10 Tips for Marketing Your Restaurant

With the restaurant industry cooling down, it’s increasingly important for restaurants to market themselves in the best possible way. Consumers—and franchisees—have more choices than ever before when it comes to where they want to dine or what brand they want to invest in, so it’s up to brands to control their message. That’s where ongoing marketing efforts come in.

Because it’s so difficult to stand out in today’s marketplace, deciding on the best marketing strategies can be a bit of a challenge. To cut through some of that noise, 1851 Franchise spoke with three industry experts to get their best tips for marketing a restaurant.  Check out the top tier advice from Ali Raugh, Director of Marketing for Chicken Salad Chick; Maria Hokanson, CMO of Dairy Queen* and Rob Elliot, Executive Vice President of Marketing for Hungry Howie’s—which recently reported 30 consecutive quarters of same-store sales increases—below to learn how the right marketing can lead to expansion and success.

Rob Elliot, Executive Vice President of Marketing for Hungry Howie’s: “Implement a vertically integrated marketing plan. This means that every piece of marketing, regardless of medium, ladders up to one consistent message. At Hungry Howie’s, we provide our franchisees with great creative materials. We help them execute a vertically integrated marketing plan, including broadcast (where feasible), print, digital, social, and big data (email marketing), all laddering up to create one strategic marketing initiative.”

Ali Raugh, Director of Marketing for Chicken Salad Chick: “Figure out who and what you are, then stay true to it. For us, we're a Chick concept, so the marketing efforts we use are best targeted for women consumers.”

Maria Hokanson, CMO of Dairy Queen: “It’s essential to look at the areas in which you can grow. We found that consumers were looking for snack options, for example, and began catering to that segment. That’s what success ultimately comes down to—you need to do what your fans want, and fulfil it in a differentiated way.”

Elliot: “Deploy strong LTOs to create new news. New product news and limited time offers are integrated into our marketing plan, which creates interest and trial from customers.”

Hokanson: “Think about what the next generation is looking for. Even if your brand was built on Baby Boomers and Generation X, you can’t overlook Millennials if you want to stay relevant. The Millennial mindset is everywhere—it’s no coincidence that my Grandma is on Facebook. They’re playing a pivotal role in the industry right now, and they’re changing the discourse of other generations.”

Elliot: “Embrace tech initiatives. Change can be intimidating, but it’s necessary in order to keep pace with your competition or stay ahead of the curve. Our recent tech initiatives include online ordering incentives to encourage customers to experience our great online ordering platform. We also have a new loyalty initiative called HowieRewards® which gives customers an opportunity to earn free pizza.”

Raugh: “What many people don't realize is that the guest experience, once inside the restaurant, has a significant impact on our success. Although marketing cannot control the guest experience, we do work very closely as a brand to make sure the guest experience is always the most important. If that's not great, people won't be coming back and your marketing efforts won't work anyway. It's essential.”

Elliot: “Execute your marketing. Execution needs to be worshipped. We can market all we want, but if team members at the store aren’t following through with top notch execution, it’s all for naught. That’s why it is so important to ensure that our franchisees are executing the great marketing plan that we put together.”

Raugh: “Our culture at Chicken Salad Chick is what makes us stand out. Franchise candidates are looking for something unique and we offer that. We're more worried about franchise candidates who live our culture and purpose, to spread joy, enrich lives, and serve others. That's different than most. Same with our guests - we offer an experience that lives up to our purpose. We don't rush you. We want to take care of you, make you feel like you're at a friend’s house instead of a restaurant. That's different, and it attracts guests and franchise candidates alike.”

Elliot: “Our marketing strategy is continuously evolving. When it comes to our marketing strategy, it’s not so much about the size of our chain, but competing effectively. We’ve embraced many tech initiatives over the years to keep pace with the goliaths of the industry while also differentiating ourselves from smaller chains and independents. These tech initiatives include our online ordering, HowieRewards® loyalty program, and HowieTrack™, which is a visual representation of the ordering process.

When it comes to the use of specific marketing strategies, larger chains have the luxury of using more tech and media aggressively, which allows them the opportunity to communicate with vertically integrated marketing. Smaller chains really have to utilize a ‘feet on the streets approach,’ concentrating on local store, ‘neighborhood’ marketing.”