right? So you can go through here and find the common threads. And again, Marquee will help you do this and they will give you basically like consumer sentiment. And you can see, man, if people are complaining about the same thing over and over again, there's something to look at. If people are raving about the same thing over and over again, that's something to look at. All of this is crucial when it comes to review generation. There are tools out there, software.
But this is where I'm going to step away from AI, I believe you shouldn't be asking everybody. You should only be asking the rave, rave reviews. The people who loved it and are more apt to give you a rave review. So there's a tool like Ovation. Ovation is a guest feedback platform. You say, hey, how do we do today? On a scale of one to five, the people that say five, you say, great. What did you love about it? Would you mind leaving a review for us that helps us our small business, right? You can also go up and ask people. I always say find the, find the people who are loving it. All you need is like 1 or 2 reviews every single t. 1 or 25 star reviews every day will make such a profound difference. And then you use the AI tools to Actually respond to them. And this is where a manual approach integrated with some of this technology can really be a killer.
Killer. One, two, punch. Okay, so now I know what you're thinking. Hey Chip, this sounds great, but where the hell do I start? I can't implement everything at once. And guess what? You shouldn't try to. So here's my recommended implementation timeline. Month one, start with online reputation management, meaning get more reviews and respond to those reviews. If you don't have a plan in place, this is where to start. Use Marquis M A R Q I I. They're sponsors of the podcast. I'm not talking about them because they're a sponsor. Talking about them because it's an incredibly powerful tool.
They just happen to be a sponsor. So use Marquee. Let's say month one is all about that, right? Month two, implement SMS marketing, right? With any of a number of platforms. We threw them all out there. My favorite is probably Ovation. I love that company by the way. Ovation and Marquee usually have a deal together. They have a bundle price and they do help each other. They are the left hand washes the right way one, right? Start with basic automated messages that are based on, you know, order confirmations or reservation reminders or a birthday message. Just start with that and that will give you a bunch of quick wins. That stuff will be running in the background and then you can figure out how to send campaigns, meaning a dedicated blast, let's say once a month or twice a month down the line. But month one, you're getting started with reputation management, right? Generating more reviews and responding to those reviews using a tool like Marquee. Month two, you're going to implement SMS marketing platform like Ovation or any of the number of platforms that are out there. Start with just the automations. Month three, focus on this social media optimization, right? So use a tool like later or Hootsuite or Sprout Social to schedule and create templates and all of that. And then beyond that you can start doing some of the AI powered marketing automation, right? Fishbowl and you know, after that you can integrate a CDP like seven rooms. Get yourself some quick wins. Start with the low hanging fruit and then grow from there. And that basically is like a six month plan to get your marketing up to the level of the best restaurants out there. Now when it comes to measuring success, right? Because you have to know how the strategies are working and if they're working right, you need the right metrics. Don't just look at follower counts and don't look at email open rates. Those are two specifically unreliable metrics. Right?
Focus on metrics that actually directly impact your bottom line. Number one, customer acquisition cost, also known as cac. Cac, the customer acquisition cost. How much you actually spending to acquire each new customer through a given channel? CLV Customer Lifetime value. What's the total value of each customer over the course of their relationship with you and your restaurant? Return on ad spend roas. Roas for every dollar you spend on marketing, how much revenue you actually generating? And then conversion rates by channel. What percentage of social media followers or email subscribers or SMS subscribers actually become a paying customer? Right. There are tools like Google Analytics, Facebook analytics, your POS's reporting system, all of these can give you that. But it's really crucial to make sure you're measuring cac, clv, roas and then conversion rates.
Right? So there you have it. The five biggest marketing trends that I see that are defining success across the industry right now, along with, guess what, the specific tools and platforms that you can use to implement each one. What we're seeing is a clear shift toward data driven automated marketing that personalizes the customer experience while maximizing operational efficiency. The restaurants that embrace these trends with the right tools and the right strategy, I promise, are the ones that are going to thrive. So here's my challenge for you again, don't try to do everything at once. Pick one thing that resonates most with your current challenges. Choose one or two tools from my recommendations and commit to implementing them. One over the next 30 days and the next one over the next 30 days. So if you're struggling with online reviews, start with that. If you're struggling with social media, start with that. If you're struggling with whatever you are, do that.
That's the thing again, strategy matters. Strategy is your approach, what you are going to do. Strategy also requires that you determine what you're not going to do. Remember, the best restaurants out there and some of them are your competitors. They are already using these tools. If you want to be part of the 1% in your market, part of the 1% industry wide, you're going to get involved with these things. Guys, I appreciate you showing up every single week. Friendly reminder, if you struggle with profitability, this is a lot of what we talk about every single week in the weekly coaching calls. The best way to just start a conversation about the P3 mastermind is to go to restaurantstrategypodcast.com schedule, grab some time on the calendar to chat with me or someone from my team. As always, that link is in the show notes. Appreciate you guys for being here. Keep crushing it and I will see you next time.
Sam Sa.
