2 weeks Ago By Hamed Mazrouei, Forbes Councils Member
Hamed Mazrouei, Founder and CEO Vivant and Milagro . In the restaurant industry, the synergy between customer acquisition and retention drives sustainable growth, competitive differentiation and long-term profitability. Balancing these elements ensures restaurants can thrive in an increasingly competitive landscape.
It seems obvious, right? Getting more customers to come back more often will lead to greater revenues. However, that's easier said than done. Restaurant Marketing Spend Is Increasing A March 2024 Nation's Restaurant News (NRN) report stated that "an increase in advertising/marketing spend was one of the major themes from this latest round of earnings calls.
" It's a strategy shared by larger and smaller brands, and the increase in spend has been significant; the NRN report noted Brinker had "doubled its advertising as a percentage of sales." It could be millions, even tens or hundreds of millions. One obvious reason for this push is that marketing grows revenue by increasing both foot and online traffic.
For large or growing brands, another reason is to increase awareness and visibility when entering into new markets. Quite frankly, when the economy is in flux and the consumer is more selective about when, where and how often to eat out (even in a fast casual or quick service restaurant), it's critical to keep the attention of your target audience and your value proposition top of mind. Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Clues And Answers For Friday, September 20th Google Chrome Says Goodbye To Passwords On Windows, Mac, Linux, Android Trump Tells Fighting Antisemitism Event If He Loses In November, Jewish Voters Would ‘Have A Lot To Do’ With It But is it working? Maybe not.
A 2014 Thanx study found that 70% of restaurant customers never return. It's no secret that in any industry, the cost of acquiring a customer is much higher than retaining a customer. Improving customer retention is crucial to the long-term success of any restaurant.
Changing Restaurant Marketing Strategies Traditionally, restaurant marketing has been at a mass level—television commercials, billboards, social media ads and even email campaigns. While you can reach a large number of people with these methods, they're all getting the same message. You're taking a gamble that what you're advertising will appeal to most of the population you're reaching, and you never really know since you can't attribute each customer's visit to a particular ad.
Think about the impact of sending highly personalized, laser-targeted marketing messages to your customers and then carrying that personalized experience through from their arrival at your restaurant to when they leave. It sounds like you would first have to know every customer personally and then create a special email message just for them and send it to their email. Where would you even start, and who would ever have that kind of time? The Role Of Marketing Automation With today's marketing automation technology, it is now possible—and restaurants are taking note.
NRN noted that 87% of restaurant operators will definitely or likely invest in new technology in the coming year, and 46% are making marketing and customer engagement a priority. They should be, as 70% of customers say they are more likely to visit a restaurant with personalized promotions. I like to give the common "kids eat free" promotion example.
What if you send that out or advertise it on a mass scale and 50% of the audience doesn't have young kids? You're essentially wasting 50% of your marketing spend. You could maximize your impact and garner a larger ROI by sending the "kids eat free" promo directly to those who actually have kids and a "date night" promo with a coupon for complimentary dessert for those who don't. How To Prepare For Marketing Automation's Implementation As you're preparing to consider a new technology that can help you personalize your marketing and enhance the customer experience, here are some steps to lay the groundwork.
1. Be strategic. It's easy to get excited about all of the new technologies out there.
Slow down, be strategic, take account of the existing tech you have, figure out what you can keep and then determine how you can seamlessly integrate something new. 2. Align and collaborate.
As a leader, get alignment and facilitate collaboration across departments. There's this intrinsic tie between marketing, technology and operations now. Together, a smart marketer and an innovative IT person will connect to make a vision like creating the very best customer experience come alive, and operations will help you execute it.
3. Respect the data. Make sure your entire staff is trained on cybersecurity and data protection.
The key to successful marketing automation is to use the data to learn your customers' specific shopping behaviors and drive highly profitable, targeted advertising. However, you have to protect that data with your life. The first time there is a breach or it falls into the wrong hands, you will compromise the trust of your customers and possibly never get them back.
4. You had me at "hello." Technology like marketing automation is amazing, but if it doesn't make it to the hands of the front-line workers, it's useless.
Involve your front-of-house staff in the rollout of the new technology, feature them on your social media sites, and train them on how to complete the vision of true personalization. For example, provide tools to front-of-house staff to recognize customers when they come in and acknowledge the reason for their visit: • "Happy birthday! Let's make it a good one." • "Have a successful business meeting.
We've set up your table in a quiet area of the restaurant." • "You've been married 20 years?! Congratulations, what's your secret?" Automate the right message to the right customer at the right time to drive increased visits, higher average checks and social media amplification. Complete the cycle by making the customer feel like a VIP when the message is meant just for them.
The increase in top-line revenue will soon follow. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?.
