Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] I want to tell you about something that absolutely drives me crazy. A restaurant owner posts a video on Instagram. That video takes off ten thousand views, fifty thousand views, a hundred thousand views in like ten days. And everybody gets excited. The owner's thrilled, the marketing person is celebrating, the comments are rolling in and people sharing that video. And the restaurant's social media account is suddenly getting all all kinds of attention.
[00:00:28] But then something interesting happens. Or more accurately, something doesn't happen.
[00:00:34] The dining room doesn't get any busier, sales don't increase, reservations don't improve. And a few weeks later, the owner's sitting there wondering what happened. I mean, we got all those views. Why didn't that translate into customers? Well, here's the answer.
[00:00:50] Attention is not the same thing.
[00:00:53] Action.
[00:00:54] And I think this is one of the biggest problems with restaurant marketing today. We've become obsessed with metrics that don't necessarily have anything to do with the success of the restaurant. They don't have anything to do with profitability, meaning followers, likes, views, impressions, reach, engagement. Those numbers can be useful. I'm not suggesting they're meaningless, but remember, they aren't the end goal. The goal is to generate profitable business, to attract the right people, to convince them to visit, to give them a great experience so that we inspire them to return.
[00:01:27] So today I want to talk about why your marketing might be getting attention without generating actual traffic. More importantly, we're going to talk about how to fix it. All of that on today's episode of Restaurant Strategy.
[00:01:39] 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.
[00:01:49] This is Restaurant Strategy, a podcast with answers for anyone who's looking.
[00:02:10] Hey, everyone, thanks for tuning in. My name is Chip Close. This is the restaurant strategy podcast. Two episodes every single week. We've done this more than 600 times. To all of you guys out there, if you've been with us, one episode, 100 episodes. Episodes. All 600 plus episodes. We're glad to have you here. This show is for restaurant owners who want to improve the profitability of their restaurants. There's two ways to do that through the operation, right? Making sure we're as profitable as possible. We're really good at setting revenue targets, hitting those targets, and managing our key expenses based on those revenue targets. And then, of course, once we do that, well, then we grow the hell out of the business. That's what marketing is all about. How do we get More people in. How do we get those people back? How do we increase the frequency of visits? This show is interested in helping you accomplish those things. I run a coaching program. It's called the P3 mastermind. It's the best way I know how to work with restaurant owners and provide accountability and perspective. If you want to learn more about that program, it's RSProfit.com you go, you watch a quick video where I explain more about the program. There's tons of free content that I put out that is the paid piece of what I do and it is the very best way I know to make an impact. I'm going to make a request that I made last time. I'm going to make it again. If you get any sort of value out of this show, can you do me a favor and press pause? Go to Apple Podcast, leave a five star rating and review. Just let other people know why you listen, why you think this show is valuable and why you think they should listen in. That more than just about anything else would help me grow my small business. Go, hit pause. Do that now and then come back for the episode.
[00:03:45] Okay, so if you've read the restaurant marketing mindset, you've heard me talk about a simple framework. Get attention, build trust, inspire action. Right? Those are the three jobs of great marketing. I want you to think about them as three stages in the customer's decision making process.
[00:04:03] First, attention. Right? People obviously need to know you exist. If nobody knows about your restaurant, then they're obviously not going to visit. So yeah, you need to get in front of the right audience. You do that through social media, through search, through pr, through partnerships, through simple word of mouth, through whatever channels make sense for your restaurant. But attention is only the beginning. Because just because somebody sees your restaurant doesn't mean they're automatically going to choose it. Which brings us to trust right now. They need to believe that visiting your restaurant is a good decision and a good decision for them. They need to understand what you offer. They need to see evidence that the experience will be worthwhile. Maybe that's through reviews or through photo or through stories or through recommendations from friends. Whatever the case, you need to reduce uncertainty. And then of course, we come to the third stage, which is action.
[00:04:57] You need to make it easy for somebody to actually do something. Make a reservation, place an order, visit the restaurant, buy a ticket, join your email list. Whatever action you're trying to inspire, you need to make that frictionless. And see, here's the problem I a lot of restaurant marketing stops right after the first stage, right? Marketing does a really good job to get attention, but it never builds enough trust, and it never gives people a clear reason or path to take action.
[00:05:25] So you wind up with lots of engagement, lots of traffic, and very little business.
[00:05:30] Now, I want you to think about your own marketing. When somebody sees your latest Instagram post, what happens next? Literally, what are they supposed to do? Do you want them to make a reservation, visit your website, go try out a new menu item, come in this weekend? Or are they simply supposed to admire the photograph and keep scrolling?
[00:05:49] Because if you don't know what action you're trying to inspire, there's a pretty good chance your audience doesn't know either.
[00:05:57] So let's go back to that viral video, right? It got what, 100,000 views? It sounds incredible, right? But here's a question.
