By Joanne Kuipers

Want to Increase the Traffic Through your door? Not sure where to invest your marketing dollars?

There is an awful lot of competition out there. You have to be constantly promoting yourself and making your business stand out! How do you do that? Invest in your business.

Location and Aesthetics

That is the first step. You have to be visible, easily accessible, and where your customers frequent. You have to focus on presentation. If people are not sure about your cleanliness they will not come back. It is absolutely necessary to invest in the restrooms and keep them clean, both in appearance and odour. You will not get a second chance with that. If people get turned off by this they will not return and will tell their friends not to as well.

Colours

Blue is an appetite suppressant. (If you want to drop a few pounds buy blue dishes and table cloths) Ever notice how Mac Donald’s, Wendy’s, Pizza Hut all use red, yellow, orange, and brown? Those are the colours you should use the most. It increases your appetite.

Target Market

Know what type of customer you want to attract. Use that information to establish your menu, pricing, atmosphere, etc. Present a unified brand or image. When people are confused they cannot make a decision and; therefore, do not act.

Press Releases

Call your local media and invite them to your grand opening. This will get you in the spotlight and it’s FREE. You can also host charitable events at your restaurant to get additional exposure. People get bombarded with advertising and tune it out, but they will look and read about events in their community.

Advertising and Promoting Your Restaurant

As I had mentioned, people get bombarded with advertising. The average person sees, reads, and hears over 35,000 ads a day! That is completely mind boggling. It must work though, to some extent, or businesses wouldn’t do it.

Direct Mail or Direct response

The best way for a restaurant to increase traffic is through Direct Mail or Direct response.

Take Out

Mail out your menus to your target market. Perhaps that may include businesses or the

 Neighborhood. Do it as often as you can and to the same areas. Why, because people need to see and advertising on average seven times before they will act.

Change it up a little by adding specials and coupons. Make sure you include your address, phone number, methods of payment, hours of operation, and if you offer free delivery. Maybe you only deliver to certain areas etc.

Check with your local Yellow Pages as well. Some larger urban areas offer the Menu Guide at a very reasonable cost. The ROI on that is very good if done correctly. Work with your  Yellow Pages  rep or contact  Advantage Solutions  for guidance on how to put your ad together.

Fast Food

Coupons, coupons, coupons. Use coupons in a direct mail format. If you have Val Pak in your area use that. This way you share the mailing costs with other businesses. Also, your Val Pak rep can guide you on how to design your coupon and what offers to use. You can also contact  Advantage Solutions  and they will be able to guide you as well. Use a 30-60 day expiry date as well. That creates a call to action.

Sit down Restaurant

Use direct mail coupons for this type of restaurant as well. Offer a free dinner (of equal or lesser value). You will find that your average sale will go up. Sure there will be some people (approx 10%) that will just go for the minimum purchase in order to take advantage of the offer, but you will also find people will now order a drink and/or dessert where they would not have before. They figure that they are saving on the free entre and so will spend more on other items and in the end, spend quite a bit more.

I would also recommend looking into the Menu Guide of your Yellow Pages.

People will always remember how you make them feel, so make them feel important and they will come back and bring their friends!

Website

Get one if you don’t have one! Post your menus, specials, testimonials, and lots of mouth watering pictures. Be sure to include hours of operation, methods of payment, map of location, and of course, your phone number.