Hi if you'd like to know the best free ways to market your cafe or restaurant
stay tuned and we will explain to you our top low-cost and no-cost marketing
strategies to really get your venue firing. Hi I'm Rowena from Food Marketing, we're consultants from Sydney Australia
and over the years I've worked with hundreds of cafes and restaurants to
really help their sales skyrocket. So stay tuned for lots of tips and tricks
to really get your sales firing. In the restaurant game margins are so slim and
it is so super competitive now. We are always being asked about our best
recommendations - how to get your sales really firing. Tip number one is called
the Tiny Ted Theory. Now tiny Ted's are these tiny little chocolate biscuits
that you can buy in Australia many other countries around the world and what the
concept is every time you serve your coffee in your venue be it dine in or
takeaway you put a little tiny Ted on the saucer or the takeaway lid. Now what
this does is it's a little freebie it is something for nothing
let's face it everyone loves a freebie! Now if you're in a highly competitive
coffee area in your trade area you're all serving really good coffee what
differentiates you? Now what it does is every time someone in that area is
thinking about grabbing a coffee or they want to pop in somewhere how many of
them are going to stop and think you know what that cafe over there gives me
a great little sweet treat when I get a coffee and you know what I deserve it! So
it's a great little tip it's very cost effective it is not free it is very low
cost A box of tiny Ted's in Australia retails
for less than four dollars and you have several hundred in the box so for a very
small investment you will have sales pick up. Now tip number two is really
interesting and it is simple and it is totally free: train your staff to ask
people their names to remember them and then to use them when they come in.
Especially if you're in the takeaway coffee business now let me tell you
everyone loves when you remember their name. Now you might think this is not a
marketing strategy but it is absolutely one of the best because what it does is
it creates a sense of ownership for people they feel like they belong. You're
creating that sense of community so I'll tell you that it's a great way to
differentiate yourself from the competition!
if you foster that sense of community someone really belongs in your venue
they will keep coming back time and time again. Before we continue what type of low-cost
and no-cost marketing strategies have you tried in your venue? Pop your answers
in the comments below and let's see what's working well for people. Tip
number three is good old-fashioned email marketing. Now you might say email is
that passe does anyone actually use email marketing anymore? And let me tell
you not only do they do use it but it's also incredibly effective. And one of the
main reasons is so effective is the click rate. So Facebook engagement
is about half a percent Instagram is about 2% guess what the open rate is for
email marketing? It's actually 18% slightly higher in some countries. To really
make your email list effective you must use your own. So the golden rules of
email lists are using your own list. It's really simple to create your own list
most people think it's really high-tech and expensive you need a landing pages
you need downloadable tools. No! Low-tech is cost effective.
Get a bowl beside your point of sale and have a little sign above it that says
something like would you like free coffee for a week? Drop your card in here
for the chance to win free coffee for a week and you watch that
bowl fill up. Then you have your own list, these are people that are already
engaged with your brand and far more likely to open those emails. Second
golden rule of email marketing is you need to proactively market to your list
So what you need to do is come up with all manner of different promotions and
actually send them out consistently in email form a couple of times a month
Don't overdo it - but they might be emails regarding menus tasting, meet the chef's
it could be any type of promotion. Which leads me to the next golden rule of
email marketing is your promotion has to have a healthy profit margin! Do your
homework promote high margin goods so
the coffee's they might be free, they might be desserts, things that are
not expensive for you to produce but have a great profit margin tip number
Tip four is the membership or loyalty card! Now it does not have to be something
high-tech again it doesn't have to involve databases and landing pages and
systems and all the rest of it it can be something simple like a coffee loyalty
card. Now I can't tell you how effective these are. For instant printing their as
cheap as chips you can get hundreds of cards printed for you know ten and
twenty dollars these days it is very simple and watch those people return to
fill up their card for the chance to get their seventh coffee free or whatever it
might be. Again always make sure that there is a
healthy profit margin in your loyalty program reward you don't want to go
giving a lot away for nothing but it has to incentivize people to stick with you
keep maintaining those purchases and so their custom is rewarded. Tip number five it's all about
free Wi-Fi not only does it mean the longer someone stays in your premises the more
chance is there of them purchasing an additional coffee or a drink or
something to eat but also these days it's just an expectation, people expect
to be able to come to a location and login to free Wi-Fi but here's the
golden rule don't just give away that password don't ask for their email
either usually people just give spam emails they're not correct emails
because they get annoyed. What you do is you actually ask them to follow you on
either Facebook or Instagram whatever platform you're using to be able to get
the free Wi-Fi. Now the reason why this is so good even if they are to follow
you once you have their detail you are then able to retarget them through
Facebook ads if that's what you're using or alternatively it's just another means
of engaging with customers. And finally tip number six and it's the one that is
always overlooked it's called menu marketing. Now honestly
one of the simplest ways you can increase sales is the way you lay out
your menu; change of fonts, colors, drawing attention to certain menu items is
guaranteed to increase sales. Let's talk about descriptions for example now if
you were to go to a cafe or restaurant and you read a description that said
chocolate cake and ice cream or you read a description that said homemade
flourless chocolate fudge cake with vanilla bean ice cream and double cream
which one are you more likely to purchase? You can also increase sales
with where you lay your menu items on your actual menu you must know your hero
items - your hero items are the ones with the highest profit margin that you
really want to push they're the ones you really want to sell more of. If you put
them in position number one under each menu category whether it be entree
whether it be main cause you watch those sales increase. If you'd like to hear all
the tips and tricks to really get your cafe firing make sure you hit the
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