[00:06:04] Where do those viewers live?
[00:06:06] Because if your restaurant is, let's say, here in New Jersey, where I am, and the people watching the video are in California or Texas or Florida or another country, well, how many of them are actually going to visit?
[00:06:19] I'm guessing probably not many. And that's why I want you to stop evaluating marketing exclusively by the size of your social media audience. I want you to evaluate it by the relevance of the audience.
[00:06:32] Are you reaching people who can realistically become customers? Are you reaching people who are actually interested in the experience you're offering? Are you reaching people who have a reason to visit?
[00:06:43] And this goes right back to the ABCDs of marketing, right? You remember this. A is for audience, B is for brand, C, competition, and D, differentiation. Before you start creating content, you gotta know who you're trying to reach. That's audience.
[00:06:59] Not everybody, but your specific demographic, your group, your people. And you got to get specific. So maybe you're a neighborhood restaurant that serves families. Maybe you're a wine bar targeting young professionals. Maybe you're a destination restaurant that attracts people celebrating special occasions. Maybe you're a quick service concept serving office workers during lunch.
[00:07:21] All of those are very different audiences. And because of that, they require very different channels and very different messages. Let me give you an example. Imagine you own a neighborhood Italian restaurant. You post a beautiful video of your chef making fresh pasta. The video gets 50,000 views. That's great. But what if most of those views come from people who live 400 miles away?
[00:07:43] Now, imagine you create a different video. It shows a family enjoying dinner. The kids are laughing. The parents are relaxed. The food looks delicious, and the message is simple. Your new favorite family dinner spot in downtown Montclair that video might only get 3,000 views. But if those views come from local families who are looking for somewhere to eat, it actually might generate far more business specifically because you targeted your area.
[00:08:10] And see, that's the distinction. Reach is not the same as relevance. And relevant attention is worth a whole lot more than attention from people who will never become customers. It's something that Google learned over 20 years ago, and we need to learn that lesson.
[00:08:26] Now. Let's talk about that message, right, the message itself, because I see this as another huge opportunity. I want you to pull up your restaurant's Instagram account, look at even just the last 10 posts, and ask yourself this one simple question.
[00:08:39] Why would somebody visit my restaurant if they just saw this content?
[00:08:44] Not why would they like the photograph, not why would they comment, but why would they actually visit?
[00:08:51] And I want you to be honest, because I see a lot of restaurant marketing that looks like this, right? A picture of a cheeseburger, caption, burger time. A picture of a cocktail, caption, cheers to the weekend. A picture of a pizza with the caption, who's hungry?
[00:09:06] And that's it.
[00:09:07] Now, there's nothing inherently wrong with beautiful food photography, but the content isn't doing much work. It's not communicating a compelling experience. It's not answering a customer question. It's not giving somebody a reason to choose. You remember, the Internet has no shortage of beautiful pictures of juicy burgers. So here's what I want you to do. Start marketing occasions, not just products. So by that I mean instead of simply showing a burger, show the kind of experience that somebody can have at your restaurant. Maybe it's a quick lunch with co workers or a relaxed Friday night with friends, or, you know, big family celebration or a first date. Maybe it's a place where somebody can enjoy a great meal without spending two hours at the table. Or whatever it is, make the occasion clear. Because understand that the customers aren't simply buying food, they're trying to solve a problem. What they really want is to have an experience. And your marketing should help them imagine that experience.
[00:10:04] Now, here's another important point. You need to communicate what makes you different, right? Remember, A, B, C, D, D is for differentiation. If every restaurant in town is posting pictures of juicy burgers, then why the hell would somebody choose yours?
[00:10:20] What's special about your burger? About the ingredients you use for your burger, about the preparation of your burger, about the atmosphere where someone is going to enjoy your burger. The hospitality, the story, the value, the convenience, Whatever it is, make it clear, because I promise generic Marketing produces generic results. And if your message could be used by any restaurant in town, it probably isn't doing enough to differentiate you from. From every other restaurant in town.
[00:10:48] Now, imagine somebody does see your marketing, and they like what they see. They're interested. They decide to learn more. They click on your profile. And then what? Is there a clear link to your website? Can they find the full menu? Can they make a reservation? Easily? Can they see your hours, find your address? Figure out where the closest parking is? Because here's the thing. Every unnecessary obstacle gives somebody another opportunity to change their mind. We talk about reducing friction, and restaurants create these obstacles all the time. They throw friction in where it's not needed.
[00:11:23] Meaning there's websites that are difficult to navigate. There are menus buried inside PDF files, reservation links that are dead, outdated hours, broken ordering systems, confusing checkout processes. And then the owner wonders why the marketing isn't converting. Well, maybe the marketing actually is working. Maybe people are interested. But the process of becoming a customer is unnecessarily difficult.
[00:11:46] So I want you to perform a simple exercise. Pretend you've never heard of your restaurant. Pick up the phone, call the restaurant, see what happens. I want you to go online and search for it. Meaning look at the Google listing, visit the website, try to find the menu, try to make a reservation, actually place an order, and ask yourself whether that experience was easy.
[00:12:06] Then ask somebody who doesn't work for you to do the exact same thing. And watch what happens. Where do they hesitate? What confuses them? What information is missing, what makes them work harder than they should.
[00:12:18] And those are the things you fix. Because improving conversion doesn't always require better advertising. Sometimes it just requires a better customer journey.
[00:12:28] Now, let's talk about how we measure our efforts. Right, because I want you to know whether marketing is generating profitable business. There's that old joke. 50% of my marketing works. The trouble is, I don't know which half. Well, that simply means you're not being intentional enough with the way you measure your efforts.
[00:12:45] And all of that means we need to look beyond likes and comments and impressions. Let's say you're running a campaign to promote some special dinner that's coming up. So you spend 500 bucks, the campaign generates 20 reservations, and those reservations produce $2,000 in sales. Now, is that good?
[00:13:03] Maybe. But we need more information.
[00:13:06] How many of those reservations were genuinely incremental? How much did it cost to deliver the experience? How much contribution did those sales generate? And did any of those guests become repeat customers?
[00:13:18] Those are the questions that actually matter.
[00:13:20] Now, you won't always have perfect data, and that's okay. But you should have some way of connecting your marketing activity to the business results.
[00:13:29] Maybe that's a unique reservation link that's just embedded in the emails or just in the ads. Maybe it's campaign specific landing page. Maybe, maybe it's a promotional code. Maybe it's a question you ask during the reservation process. Maybe it's tracking changes in first time guests or orders. Whatever, use whatever method makes sense. But don't simply celebrate the fact that people saw your ad. Celebrate when the ad generates profitable business.
[00:13:56] And here's something else I want you to test. One thing at a time. This is something they talk, they talk about a lot in digital marketing. Don't change your audience, your message, your offer, your creative and your website all at once. Because if the results improve, you won't know which of those changes were responsible for the improvement. So instead, choose one specific problem.
[00:14:17] Meaning maybe people are seeing the ad but not clicking. Well, that's an attention or messaging problem. Maybe they're clicking but not making reservations. That's potentially a trust or conversion problem. Maybe they're making reservations but not returning to the restaurant later. That's a retention problem. All of those are different problems and so they require different solutions.
[00:14:37] And the more clearly you, you can identify the problem, the more effectively you can actually address it.
[00:14:43] Now, we're going to find $10,000, right? Let's find that money. Imagine your restaurant receives 1,000 visits to its website every month. And 2% of those visits result in a reservation or an online order. Well, that's 20 conversions.
[00:14:58] Now imagine you improve that rate to 3%.
[00:15:01] Same traffic, 30 conversions, 10 additional. 10 additional conversions per month. If each one produces $100 in incremental sales, that's $1,000 per month, $12,000 over the course of the year. Now of course that's revenue, not profit. And not every website visitor conversion will represent a new customer. But the example I hope illustrates the opportunity.
[00:15:24] You might not need more traffic. You might simply need to do a better job of converting the traffic you already have.
[00:15:32] So here's your assignment. You know, I like to make this actionable. Pick one marketing campaign and evaluate all three stages of that campaign, meaning attention, trust and action. And really be honest. Figure it out, measure it. Where are people dropping off? Are you reaching the right audience? Are you communicating a compelling reason to visit? And are you making the next step easy?
[00:15:54] Then when you figure out the weak part, you fix the weak part and measure the result.
[00:16:00] Let me leave you with this. I don't care how many followers your restaurant has, I don't care how many views your latest video received, and I don't care how many likes you got in your last post. At least not unless those things are contributing to a larger business objective. Because the goal of restaurant marketing isn't to become famous on Instagram. The goal is to build a profitable restaurant, to attract the right customers, to give them a compelling reason to visit, to deliver an experience that makes them want to actually return, and to build relationships that create long term value.
[00:16:34] So stop confusing attention with action, stop confusing popularity with profitability, and start building a marketing plan that actually, actually generates more business.
[00:16:47] Listen, my name is Chip Close. I am your host here of the Restaurant Strategy Podcast. I appreciate you making this show part of your week again. If you want to learn about the coaching program I run, you go to RSProphit.com we bring on, I don't know, 10 to 12 new members every single month. It's an incredible robust community of restaurant owners and operators from all over the country. And do me one favor. If you like this show, this episode, or any episode you've heard before, if you get any sort of value from it, go to Apple Podcasts, leave us a five star rating and review. Just let other people know why you listen to it and why you think it's worth them listening to it. That more than anything would help my small business grow. I appreciate you guys very much. I will see you next time.
